That's me and showing others too much.

I don't even have anything.

Actually, you know, sir.

Doesn't matter.

It's okay.

Good evening, and welcome to the city council meeting for Monday, March 16th, 2026.

We will begin with a roll call and determination of quorum.

Lehman.

Roberts.

Petigrew.

See you, Chris.

Bieber Dorf.

Timang.

Here.

Evans.

Meyer.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Next we'll have an invocation by Pastor Rob McLaughlin, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you are able and willing, would you please rise?

Father God, we first of all we thank you and praise you, God that we get to live in Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Black Hills here.

I'm thankful for our mayor, or thankful for those that are leaving here, our leadership and that are serving our community.

God, thank you for our first per first for uh responders.

We pray for protection for them.

Uh God, give everybody in this room tonight wisdom and discernment and direction.

Lord bless them abundantly, immeasurably more than they could think or imagine.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now on our entertainment motion to adopt the agenda.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

The agenda is adopted.

Next, we will have a general a time for general public comment.

This is a time for members of the public to discuss or express concerns to the council on any issue not on the agenda.

Action will not be taken at the meeting on any issue, not on the agenda, except by placement on the agenda by unanimous vote of the council members present.

It's a three limit time, three limit three minute time limit.

We will have the counter right above us here.

Uh of course, with all comments tonight, we asked for uh respect and decorum in here.

Uh, but I'm sure all of you get that already.

Uh we do have a couple of general public comments.

We have uh several speaker request forms for the summer nights item later on an agenda, so we'll get to that at that time.

Uh the first general public comment is from uh William Sean Wagner.

Good evening, everybody.

Seven circles of love and protection.

In the spirit of community safety, accountability, and the preservation of our shared future, these seven circles of love and protection are hereby invoked to shield the citizens of Rapid City from the consequences of government overreach and physical misconduct.

This serves as my fourth formal notice entered into the public record.

The city government without integrity is a government in crisis.

When those in power bypass the law to benefit themselves, they forfeit the trust of the people they are sworn to serve.

I'm formally bringing the following to your attention, Rapid City citizens.

I want you to know that your Rapid City government thinks you're dumb.

They believe you won't notice and understand when they violate the laws that govern them.

I'm placing the following facts on record.

Constitutional violation per South Dakota Constitution, Article 12, Section 3.

The state and its municipalities are strictly prohibited from granting extra composition, compensation to any public officer, agent, employer, or contractor after a contract has been in or two.

Nold and void status.

The constitution is clear.

Any contract or unauthorized raise given without express authority of law is null and void.

The July 1st trigger.

These contracts become became nulled and voided on July 1st, 2025.

The moment the first paychecks containing these illegal raises were issued.

By accepting this compensation, the legal standing of those active contracts was terminated by operation of law.

Lack of budgetary authority.

These concerns are confirmed by finance director Daniel Ansel, who explicitly stated in June of 2025 that the current budget did not have the authority for these raises.

The Rapid City government has failed to maintain the integrity required to of public office by giving yourselves a legal raises.

You have broken the law and the bond with this community.

Consider this notice of formal demand for transparent transparency and return to constitutional compliance.

Thank you.

Next up, uh Doug Hannerman.

Yeah, Hanuman.

Hanneman.

Appreciate the time today.

So we have a area in disrepair in between West Boulevard and 9th Street.

And currently the curbs are dilapidated and basically missing.

We have rebar that's needs to be bent over every year.

Now they're falling away because we have no curb and gutter there to hold it to support it.

It's been like this for over 35 plus years.

And it's due.

When we had the improvement done on St.

Pat, which was was welcomed, that caused an influx of traffic, over volume of traffic coming through the area, all the heavy equipment, whatnot, and that's when it really went south.

So currently we have infrastructure that's being impacted by that.

Um, whether it's sewer, which we've had feces in our basement, other people's feces in our basement because of how old it's the old Orange Burgess.

Just the infrastructure is old and dated, and it needs to be uh remedied.

We have so much of the community that comes to that area.

Um parks on that street right there, gets in and out, walks their dogs, just walks around the neighborhood, enjoys that area, enjoys Wilson Park, enjoys the boulevard, but yet the status of it and the the basically your ability to get in and out of your vehicle is at your own risk.

It's it's a really dangerous area right now.

So I'm looking at over $20,000 in sidewalk repair right now that the city I'm sure will be coming to me to say, hey, what's going on here?

And I can all I can do is point at the curb and say, what do I do?

Um so the neighborhood is getting together right now.

We have quite a few of us that have had issues in the past.

In order to do this, it's quite a it's a bigger project because it does require the infrastructure, the curb and gutter, um, and sidewalks, and then of course the street.

So if I could get maybe an opportunity, I did I did discuss it with uh the director of public works uh to get something moving here.

He said that it's not even really on the radar.

I was told a couple years ago when the improvement was being done on St.

Pat couple years down the road, we'd be up.

So I contacted them a couple years later and they said you're not even on the radar.

So I understand there's a lot of streets that are in disarray right now.

Um I would like to get this one pushed forward.

So if you could take that into consideration, I think Kate Kaylee's gonna back me up on this, and she's gonna work to full effort to try and get you guys to move a little bit.

Okay, appreciate that.

Thank you.

We'll have our uh public works director stay in touch with you about your project.

Okay, greatly appreciate that.

Thank you, Mike.

Appreciate you doing that.

I have one more uh speaker request form.

Uh Leanne S.

Leanne, I can't make out the last name.

I'm sorry.

Schumacher.

Oh, Schumacher, okay.

Thank you.

I'm Leanne Schumacher.

I sat on a council from 97 to 06.

I'm here because I am concerned about the direction of our council is moving forward, allowing people who have moved here from other states, which are sanctuary states, which who do not have a long investment interest upon our city.

And I'm referring to state born citizens.

As I shared my concern in previous meeting about state representative Taffy Howard's misleading our local constituents of the developers allowing to believe the 125 million tax subsidy line without the full context.

Representative Taffy Howard had misled the constituents to believe it was a blank check for developers, and you had not corrected the record.

You allowed lies to be spread, and you had allowed state representative Taffy Howard to push that it was a theme park when in reality it was an entertainment district.

And state representative had also pushed the misleading lie about the trailer park on 143rd would be used as parking lot, and people would have to move their trailers.

So why would you approve a TIFF not once but twice, and then pull the rug out from under the developers?

Why would you promote bad business when you are to be representing the constituents?

So PLS has had one previous TIFF with the fire station on Tisch Boulevard.

And so that uh talk about the 21 TIFFs you have given to Hanny Shafey.

He is not a local.

I believe he is a Palestinian formerly from Gaza.

I'm concerned about your choice to be prejudiced against Liberty Land.

Two red flags showing your opinions being swayed by someone or something.

I know he has sued the city and has played the race card, and yet you continue to give him tiffs.

