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Did you go to Summer Rec in Brandon when you were a kid? Do your kids go now?

Summer Rec is free and is at the tiled gym in Brandon Elementary. Kids can come and go as they please. While they’re there, they can play games such as foosball, ping pong or board games. They can make crafts. They can just hang out and visit with their friends.

In addition, Summer Rec takes a few field trips each summer.

The city (meaning the taxpayers) pay the summer rec staff and cover other expenses. Sometimes there are small user fees, depending on the activity.

Do you think Summer Rec is a good idea? What memories do you have of it, if you went? What have your kids said about it? Do you think some people use it as a cheap or free babysitter for their kids?

What do you think about developer Mike Schultz’s plan to put bigger businesses on the northeast corner of Sioux and Holly boulevards? He already built three strip malls along that stretch of road and now asked the city council for rezoning to make his corner parcel bigger for B-2 commercial.

Several residents opposed the move, saying they didn’t want businesses near their houses because of noise or garbage. They said extra traffic would make walking to school more dangerous for their children.

The corner will bring more money to the city as commercial property, as it will generate sales tax. It will bring more money to the school district too, as commercial property pays property tax but doesn’t put any children into the school system. At Monday’s city council meeting, Alderman Brett Karber said his opinion is that that whole intersection will be commercial eventually.

Do you agree with that prediction? Will Holly Boulevard eventually be like, for example, Minnesota Avenue? At first, existing homes will change to small businesses, then eventually be torn down and replaced with commercial buildings.

Do you think now is a good time to start that process? What kinds of businesses would you like to see go into that corner? Schultz said he doesn’t have any firm prospects for that space, but perhaps a family restaurant would be a good fit, he said.

Permitted businesses in a B-2 zoning include retail sales, medical-type clinics, offices, theaters, restaurants, banks, funeral homes, radio or tv stations, and civic or municipal buildings.

B-2 zoning permits some conditional uses also, but there would have to be a public hearing if any of the following wanted to locate there: car wash, auto sales, wholesale, warehouse, service or repair, veterinarian, kennel, food lockers, laundry, dry cleaning, bowling alley, roller rink, bar, hotel, filling station, nursery (the plant kind), lumberyard or crematorium.
What are your thoughts?

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so go vote.

Whether you are Republican or Democrat, your voice needs to be heard. Go to the polls today.

Have you voted already, by chance? If so, are you still as firm in your choice as you were when you marked your absentee ballot?

Please post on this blog any stories you see or hear on election day. How busy were the polls when you went there? Did you have to wait in line long? What number was your vote? Did you see any candidates out and about during the day?

Keep us posted. Thanks.

For months, my friend and I have been planning to go to a theater festival in Winnipeg this summer. But now, with gas prices nearing $4 a gallon, we’re seriously reconsidering. We’re checking the community event schedule in Omaha, for example.

What are your summer vacation plans? Will you stick close to home? Have gas prices altered your vacation plans in any way?

A company that promises 150 new jobs will start dirt work in the Corson Industrial Park in June.

Broadwind Energy, Inc., announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tower Tech Systems, will expand its wind tower manufacturing operations to Brandon. Dennis Olson, Brandon city administrator, said the company builds the posts that the big wind turbine blades sit atop.

Once it’s up and running, the company would slide into the top five employers in the city. The company will need for supervisors, quality technicians and maintenance technicians, welders, assemblers and technicians, and some skilled laborers.

Do you think the company will provide employment opportunities for people who already live in Brandon, or do you think people will move here to work there? Are you interested in working for this company?

Do you think this kind of business will help Brandon’s economy? Why or why not?

School lunch prices will go up a dime a meal this fall.

Elementary students will pay $2 per meal while meals for middle and high school students will go to $2.30. Adult meal prices will be $2.80.

About 15 percent of the student body is on free and reduced price lunches.

Do you think the new prices are fair? Do your children take hot lunch at school? Do they stick to the regular lunch, or do they buy additional items a la carte? Or do your children take their own lunch to school?

The sign at either end of Maureen Drive says it is a drive. But on the city map in the most recent copy of the Brandon phone book, it is called a street.

Maureen isn’t the only street that has an identity crisis. Heatherwood is either a drive or a street also, depending on who you ask. And there are other addresses in town with the same confusion. Do you live on one of these streets? Do you really know if you live on a drive or a street? Have you had any problems because of the confusion?

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will visit the Sunshine Foods store in Brandon Friday, but she’s not the first in her family to visit the city.

President Bill Clinton also campaigned in Brandon during his presidential bid?

What do you remember from that visit? Were you there?

When I was a kid, we used to ice skate at a makeshift rink over by the high school. That spot is now part of the parking lot, and there is a better rink nearby. But that rink might get paved over too. The school wants to extend a driveway through where the rink is now. Problem is, the city has a lease on that spot.

The school asked the city to get out of the lease. The city said no.

What’s the school to do? Wait until the lease ends? Offer to pay for moving the rink so the city doesn’t have a reason to refuse any more? The school did offer to pay half the cost of moving the rink, after the city requested it.

Do you ice skate? Have you skated on the rink in question? Is it a pretty good rink, or just so-so? If you skate elsewhere, how come?

Do you think the rink should be paved over and that’s the end of it? Or do you think the rink should be relocated? (McHardy Park is the proposed new location.) Or do you think the rink should stay where it is for a few more years?

