A Bachmann

And that's a wrap.

Lightening round.

Matthew - has 2 cats.

Robin - raising boys not grass

Kevin - more concerts

Childs - raising final son (uh)

Blake - moved here in 1981

Kevin - quoting song lyrics, not a politician (uhhh), listening learning and leading (lists off a bunch of community groups and sucks up to the moderator).

Blake - continue to support future projects like affordable housing, daycare opportunities, rec facilities.

Childs - city needs dedication and foresight, brings institutional knowledge, knows community is up to the challenge.

Robin - Pierre is a fantastic community, get creative and combine resources to build a strong community.

Matthew - first time running for office, different inputs from different parts of the community, opportunity to serve.

Blake - prepare to put some time into it to work things out before issues to come to commission.

Childs- also references needing to put in the time.

Closing statements.

Robin - wants to build a community that her kids want to stay in.

Matthew - nice to have consensus but that doesn't always happen.

Honestly, it's nice that commission is mostly chill. It could be so dysfunctional.

Blake - talks about some of the details of the ordinance. A solution for temporary storage.

Q7 - yes man, or debate the issues.

Kevin - hears from people that they want to hear commission say no once and awhile.

Robin - could consider revising ordinance.

Matthew- might be a state issue as well.

Private property rights, y'all. And so many of them probably call themselves conservative.

Childs - he has one (lol), ban was for obnoxious ones, also have a problem with boats and campers that live on the street (amen), be good neighbors.

Kevin - bigger issues than shipping containers (lol), several storage unit facilities, suggests people rent those (sir). Beautify Capitol city (ahem)

Robin - value of institutional knowledge.

Matthew - most people have good interactions with city employees, state has longevity program for bonus.

Q6 - banned shipping containers for storage units.

Kevin - competitive wages, not keeping up with the state (ahahahahahaha SIR. We had hella years with no wage increases. Anyway). People leaving for wages and also quality of life, Yankton "connecting cultures" program.

Q5 - higher wages to keep city employees

Blake - hard to keep experienced employees because everyone is trying to recruit them, city did a wage study in 2024.

Childs - pay a competitive wage with a good work environment

Rhoden et al fucked the daycare employee pay bill.

Ok back to Robin - approaching the problem piecemeal. Everyone going at it on their own, but need some kind of targeted commission to tackle issue.

Childs - opportunity for folks, city could help with zoning and getting businesses off the ground. Facilitate contacts.

Kevin - infant - 2 yr old is a big need, city needs to ask Rhoden for daycare for state employees.

Dying laughing her cuz the GOP wants women to stop working.

Also lol this is Q4. I skipped way ahead.

Blake - expansion of boys and girl club happened for after-school care. Avera working on providing daycare for employees. Ask questions and look for funding.

The tech school thing is a real swing.

Questions getting picked randomly.

Q6 - child care situation.

Matthew - story of child care closing and family ultimately leaving town. Labor intensive job.

Yeah guys, there's no easy answer because the state leg routinely fucks us over.

Childs - need a more diverse mix of home sizes, opportunities for smaller houses. Number of vacant lots, maybe an incentive on those.

Kevin - new apts by city hall not affordable, salaries with the state not matching that, contractors are booked 3 to 4 years out. Wants to recruit a tech school.

Matthew- more short term housing. (Oh yep, we run into this with grad students doing summer work all the time).

Blake - housing available to meet low to moderate incomes, single family smaller homes on smaller lots. Develop the jobs and pay scales so people can afford the homes.

Q3 - how do you define workforce housing

Robin - any type of housing that will attract the workers we need (state workers, service industry).

Matthew - lives on Madison. 1 block has 12 houses. Need more areas with smaller lots, to get that affordable density.

John - 80 miles of streets, budget not real high, how long can we get a street to last. One option might be to raise street frontage assessment (currently ~$1 /foot).

Matthew - more transparency on how roads are improved. Slurry seal is a band aid. Big projects should have the ability to vote.

Blake - city has a 5 year maintenance plan.

Me on the voting on big ticket items - there comes a point where improvements have to be made and residents won't vote yes.

Oooh Kevin saying that more big budget things should have been voted on.

Robin - encourage public input on road issues. New charges for people should be considered for a vote.

Q2 - road maintenance, sewer line costs.

Kevin - dedicate more money to alleys.

(My alley is great)

Also references the old city hall site - last i heard we were just getting the bank out of that.

Short on recreational facilities

Matthew - lack of housing in town is why people turn down state jobs here.

Alright folks, time to start being a little bit unique.

Blake - references the large apt building opening soon. Dude that one is spendy af.

I could write a dissertation re why people leave Pierre. State government no longer investing in the Capitol workforce is one.

Robin - attracting families. Housing and child care.

Q1 - Name 1 thing to improve and how.

John - affordable housing for young families. Multifaceted.

Kevin - affordable housing again.

Man, Robin really set the stage there. And of course the dudes are cribbing.

Matt Reitzel. Archivist with state archives. Favorite thing about Pierre is his job.

Dropping that church board experience. Again, why i am just the color commentator.

Robin Lerseth. Family has been in town since 1902.

Talks about families being priced out of housing and childcare.

Props for using intro for substance vs CV.