Um who do not show the city has good intentions for our city.

I'm wondering why you would tear down a substantial amount of given income.

Yeah, I'm gonna ask you to not not uh speak on private citizens, but just keep it on the topic, please.

To our city and settle for a $5,000 tax on egg land, another red flag.

You do not have the constituents' interest in this job, does not have to be educated to hold it, requires common sense.

And you are working for the people and not yourself.

I have spoken to someone in the other business office and had asked if they do business with flooring America.

Answer was yes.

Um called them, asked them if they did work, but dream design answer was yes.

So my next thought process was someone has a relationship with Hanny.

I would say this is a conflict of interest to keep giving him tiffs.

And had posted on this up.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh that will conclude general public comment, and we will move on to non-public hearing items one through 28 and open public comment for items one through 25.

I have no speaker request forms for items one through 25.

So we will close the public comment and move to consent items one through 25.

Would the council would like to approve the uh items or pull any item for separate consideration?

Counselor to Main.

Number 20, please.

Number 20.

Councilor Strowman.

Thank you.

Um eight, nine, and eight, eighteen, please.

All right, eight, nine, and eighteen for counselor strowman.

Any other items from the council.

Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve items one through 25 with the exception of eight, nine, eighteen, and twenty.

Uh motion by Maher with a second by Bieberdorf.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Moving on to item number eight.

Uh authorized staff to advertise bids for bocce complex phase three, project number PR two five-six two zero five, estimated cost nine hundred thousand dollars.

Counselor Strowman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I believe that this is a continuation of the uh project that was begun from the vision fund that was allocated towards uh the botchy complex.

But I wondered if I could uh inquire of uh parks director Bigler just to make sure that I'm right on that.

Yes, uh for the answer to that we'll go to Parks Director Jeff Beagle.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh this is the this is the vision fund portion of this project.

Uh the other phases were conducted uh by uh uh private donations, and so this is the the the uh uh the uh project that was pitched and received funding through that the the vision fund uh for the restroom, the additional upgrades to that site to make to complete it.

Okay, and so what's out there now was that that was not vision fund money that was actually private donations.

Correct.

Yes, that's correct.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve item eight.

Motion by Roberts with a second by who is that down there?

Maher.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Item nine, authorized staff to advertise bids for No Wood Park to redevelopment project number PR23-6192, CIP number 51458, estimated cost two million seven hundred thousand dollars.

Counselor Strowman, right back to you, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and I'll go right back to Director Biegler if I can, just for explanation because I think this is a great project.

Um, just like the botge um project is, and I just would like the little bit of uh clarification on it.

Uh very good, Mr.

Thank you.

Uh yes, this is a project that actually received some vision funding from the previous round, not the current one that was just uh approved here a year or so ago.

Uh and so this is a project that will add uh uh walking paths, uh restroom play equipment and a lot of uh uh uh good amenities there to uh to provide that uh part of town some uh some nice uh a park facility.

I think it's something that's sorely needed up there, and uh it's an idea that's uh been a long time uh in the uh uh conceptual stages, and and we are certainly ready to move forward on it now.

Great, thank you.

And um, I do believe that um council Councilman Roberts and layman have been um pushing this, and so I appreciate that.

I think this is also a very worthwhile project for us and a much needed improvement in that area.

Thank you.

I yield.

Yes.

Uh speaking of counselor Roberts, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you very much.

And I just wanted to bring this up a little bit.

I think we've been working on this, Jeff, for about seven years, if I'm correct, six or seven years.

It's been a long time.

It's been a long time in the works.

Um we've had a lot of good input from a lot of people.

Um it's turning out.

I think it's gonna be a great project, not only for the neighborhood, but for a lot of the people at the city, including the PD, and you know, there's gonna be a lot of lighting, there's gonna be a lot of you know, there's a lot of foot traffic in that area right now.

This will put them on actual paths and walking trails, and and uh I think there's a little bit of work that'll be done on the drainage.

I mean, it just has a whole lot of positive influence in that neighborhood itself.

So long process, nothing comes quickly in the city.

I think we all know that.

Uh but I am very, very excited that it's actually gonna be breaking ground next spring.

So thank you very much.

Everybody that was involved.

Yeah, great project.

So who would like to make the motion to approve this item?

We got a motion by Secrets with a second by Roberts to approve.

All in favor, any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 18.

Authorized mayor and finance director to sign broker services agreement with Marsh McClellan L agency for insurance broker services for March 17, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 in the amount of 100,000 dollars.

Counselor Strowman, you pulled this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um this is I understand it is uh is uh a broker that's going to help us um try to obtain favorable quotes on various insurance policies that the city has to carry and also um get get favorable coverage and also quotes.

Um I'm I'm a little concerned initially that we we would spend that much money when I think that it's a pretty competitive uh market out there and I think there are agents or brokers that I know anyway that would be happy to take a shot at that without paying them for a hundred thousand dollars.

So I'd like to ask um if the HR director, I think she's in charge of this, um, if Amber could address that real quick.

We'll do.

Uh with that we'll go to the HR director, Amber Cornella once she chimes in.

There we go.

Yes, thanks for the question.

We did do a competitive bid last spring, and we ended up interviewing and getting proposals from four different brokers.

Marsh McClennan was one of the top two for competitiveness.

They serve the state of South Dakota and many cities in South Dakota, including Watertown and Aberdeen and Brookings.

So they're well versed in serving municipalities.

And this is actually already included in the budget because we previously entered into an agreement with a different broker.

This is just a request to switch brokers because the broker we've been using had over 200 employees depart at once in December, and we feel that Marsh McClennan is better suited to support our needs now.

Thank you.

That's certainly a name that's been around for a long time.

So I thank you for that explanation.

I yield.

Okay.

We'll entertain a motion for that item.

Motion by Bieberdorf with a second by Tamang.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 20, approved declaring emergency repairs for city server room.

Counselor Tamey.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, I think uh just I'm sure everyone's aware we had some equipment malfunction, and it sounds like the IT department did a pretty great job kind of McGuireing things together, so we appreciate all that and your your detailed explanation of all that.

There was um just some questions I think the council had that kind of percolated to me and some others, and um you had touched on it in legal and finance, and um, I guess the the request was that maybe some education for the council would be in order if you could potentially put together some information on kind of what we currently have, kind of the switching costs that might be involved going to a cloud-based system, just to see as as I think you explained quite well, it would be more expensive for us to go towards that direction.

But there was um some views that maybe we should have have a greater insight and understanding um from that standpoint.

So, of course, we I think all support and approve this, but we would just hope to get more information on the switching costs associated and how you might see that as an optimal state down the road.

Thank you.

Did you want to hear from the IT director on that?

If he wishes, all right.

Uh with that we'll go to Jim Gilbert.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So uh first of all, it wasn't just the IT department.