If you think the rink should be moved, who do you think should pay for that?

Can you think of a win-win-type solution the school or city hasn’t thought of? If so, what is it?

Baccalaureate will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at the high school. If you have a graduating senior, will he or she go?

Baccalaureate is a religious service sponsored by the Brandon Valley Ministerial Association. Students will participate in the service by reading scripture and providing music. Several of the student speakers are the same ones who will speak at commencement on Sunday.

When I graduated from Brandon Valley High School in 1975, I never considered skipping baccalaureate. I don’t remember anyone ever telling my class that it was optional, but I suppose it was, even back then. I do remember a couple of choir kids not singing certain songs at the Christmas concert because of their religious beliefs. Maybe those same people didn’t come to baccalaureate. I don’t know.

Do you think baccalaureate is a good tradition?

Have you noticed a white car driving very slowly (30 mph) on Rice Street on your way to work lately? Do you follow slowly or do you pass the car? There aren’t too many places to pass on the curvy road to Sioux Falls.

Have you compensated by leaving earlier for work? Have you passed in a no-passing zone? Have you called local law enforcement?

It’s frustrating to get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle when you’re on a schedule. I’m lucky in that I travel to work at times other than the rush hour. But I did encounter this white car once on my way home from work in the late afternoon/early evening.

The speed limit along Rice Street is 45 mph except for one stretch that is 55 mph. Is it a safety hazard to be driving along at 55 mph and then come around a curve and quickly have to slow to 30 mph to avoid rear-ending another vehicle?

Did you see either of the Democratic presidential hopefuls during their stops in Sioux Falls recently?

If so, what did you think of what they had to say? Did their stops here influence your choice for president?

If you didn’t go, why not?

There will be no school election this spring. Todd Egge was the only person to hand in a petition for the three-year term, so he gets the school board seat by default. He’ll replace Mike Klumpp, who did not run for re-election after two terms on the board.

Why only one candidate? Are people so satisfied with the job the school board is doing that they don’t feel the need to serve? Is it apathy on the public’s part?

Perhaps people are not willing to make the time commitment it takes to serve on the board.

With no election, there will be no campaining, and no issues will be discussed. How do you feel about that?

Anybody need a water tower? The city has an extra one that’s up for sale.

The city will open bids Thursday for the water tower that’s on the east side of town, near the golf course.

What’s a water tower worth, I wonder? What would someone do with it? What if nobody bids on it? What will the city do with it? Is it worth it to tear down just for the scrap metal?

The city is asking Brandon residents to voluntarily restrict their lawn watering this season. The city is asking people who live at even-numbered addresses to water only on even-numbered days, and likewise with odd-numbered addresses.

This policy is more liberal than the policy in Sioux Falls, where water restrictions will be enforced year-round.

At my house, we don’t water our lawn at all. Our reasoning is that the more lush the lawn is, the more work it creates. And we prefer leisure time over yard work. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. It seems like there is always a long list of household chores to do, and making a point of adding one more chore to the list, especially a self-perpetuating one, seems counterproductive.

Do you water your lawn? If so, will you follow the odd-even system?

There is an article in today’s Argus Leader (page 7A) that says Congress is trying to bring back the steel-made pennis of World War II and may be using steel for nickels too.

Why? Because it costs more than a penny – 1.26 cents – to make a penny. And it costs 7.5 cents to make a nickel. Every time the government makes these coins, it loses money.

Yet, I know many people who have a jar of pennies in their house.

Get those pennies back in circulation. Use them when you make purchases. Or just take them to the bank and have them replaced with folding money. If everyone kept pennies in circulation, the government would not have to consider making them out of steel. If everyone kept pennis in circulation, the government even might not have to make any more pennies.

Do you keep pennies or other coins in a jar, box, bowl, etc.?

Monday night, the city council went against a planning and zoning commission recommendation and granted a variance for a garage on property where there is not yet a house.

On several occasions in recent months, the council has gone against planning and zoning recommendations. We expect our elected officials, and our appointed ones as well, to do proper research before they make decisions that affect the future of our community. But when two city panels disagree with one another, how can citizens be confident the city is looking out for their best interests? Who is correct on these issues? The commission? Or the council?

We can’t just assume that the panel that gives the applicant what he wants is the right one. Certainly there are exceptions to every rule, and that’s why variances and conditional use permits exist. But city law has specific criteria for granting these exceptions. How can both panels follow the law and come up with opposite conclusions?

What are your thoughts?

The deadline for filing petitions for school board is Friday. But so far, no one has turned in a petition.

Three people have taken out petitions, though. They are Todd Egge, Holly Hauck and Paul VanDeBerg.

Which of these possible candidates would you support, if any? And why?

Apparently a tornado touched down last night east of Valley Springs.

It was a short outburst, but powerful. Did the storm damage anything where you live? Shingles gone? Trees down? Budding tulips wiped out?

I was at a church function yesterday evening and heard the storm sirens. We all had to go downstairs twice when the sirens blew.

Our Brandon Valley transportation director is retiring. Was Marlet Graue ever your bus driver? Were you on the trip to the USD medical school to see the cadavers? Maybe you were one of the naughty children who was suspended from the bus.

I know her as a self-assured, capable person.
What are your stories of Marlet?