Keep Your Word

That’s what we are telling the Rapid City Common Council. You can add your voice by signing this petition, by attending Monday’s meeting and speaking out during general comments, or by writing, calling, or emailing your member of the council. Council members John Roberts, Steve Laurenti, and Darla Drew Lerdahl believe the council should honor the agreement to take out … Read More

Balderdash and Nonsense

Claims and counter claims about who said what regarding the 8th Street tennis court are making our heads spin. Perhaps the most egregious is the colloquy between a member of the Rapid City Common Council and the Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation at last week’s council meeting (July 21, 2014), in a vain attempt to establish some … Read More

Death by incremental asphalt

Just a little here, a little there. It’s for a good cause, you know. And that is how Rapid City will destroy the Memorial Greenway. The latest incursion on the park that was designated to honor those who died in the 1972 Black Hils Flood, and to create green, natural boundaries along Rapid Creek that serve as flood prevention, public … Read More

Candidates praise parks, criticize how opponents manage them

In a sometimes intense and acrimonious exchange of views over issues as varied as low income housing, government accountability, and city infrastructure, candidates for mayor and city council took the opportunity to talk about Rapid City’s parks, including the potential for including requirements for park land and open space in a new comprehensive plan that will guide the city’s growth. … Read More

Questions Submitted to Candidates by Friends of Rapid City Parks

Studies have shown that parkland increases values for adjacent property by 20 percent. Even more studies have shown that people will trade off income for quality of life, and that open space is the number one consideration for small, hi-tech companies looking to relocate. At a public forum last year, a panel of local and national experts on parks and … Read More

Let’s put some vision back into the Vision Fund process

Have you ever waited in line and put up with people who cut in front of you? Annoying, isn’t it? What if the line was an opportunity to queue up and make the case for your favorite sport, or most creative idea, or a chance to do something for the entire community?  And someone cut in ahead. And foreclosed not … Read More

Friends of Rapid City Parks on Civic Center Expansion

This is what Friends had to say about the proposal to expand the Civic Center by tapping the Vision Fund, also known as the 2012 Vision Fund. You can read what others had to say in this coverage of the City Council deliberations. Dear Mayor Kooiker: We would like to take this opportunity to provide views on the proposed expansion … Read More

2012 Recommendations Include Parks

Parks are among the beneficiaries of proposed projects using 2012 funding over the next several years. The three subcommittees reviewing Phase Four 2012 proposals made recommendations to the Rapid City city council in a special meeting June 30. Among the projects that will occur in, or affect, Rapid City’s parks are repairs on Canyon Lake dam, creation of a new … Read More

2012 Report Goes to Council June 30

The three committees of the 2012 Phase Four process will present their report at a special meeting of the Rapid City Council at 6 p.m., June 30 in council chambers. The committees, Economic Development, Municipal Infrastructure and Civic Improvements, heard from project proponents at six public meetings in May and June.  Committee chairs Gary Drewes, Scott Amos and Gladys Storm … Read More