We had a great deal of help from um maintenance to get uh portable coolers in there to meet the needs.

Uh server equipment, uh networking equipment all puts off heat, and we have to keep that room up uh at an optimal temperature range between 68 and about 72, 73 degrees.

So there's always cooling when you have rooms like that.

In terms of uh the possibility of moving to the cloud, um, we have some progress in there for things like email and stuff, but all departments uh all buildings have IT needs that require cooling.

Uh, even if you move everything to the cloud, you still have to have a bunch of networking equipment that generates heat.

In fact, the more you move to the cloud, the more you compensate with networking equipment.

Um but also we have things like camera servers.

Um every day we move uh we back up between uh a delta, a change of about 40 to 70 terabytes of data, but we have camera servers that move almost a petri byte of data, and to store that in the cloud would cost far in excess of our city uh our city's budget year to year.

So um so we all always have some storage, some needs here that will have to be cooled to this degree.

Okay.

Uh we have counselor Evans in the queue.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, even before I spoke with Mr.

Gilbert today about this topic.

A couple council people had asked me to do research because that's this IT stuff is kind of a hobby of mine.

And I discovered that even not accounting for uh the photo storage from the cameras and everything, the video storage, it could cost anywhere from 10 to 30 times just with our normal normal business to use cloud services to store the amount of data we use.

And that was before I got some of the other information for him.

If we were a smaller community, it's a real possibility, but it's not like a business when you've got you know 100,000 people dialing in all the time and using data and everything else.

So I think us keeping our own servers is important because it's far cheaper than letting it all out.

Of course, people love to have everything on subscription, but how's that working out for cable TV?

Everybody's finding out it really costs a lot of money when you start paying these subscriptions.

So I think our IT people have done a very good job of uh covering this, and we should go with the recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll entertain a motion.

Motion by Tamang with a second by Strowman to approve.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

That takes us to the end of the consent items.

We move on to non-consent items 26 through 28 and open public comment for items 26 through 28.

Uh have no speaker request forms for those items, so we will close the public comment and move on to item 26, second reading of ordinance number 6707 uh regarding supplemental appropriation number one for 2026 and the amount of 390 3,923, 272.47 cents.

Motion by Secrets with a second by Tamang.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries item 27, first reading of ordinance number 6708, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code, a request by Christopher and Jody Smith for a rezoning request from General Commercial District, a medium density residential district for property generally described as being located at 810 Fairview Street.

Motion by Robert, second by secrets to approve.

All in favor, any opposed?

Motion carries item 28.

A request by Jim Steele for Fanvest uh properties LLC for preliminary subdivision plan for lots A, B, and D of lot nine of Chamber Section 4, Southeast uh quarter, Southeast Quarter, generally described as being located at 3317 Stone Drive, the recommendations to approve of stipulations.

Got a motion by Roberts to approve a stipulations with a second by Maher.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

That takes us to the consent public hearing items 29 through 30, where the council like to remove any item for consider.

I skipped over public hearing.

Everybody wants to talk on this topic.

Uh public hearing items 29 through 30.

Uh, we will open the public hearing for items 29 through 33, excuse me.

And I do have several speaker request forms for item 29.

And what I'll do is I'll I'll say uh the first person up and then the person on deck so that you can get ready.

First person is Julie Freimuler, followed by Mike Mueller.

So Julie.

As a reminder, you have three minutes each.

Before I get started, did you all get a copy of the map?

Do I have to start already for just for asking that?

Thank you.

Right here.

Okay.

So thank you.

Um I am Julie Freimuller, and we've owned Roger Fry's paint and supply building since 19, I think '87, somewhere in there.

Um I I just want to be a little bit brief.

First of all, I would really like you to take this off the agenda.

I mean, it's already on the agenda, but I'd like it to be um put off if we can so that we can have some discussions about it.

We just found out about this this last week.

So we've been in the dark.

Um, and I was I was shown a summer night's Facebook page that basically said cats out of the bag now.

And if I I was kind of disappointed in reading all that that I read, it was like it referred to it seemed that the city was hiding this and summer nights was hiding this from downtown businesses.

And because of the meeting last week, it was exposed.

Um renters, a lot of renters need to be able to have their clients easy access to get to see them.

We have renters upstairs in our building, and they're extremely concerned about this from because I it's from my understanding you guys are going to be putting all the picnic tables and the beer vendors right in front of our our building.

And they can't park there after one o'clock because you guys have presented all these parking spots for beer vendors and picnic tables.

So this really negatively hurts our our um renters, and it negatively affects our ability to rent our building.

Who's gonna want to rent a building when you can't really operate on a Thursday?

Um people who want this don't have financials involved in this.

Um we pay property taxes, we pay employees, we provide benefits, all kinds of things that we do for the citizens of this, and summer nights will negatively affect that.

Um then we've requested before last year when we went over this to put it at Memorial Park.

And one of the reasons they said they didn't want to is you didn't have want to pick up all the garbage.

Well, there's gonna be garbage everywhere if there's gonna be garbage in Memorial Park.

And I have provided a map for you with another option of where you could possibly go if you want to look at that.

That's why I'm I'm requesting more time for this and you and for you guys not to make a decision tonight on this, because there's too many of us that were kept in the dark over it.

So I guess that's about it.

We oh, and we are um how do we say when I first looked at the original map, you guys had all kinds of parking blocks.

You had it, you know, from 5th street all the way down Kansas City Street.

And if we wouldn't have seen that too, and then if you wouldn't have changed it, that would have been a disaster for our parking lots and everything that we have.

So you we really need more time on this.

And if you could put this off until we can all meet and have a reasonable conversation.

Thank you, Julie.

We'd appreciate it.

Uh Mike, you're up next, followed by Carl Koth.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh Mike Mueller.

I've been assigned property manager for 624 and 626 6th Street, which is the bit property that uh Julie is just talking about.

One of her renters is working tonight and add a letter she sent me, so I'd like to read that to you, and you should have copy in the packet as as uh as a uh supplement tonight.

So to the mayor and the members of the city council.

I would be in attendance, but have a client, so I am writing as a local business owner to express serious concerns about the decision to relocate summer nights event to Kansas City and Sixth Street area.

While I fully support community events that bring people together and promote local activity, the current location creates several challenges that will negatively impact surrounding tax paying businesses like mine.

One of the primary concerns is parking and accessibility.

The area simply does not have the capa capacity to handle the increased traffic and parking demand that comes with a large public event.

Customers who normally visit nearby businesses will struggle to find parking or access storefronts, which can directly affect our ability to operate and serve clients.

In addition, increased congestion noise and foot traffic may interfere with normal business operations during our busiest hours.

Many of us rely on a calm, accessible environment for our customers and this relocation risks disrupting the balance and potentiality of driving regular clients away.

Due to parking space closures and the level of noise associated with this event, I will be forced to close my business every Thursday from 1 to 7.30.

This is not a small inconvenience.

Those hours fall during some of my busiest operating times.

What makes the situation even more difficult is that this occurs during the peak tourism season, which is when many small businesses rely on increased traffic and appointments to sustain income for the year.

Beyond these concerns, the relocation will have a direct financial impact on my business based on current scheduling and client patterns.

I estimate this change could cost my business at minimum 1,000 or more per month and lost income.

It would also likely cost me 20 hours of lost appointment slots due to this proposal.

There's also concern about the risk of property damage, vandalism, or excessive trash behind the large events.

Situations like this can create unnecessary cleanup, potential damage to business, and unwelcoming environment for customers.

When business appears crowded, messy or damaged, it can drive people away and create additional problems for those of us who are work hard to maintain a professional and welcoming space.

There are alternative locations within the community, such as the Monument Memorial Park area that would better be better suited for an event this size.

That location offers significantly more parking and space, and it would allow the event to take place without interfering with existing businesses that contribute to local tax base year-round.

I respectfully ask that the city reconsider the current placement of summer nights to explore alternative locations that can support the event without creating unnecessary hardships for local businesses.

Community events and local businesses should be able to coexist in many ways that benefit everyone without thoughtful planning and local selection.

I believe that a balance can absolutely be achieved.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, Brianna Mendenhall, free your mind and massage 6246th Street, Rapid City.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carl, you're up next, followed by Ron Koth.

All right, thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

This is Carl Coth.

I represent 601 Kansas City Street, and I own Hey Camp Brewing Company.

And I'm I'm going to be fairly brief.

I'm coming up here.

I'm feeling uh put in a very difficult position here because I spent quite a bit of time working with summer nights and city leadership and the business community trying to bring this the summer nights event back in a way that's sustainable.

Um however, my experience is we've, you know, it's it the parks permit was submitted while I was out of the country.

And now I'm taken by surprise and disappointment that we're already at the alcohol permit stage.

So I I sent some emails inquiring about these moves.

I didn't really see a reply, but really uh I'm wondering why this permit's been brought to vote without communicating all of its contents to the business and stakeholders.

I think you're gonna hear a lot uh about that, obviously from what I'm seeing tonight.

Um so all I'm asking here again is just bring in the impacted businesses and stakeholders to the table before we issue the parks permit.

And and let's just remove that item 29.

Let's not vote on it.

Let's not say no.

Uh let's just move on.

Let's move forward on this instead of killing it right now.

Thanks.

I'll yield the rest of my time.

Thank you, Carl.

Uh Ron, you're up next, followed by Sandy Schwan.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um Ron Coth.

I'm a part of the ownership of 601 Kansas City Street.

And uh I'd just like to reiterate a little bit of what I've uh been thinking about.

We've heard a lot of messaging, you know, recently in just the fast few days about how Summer Nights is meant to be a community builder.

It's meant to support local business.

It's supposed to bring to level bring together uh people in a collaborative fashion.

And I don't think that um right now the way it's structured is really supporting local businesses with the proposed closures and access issues for customers uh for all the businesses that are within the within the proposed closure uh area, as well in particular for the businesses that are at 601 Kansas City Street.

Uh some of those businesses are hospitality businesses, and they're open past uh five o'clock, they're open till 9 8, 9 p.m.

in the evening.

Um I'm not sure if the people who are signing off on these permits or are promoting really have a good idea of the fine line between uh success and failure for small business during that summer season, and and for one of the businesses, Hey Camp Brewing, uh Thursday night is their busiest evening of that summer season, which they depend upon for that revenue that supports them all the rest of the year.

So I think it's worth uh significant reconsideration of where uh these um events might be scheduled.

There are other alternatives such as has been suggested before, Memorial Park, as it was suggested back in December or January, December of 24 or January of 25, perhaps Main Street Square, or even in the worst case, uh, or in another case uh at the far south end of the 6th Street corridor where an impact of business would be minimized if it was located uh perhaps in front of the performing arts center where street closures wouldn't really have uh you know a big impact.

Uh as far as um you know the uh community bringing together aspect of it uh right now with the uh the impact to these small businesses within that corridor.

I don't think it's a community builder.

As far as collaboration, you've already heard uh from some of the other speakers that um this is kind of coming on very quickly.

Uh it's kind of a surprise to some degree, and it's basically here's our permit.

I hope you like it.

We have enough uh empty uh places downstairs downtown, you know, empty uh businesses.

We don't need any more.

We need to support that local business.

So I'd sure appreciate your consideration and moving this to a location where perhaps the city has spent millions of dollars to develop venues and a place where it won't impact local business.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ron.

Uh, next up is Sandy, followed by Alex Massa.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm Sandy Schwan.

I am the president of Rhapsody Summer Nights.

I live in Ward 3 and I'm a downtown business owner.

Um, as it's are you've already been told in the fall of 24, um, summer nights began to research different locations.

Um, and we were given a request from downtown businesses, uh mainly stating that they did not want the event to end, they just wanted it to move.

In December of that year, the council voted that we did they would approve summer nights as long as we moved to a location that did not close Maine or St.

Joe's Street.

And we feel that we have actually found a location that met that criteria, at least in this footprint.

Prior to submitting the permit to the Parks Department and since submitting it, uh we have held phone meetings, in-person meetings with stakeholders, the mayor, several council members, visit Rapid City, Main Street Square, and obviously the Parks Department, since they approved the permit to close the street.

A distributive flyer to everyone in the footprint where their doors were unlocked, and on the back of the flyer, it had my contact information, my name, uh, my phone number and my email address, along with the times that the street street closures would occur.

Um we are open to communicate uh continued communication with all of the businesses and the affected footprint, as well as anybody else downtown that has questions or concerns that want to talk to us.

We're also aware that because this is a new location and some of the footprint lays out differently than our previous footprint.

We might have to make some adjustments in week after week one or week two.

We've already made some adjustments because we've walked and looked at the footprint and realized it wasn't exactly right.

And I'm aware that you've been asked to postpone the vote, but right now we are 10 weeks away from Memorial Day, and our permit kicks off the Thursday after Memorial Day.

We have contracts to be signed.

We have equipment that needs to be ordered, and we we just need to move forward or be done.

I'm available later if you have any additional questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alex, you're up next, followed by Nathan Harding.

Good evening, Council.

I live on the block where the proposed summer night stage would be located, the block five apartments.

And I also work in suite number nine of the mothership building at the corner of 6th and Kansas City, the exact location currently being proposed for this stage.

That block includes one of the densest residential buildings downtown, housing roughly 140 residents.

It is also where I run youth mentorship and music programming for high school students through a local nonprofit during the summer months.

Over the past several days, I spent several hours speaking with council members about this proposal, and I appreciate the time many of you took to have these conversations.

During those discussions, I was surprised to hear that some members were not aware of the level of concern being raised by residents and businesses on this block.

Those concerns have been raised repeatedly over the past several months, which suggests the information reaching council and the information reaching the public may not always be the same.

I also want to be clear that many of us, myself included, support summer nights and want to see this event succeed in Rapid City.

The concern is not the event itself, but the location and the process that brought us to the current proposal.

For months, a nearby business has attempted to work with the organizers to find reasonable compromises.

Hey Camp Brewing proposed selling their beer at summer nights so the event and surrounding businesses could benefit together.

Other ideas, including coordinating operations, sharing equipment resources, and even involving my nonprofit in helping curate musical acts that would broaden the range of performers and include youth participation.

These were good faith efforts to efforts to make the event stronger while reducing disruption to the block.

None of these compromises were accepted.

The current proposal places a large amplified stage directly in front of a residential building and several small businesses that rely on normal access during the busiest part of the summer.

For the nonprofit programming I run, this would mean canceling an entire series of Thursday sessions that have already been scheduled and promoted to local high school students.

In practical terms, the current plan asks us to cancel youth programming so a stage can be placed on this block.

Many of us were also surprised to see a public announcement about this plan before the council have the opportunity to fully hear the concerns of the residents and businesses most affected.

Major changes to downtown operations should not appear finalized until the people most affected have actually reached an agreement.

If the outcome is perceived as already decided before these concerns are addressed, it risks making public input feel symbolic rather than meaningful.

This block already supports housing, small businesses, and youth programming.

Placing a stage directly in front of these things without agreement from the people affected creates unnecessary conflict.

Community events should bring people together.

Thank you.

Nathan, you're up next, followed by Jason Kingsbury.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Nathan Harding.

I own Heroes and Villains in Rushmore Coin, which is in suites uh six and seven of the mothership building right next to Hay Camp.

And I'm in a direct effect of this.

And my concerns are just kind of reiterating what some of you have already heard is that the process of kind of getting this all going is just kind of a little too quickly for me.

Um with that being said, if if some of this stuff goes through and gets approved, it's hard for me to even want to.

I have to start considering whether I want to keep my business downtown or not.

I've been down working downtown for 15 years.

I've owned my business for nine downtown.

Um I love being downtown.

I love Rapid City, but it seems like we keep coming back to this type of situation where small business owners and things don't understand quite what's going on and things are moving too quickly.

Um so those are just things that I have to consider.

Um I'm not trying to say shut summer nights down or anything.

I think summer nights is a great event and can be revived as a great event.

Um but I just think this is all happening too quickly.

I think the parks permit went through way too quickly, whereas we had a couple meetings with them and stuff, and then as Carl stated, as he happened to be out of town or out of the country on vacation, then the parks permit goes through and gets approved.

Um could just be a coincidence, but that kind of stuff it just seems odd to me.

Um as far as me speaking with my business of whether or not I want to continue keeping my business downtown.

Um, and as far as me speaking with my business of whether or not I want to continue keeping my business downtown, my lease is up in September, so I'll be making those decisions kind of based on how this continues to move forward.

And uh I'm just trying to do what's in the best interest of my business, my employees and their families.

I'm not opposed to summer nights.

I just think there's a way that uh we can work it all out a little better.

So I'm just asking that you take it off the agenda today.

Item 29.

I'll yield the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Jason Kingsbury, you're up next, followed by David Goodwin.

Uh hello.

I'm here to discuss item 29.

I'm a ward one uh personal and business, although my business reaches all wards of Rapid City.

My name is Jason Kingsbury, and I have owned small businesses in Rapid City since 2014.

At the core of my personal and business principles are community service and collaboration.

The industry of craft beer, which I am deeply ingrained in, also follows a similar ethos.

I am not here to oppose summer nights returning to downtown.

I believe at its core, summer nights has value to our community.

What I am here to question is where are the alcohol vendors going to be placed between the 600 block of six and the 500, 600 block of Kansas City.

I've requested this information from the city, but nothing has been produced to me, which seems very odd, is I have filled out multiple special use permits, and I know how difficult and specific they are.

This is extremely important to me as a collaborator, as it has the possibility to deeply scar one of my customers and peers, Carl Kofe at Heykamp Brewing Company.

Without a doubt, other small businesses will be affected by this, yet Hay Camp will be in direct competition with summer nights as an event and as a beer venue.

I urge the council to postpone the special permit vote tonight until more collaboration can occur.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is David Goodwin, and that is the final speaker request form I have.

Hey, good evening, Mayor, City Council staff.

My name is Dave Goodwin representing summer nights.

Uh, I believe they're gonna put the uh graphic up here shortly.

Uh, what I want to present to you tonight and just talk about is our footprints.

What was submitted originally was kind of just a rough guess on on looking at aerial photography on on where we would move our our existing footprints uh into this new space.

So this first slide just kind of shows you, and it actually answers the previous speaker's questions where the uh beverage trailers would be placed.

Uh, this graphic is a little hard to see, but numbers one, two, and three up there you can see as our beverage trailers.

Um the uh food vendors are uh up towards the top of the map there.

You can kind of see our east and west bounds with the yellow and then the blue dot in the middle would be our entry points where we check IDs, and obviously the stage there uh in front of Hay Camp tucked in past the crosswalk.

Um, and then another question that we seem to be getting a lot.

If we can go to the next slide, is just the street closure time.

So I just wanted to kind of clarify.

We've heard some uh some speculation that one o'clock was uh street closure time, and we're actually planning for 3:30 and 5 o'clock.

So everything in blue would be 3:30, and then five o'clock would be orange.

So um pending any questions to this, uh mayor council, I'm available for any questions or any any dialogue on this, but I'll yield my time.

That's we just wanted to show that that map and that the one o'clock time frame was was not true.

So I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that will close the public hearing for items 29 through 33, and we move on to consent public hearing items 29 through 30.

Would the council like to remove any item for consideration?

Councillor Evans.

Number 29.

All right, 29.

All right, otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve item 30.

All right.

Counselor Maher uh made the motion to approve item 30 with a second by to mang.

All in favor, any opposed, motion carries.

That takes us to item 29, Rapid City Summer Nights for special permit on sale mop beverage license licenses for events scheduled for May 28th, June 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th, July 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd and 30th, and August 6, 13th, 20th, and 27th of 2026 at the 600 block of 6th Street and 500 and 600 block of Kansas City Street.

And we'll start with Councillor Evans.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm finding it a little bit difficult to believe that this city and all the parties that are involved in this are incapable of coming up with a solution after all this time that doesn't somehow hurt somebody.

No, it's really easy to say it's all well and good.

But if you're a business and investing your entire year down there, your money, your time, I have to side with them over a temporary thing.

So I'm not going to support this vote tonight.

Now I believe there could be a solution out there that does not cause some parties to suffer some ill consequence.

I just believe there's got to be a solution that we can come up with that does that.

But unfortunately, every time we come up with one of these solutions involving this, somebody has to pay a price.

And I don't think that's right.

Now, uh one of the sites that I think has never been investigated, which maybe now that Elevate is going to be purchasing or has already purchased the assurance building, the big high rise down there, and I believe that that is going to be taking place if it hasn't already.

So I can't believe that that site's never been explored.

It's easily way bigger than the amount of space that we've been using.

And I can't believe that that one bank that sits there in the midst of that couldn't be convinced that that would be good.

I would also think the backdrop of an eight or nine-story building there would allow light shows and other things uh to take place behind the stage.

I think it could be a great location, but it's never been talked about that I know of.

And as far as I know, I don't think anybody would be opposed to that.

So I would say we explore that uh rather than just go ahead and rubber stamp this and have a bunch of people mad.

Any project's gonna be more successful when you don't have people in opposition.

And if we were to do something that had everybody acting in complete harmony, I think the success of summer nights would be more guaranteed, in fact, expanded, and uh I think it could become a real asset to the city.

So I want it to take place, but I think we need to find a solution that doesn't hurt somebody.

Thank you.

Uh next up, Callie Meyer.

Counselor Meyer.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I want to thank the parks department for their patience throughout this process.

Uh and I also want to thank everyone who shared their uh perspectives very respectfully, regardless of where they stand on the issue.

Uh the topic of summer nights brings out strong feelings uh on both sides of the issue.

Uh and no matter what decision is made tonight, some group is going to walk away unhappy, and that's really hard.

Um conversations about summer nights have been happening for a few months, and I've been really impressed by the dedication to flexibility and willingness to adapt by the summer nights team.

And I'm also really grateful to the stakeholders who've been in some of these conversations who really approach the meetings and discussions with an open mind, and uh they remained curious and um uh they did not dismiss it outright, so I really appreciate that.

I think the question about the location uh seems really simple on paper where we could pick it up and move it somewhere else.

But I mean, I think each potential site has its trade-offs, and I don't personally want to put the event on, so I kind of defer to the people who do put it on.

Um and I don't know that we'd ever really find a location that receives unanimous community support.

Um, but the proposed site meets the most important uh request, which is to avoid the closure of Maine and St.

Joe.

Uh and every decision, you have to weigh the pros and cons.

And uh in this case, there are a lot of known positives.

Uh and I think for me, the known positive is this brings people together, and there's a lot of joy and connection, and I think in a world where a lot of things are divided.

I think we need to find more opportunity for events to bring us together, and I think we need more real connection.

I think if I see another AI generated image, I'm gonna lose my mind.

I don't want to see fake content.

I don't want fake memories.

I want people to get together in person, and um I think if we're able to do that, we can help uh fight against some of the divided nature we see.

Uh so I think Summer Nights does provide an opportunity for connection and joy and togetherness, and I think those are some really valuable benefits.

And something I've been sitting with is the idea that inconvenience is the cost of community.

And I think this could be an opportunity to strengthen community, but with that in mind, I I know that inconvenience and harm are two different things.

If we could see into the future and know what the harms would be, uh that could be different, but I think we have potential harms.

So I think my vote tonight is going to be decided by the known good and the joy that this event will bring.

Um coupled with the confidence that summer nights will rise to the occasion and mitigate uh issues ahead of time, and I also think that they will need to adapt throughout the season if issues arise.

I also think the community will need to come together uh to support this and all of downtown.

I think when this issue is last presented, uh some people decided to boycott downtown businesses, and I don't think that's okay.

I think punishing your neighbors for um being brave and and speaking out on some difficult dialogue is uh not productive.

So I know my vote isn't going to align with some people want to see, and some of those people I even consider friends, so this is not easy, but um I'd like to believe we can see things differently and still move forward.

So I think no matter what tonight's outcome is, um, I didn't just encourage us to all lay our weapons down and come together as a community and show kindness and respect, which might seem dough eyed or cheesy, but uh I think we need to actively choose the type of world we want to live in, and I'm gonna choose joy.

So if you don't agree with tonight's outcome, uh you have I believe eight days to file your petitions for city council.

So with that I yield.

Counselor Bieberdorf.

Thanks so much for the feedback.

And I I would I would um just agree thanks to the civil comments on both sides.

Um I direct a question to Mr.

Bigler.

Absolutely.

Uh it seems like every time we do this, there's a side that thinks the city's doing something nefarious that this happened while somebody was overseas or that we just did this last week in the back room.

That's always frustrating to me because uh my time at the council, nothing is done nefariously.

Could we communicate better sometimes?

Could you speak to the process of how we got here with the permitting?

Uh yes, Director Beeakler.

Thank you.

Uh yes, uh, we were approached by Summer Nights who uh wanted to revive this festival.

And uh the uh uh the the folks from Summer Nights uh along with uh uh uh Alder Woman Meyer were interested in this uh going back downtown, and so they worked hard uh making a uh a very uh great attempt to contact the business owners in the affected areas.

Uh we when with the at the time that this permit came in for approval, we were all under the uh the uh impression that uh the the downtown businesses in this area were generally in favor of it.

And we knew that uh they could not receive a special event uh alcohol permit until they received the special event permit itself.

So that's the process that that is is uh uh that this uh takes.

So we approved the permit so that then they would be able to take the next step and uh uh come for the alcohol permit.

But I do want to tell you that we had we at the parks department had no knowledge, and I'm sure that uh Mr.

Coth will agree that we we had no idea that he was out of town.

There was nothing nefarious or in the timing of this whatsoever.

Uh so that uh I just want to state unequivocally.

Thanks so much.

And if I can give my time to Miss Meyer, just to if you could just explain to us if the people downtown, if the conversations that happened that you're aware of that this isn't just happened last week that we've had these discussions, and I'll and I'll yield.

Thank you.

Okay, so you're yielding the rest of your time to Kelly Meyer.

Counselor Meyer, do you have the floor, ma'am?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and thank you for the question.

Um, conversation started in November.

Um I think it was very important to um kick this off.

I mean, I feel like November is early.

Uh and I guess I would have to defer to the Summer Nights team on when discussions happened within that footprint.

I mean, I do think there's a lot of businesses in that area, and I don't necessarily think it was malicious if there was someone left out, but um I would defer is it may I direct a question to summer nights?

May I take Josh's time in the if they're willing to answer questions, yes.

So is your question about distributing the information or yeah, I think just like some of that.

I think just like some of that.

Yeah, we had a meeting with um Carl and at one point um a couple other people in his building.

Um I the original map that Dave showed you was just something we'd put together the year before because we'd actually turn in a permit for that same location when we were looking for a new location in 2024, but because the construction that wasn't a viable option.

Um and and then I'm actually the first meeting was actually with Callie and Ali Formonic at Visit Rapid City to talk about um six in Kansas City again to about revisiting it.

So then I contacted some of the businesses.

Then I like I said, I took the map that was probably hastily put together in 2024, but I delivered it with my contact information to everyone in the footprint where the um door was unlocked.

There were some issues with there's a building, a very large building downtown that was in the process of being sold, and so the people I talked to are actually the previous property manager and or um tenants, and so there was some confusion there.

But I went back after I realized there was some confusion about that and delivered more uh handouts to more people with again my contact information on the back.

And um I've also had phone conversations with the pastor at the uh Methodist Church and United Way and I'd have to check my notes, but a couple other businesses in the area that called.

Audras was one um that called me with some questions and some concerns that we I feel um we worked out, but we've been really trying to make sure everyone knew and uh some people probably did get overlooked, but part of that is because the nature of the office buildings it is that they weren't always open when I went there, or maybe they were in a meeting in their own office because some of them are individualized offices, so they weren't available to talk to me.

Um and whenever possible, I left extra um handouts with my phone number so that they could distribute them to other people they knew in the footprint.

We weren't trying to hide anything, um, but sometimes it's difficult to find people at the right time in the right place to talk to them.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay.

Uh next up, Counselor Seacris.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I just wanted to speak to this.

I I really don't have a lot more to add from um what Mr.

Evans and what Ms.

Meyer mentioned.

Um I agree with both of them and and certain points.

Um in December of 24, we did um task summer nights with finding a viable location.

Um that didn't disrupt traffic on Maine and St.

Joe.

Um, and with that caveat that we weren't gonna be a disruption to the rest of the business community.

Um I want to thank uh councilwoman Callie Meyer for her effort um in working with summer nights and with our downtown business community to find a solution for this.

We recognize as a council, I believe, that summer nights brings a lot of uh great things to the community, and it's truly uh a cherished community event um that people really enjoy and want to see come back, and I myself want to see them come back and um had pledged my support to Cali if we were able to get the downtown business community and support of uh location um for this event.

Um so I'm likewise just really torn with this because I am really disappointed that we don't have more of our downtown business on board.

I've heard from eight to ten concerned business owners um in the footprint that are gonna be directly impacted and in and surrounding areas, and so I just don't know that I'm in a position where I feel comfortable about supporting the permit tonight.

Um I also don't know that it's gonna do us much good to push this out because I do know um with respect to our event planners uh that this is a tremendous lift and effort that and there's a lot of planning pieces to this, and so um you know, conversations have been happening since November.

And um I I do want summer nights to come back.

I think you know, as a community we have so many locations that would be wonderful.

Um I also understand that you know it's a lot easier on paper to throw uh summer nights on a footprint on a map and think that it it would work, but I um I know that there are known harms that that we have impacted our downtown businesses in the past, and um you know, for a small business, 14 days is significant, uh small nonprofit or a small business, and you know, 14 event days is is really big.

It's gonna um impact those um who are keeping our downtown vibrant and beautiful year-round, and I just right now I'm I'm I'm gonna have to side with the business owners on this, and um that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

All right, next up, counselor Strowman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'd like to make a motion to continue this for two weeks to the next council meeting, and if I can get a second, we take the floor.

Okay, got a motion by Stroma with a second by Evans to continue to the next city council meeting.

The floor is yours.

Thank you.

Um first of all, I want to commend everyone involved that spoke tonight and uh has emailed us, and we do read your emails, even if we don't respond to them uh in writing.

Um this has been a very constructive conversation tonight, and I am hopeful that um with a little bit of time we can continue to work together to a solution that works for more people than it currently apparently does.

Um they uh the the people that want the continuance, every one of them uh said that they do not oppose summer nights, and um they just want to have and they want to have summer nights.

I think everyone that's spoken tonight is in support of having summer nights.

It's just I think we need a little bit more time to um explore some things, and uh I I know that that potentially causes somewhat of a consternation on the part of the summer nights planners, but I still think that the best thing at this point, and everything I'm hearing from the council is they're everybody's conflicted too.

So maybe a couple more weeks would give us some more time, and so that's what I would like to see happen.

I yield.

Thank you.

And councillor Evans, back to you.

Yeah, I just want to point out before we vote that over the last few months, you know, this council has not actually been the paragon of wisdom that we would like to believe we are, and in a couple instances, we've been slapped down by the constituents.

Um the 8th Street uh advocacy group was a good thing.

We couldn't even vote on it because as it turns out, with everybody in consensus, 70% of them were not.

And also in uh I don't have to remind you about the Liberty Land humiliation.

So I'm just thinking we need to be inclusive before we take any action and stop causing somebody to be the victim.

Uh because I believe there's a solution out there where there doesn't have to be anybody that's victimized by this by this decision.

I think summer nights could be a great thing.

I kind of missed it last summer, to be honest with you, even though I got to drive home without a detour.

But nonetheless, uh as long as you've got a city divided, some people thinking it's helping, others hurting, it's not gonna be as successful as it's gonna be if everybody is working together to make it a success.

And I think the people that are opposed to this location would be more than willing to help make it a success if we find a location that is a little more agreeable to them.

Thank you.

Counselor Temay.

Thank you.

Um I wanted to chime in due to the last point Mr.

Evans made.

I I think uh I think it is kind of tough to get perspective on this, and I just want to share that I don't know, six, seven, eight months ago, whatever it was when we were running for city council.

Um I we had an opportunity I had an opportunity to talk to a lot of constituents.

Um I literally hit the entire board um on all the voters, and one of the themes that came up overwhelmingly uh was they were mad about summer nights.

We heard about property tax, that was number one.

Um they had a couple of other little comments, the roads were like number two, and summer nights was in that top five.

I I probably heard it from 30 people just randomly.

And so when you talk about the pulse, and then it you know, I know not all my colleagues appreciate social media, but if you evaluate the pulse on social, the constituents overwhelmingly want to see summer nights come back.

And I have a feeling that we're not gonna find another solution in two weeks.

Um I don't I don't think we're gonna agree on another spot.

I think they've been talked about ad nauseum, and so I think this is kind of it, and I have a feeling also that if we uh if we decide to delay it, um it it's very likely not gonna come to a a better a better place.

So I think this is kind of the decision, and I think the majority of the constituents out there want it to happen.

There is real harm.

I talked to many of the business owners.

This this the list um that uh Lindsay uh brought up, I think is right.

There are there are small businesses that will be harmed financially.

There's numbers that were displayed.

There's substantial losses, so it's like uh it's uh it's a it's a trade-off.

But when you look at what the community wants, I'm highly confident that we're looking at a ratio of like a huge ratio of pro to negative, and I think this is the right spot.

So I'm I'm gonna vote against the continuance, and I hope that we can come to a vote for approval tonight.

Thank you.

Okay, so here's what we're gonna do, council.

Uh we are going to first deal with the issue of the continuance.

So it's a yes or no vote to continue to the next city council meeting.

Uh depending on that, that's then we'll determine the actual alcohol license for tonight.

Uh we are going to do a roll call vote, Angie.

So with that, we'll get going.

Maher.

No.

Roberts?

Yes.

Strowman?

Yes.

Uh sorry, see Chris?

Yes.

Bieberdorf?

No.

Timang?

No.

Evans.

Yes.

Meyer?

Four to four.

All right.

Before I break a tie here, I would like to have summer nights.

I want to ask you a question about what a delay in two weeks looks like because that's I am looking at doing the two-week delay, but I would like to know how far does that ruin your plans?

Because I want to give opportunity to try to make things uh even better with the impacted proper uh business owners.

Um so if you please please.

I'm sorry, somebody behind me said point of order.

I don't know what that's about.

That's I'm asking the question before in my time.

Um it it's gonna cripple us.

I don't know that it would end the event, but that's actually a decision I have to take back to the board.

Um they put a great deal of time and effort into planning this.

And as most of you know, there it's an all-volunteer board.

They have jobs, they have families, they have other community commitments, and we're asking them to spend time planning an event that may or may not happen.

Um there's also um considerations for um a porta potties and a dumpster and all the things we need to order that may not be available if we wait any longer.

Sandy can't in the two-week time.

Do you do you think you could work with some of these business owners to try to adjust some of the any you because you know that there's gonna be some adjustments maybe need to be made, and they feel like there's a little bit more buy-in from the business community if we were to allow that two weeks.

Well, we can make adjustments.

Uh I'm not sure what adjustments we can make to the actual layout.

It's either that it's either this location or um we don't have time to plan another location, if that's your question.

That's that is the end of summer nights because financially we can't survive another year without a season.

Um so if we're gonna if uh if the continuance is for us to find another location, then the answer is no.

We a continuance is put us out of business.

I think the continuation is can we find can we work towards more even more reasonable accommodations within the existing footprint uh for the alcohol license to be at this location?

Do you could could you do some work in that two weeks with them for some reasonable accommodations?

I'm hearing about like people with a massage business and things like that, or heroes and villains, and some of those that might be more impacted.

Um that's what I'm asking.

If it would be a detriment, would summer nights still exist if you waited two weeks, is basically the heart of what I'm asking.

That's it.

It's a very difficult question to answer because it depends on what accommodations we have to make.

If we I mean the street closure times are what they are, and we can't we need time to set up, so we we're not gonna be able to change the street closure times and still have a band ready to play at six o'clock.

Um the layout of the street, it we've adjusted it to some degree, but remember the streets narrower on Kansas City and 6th Street than they are on 7th and and St.

Joe.

So we've already sort of shrunk it down, less vendors.

The answer is I'm not we could survive for two weeks.

I'm not sure there's any more accommodations we can make or changes we can make that are gonna make anybody happy, other than from what I've heard from the people that spoke.

The accommodation they want is for us to not use that location, and we don't have time to do that.

So it just depends on what you're asking us.

It's a hard to answer it because I'm trying to find out the two weeks is gonna be helpful or not.

It's not gonna be helpful for us.

From your perspective, but Carl, would you would you mind?

I would love to ask you what if what that two weeks would do for you, if anything.

Thank you, council.

So what do you what are you directing me to answer as well?

Basically, right now the the motion on the floor is to continue two weeks.

Yeah, I'm gonna do that.

I want to know if you do you think progress could be made, or do you think you're pretty much gonna be at the same place as you are right now in two weeks?

I do think progress could be made.

I did submit one of my solution letters to all of you.

That was just one of like three rounds.

In that one, the direct cost to summer nights would have been less than or equal to their what their um you know their office costs for uh 2024 were reported on their form 990, which everybody, you know, all nonprofits fill out their uh revenue and income form.

So you can see anybody can see what's going on there.

And I went in in in good faith trying to trying to really find solutions to this problem.

And I they are there, so I do think we need two more weeks uh for them to come in.

And these folks are all here because they they feel taken by surprise.

Like I said, I I really am feel put in a really difficult position here because I have been trying to work towards this and now I have my business peers and summer nights and city leadership all frustrated with me.

So that's that's fantastic.

Okay.

Well, thank you both for answering the question.

So tonight what we're actually deciding is not the permit but the actual alcohol license.

And um I think it would be good to go ahead if I support, go ahead and vote no, and we have to address the alcohol license tonight.

My expectation is Hubbard Knights to still work with the business community on reasonable accommodations.

I'm talking about getting customers in and out and things like you know, and and looking at those kinds of things.

I think that'll be important.

So I'll vote no on the continuance, which puts us to uh we need a motion for the approval or denial of the permit.

Got a motion by Tamang to approve.

And second by Meyer.

Okay.

So uh the motion on the floor is to approve the permit.

Angie, we're gonna go back to you for a roll call vote.

Maher?

Yes.

Roberts?

No.

Stroman?

No.

See it, Chris?

No.

Bieberdorf?

Yes.

Temang?

Yes.

Evans?

No.

Meyer.

Okay.

Chair votes aye with the condition that you continue to work with these business owners for reasonable accommodations.

Thank you.

Uh with that, that'll take us to the end of consent public hearing calendar and move on to the non-consent public hearing item 31 through 33.

I do not have any speaker request forms for those items.

So we will move on to item 31.

Second reading of ordinance number 6704, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code.

A request by FMG Engineering for rezoning request from General Agricultural District to Office Commercial District.

Property generally described as being located at 4550 Mount Rushmore Road.

Motion by Bieberdorf for the second by Tamang.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 32, second reading of ordinance number 6706 and ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code.

A request by Sam Papendick for Gap Office LLC for rezoned requests from light industrial district to general commercial district for property generally discarded as being located at 1104 1114 1118 and 1212 West Main Street.

Motion by C Chris with a second by Bieberdorf.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 33, uh resolution number uh 2026-021, a request by renter associates LLC for Slash 7 LLC for petition of annexation for property generally described as being located at 3050 Jolly Lane.

Motion by C Chris with a second by Tamang.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 34.

With that, we'll go to the bill list and finance director Daniel Ainsley.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The bill list for Main Street Square and visit Rapid City total 348,784 and 73 cents.

Motion by Roberts?

Second by Maher.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries with one abstention from Meyer.

Item 35.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The remaining bills total 11 million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand one hundred and seventy-nine dollars and eighty-three cents.

Motion by Roberts with a second by Evans to approve.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Lindsay and Dr.

Tamang, all in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

With that, do we have a motion to adjourn?

Motion by Temang with a second by Maher.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

All in favor of adjourning?

Aye.

All right.

Any opposed?

We're adjourned.

Thanks, everyone.