Happy "13th" Mr. Announcer

The Voice of the Dakota Dome and many other sporting events throughout the state (especially track meets), is having is official 13th birthday today! If you've attended any sporting event at the dome in the past 25 plus years or gone to Howard Wood/Dakota Relays or the state track meet, you've undoubtedly had the pleasure of hearing "The Voice".

Not only is he "The Voice" but he adds so much life to the meets. Over the past few years I've been working the Daktronics board at Howard Wood for the bigger meets. I can't tell you how many late nights I've spent with Greg putting together stats of the major runners for announcing. Such fun facts as "Little Sally So-and-Such won the mile run at the Bear Butte Invitational earlier this spring". It's the little things that he's willing to do that add so much to the meets. There have been a few late nights at The Watering Hole on Madison Street too!

Hopefully this puts me "in the black" for the next four years as Greg is often my ride home after track meets in Sioux Falls. I like to ride my bike from Vermillion to Lennox or beyond (sometimes all the way to Howard Wood Field) and have Greg bring me back home.

Without further ado: Mr. Announcer and good friend....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Road Kill Bill Flattened

The "stinky" bill reported earlier this week was officially killed this week. Truly, for those of you not from South Dakota, the amount of stinky, dead roadkill in the summer is already nasty. I can't imagine if this bill would have went through!

From keloland.com

Roadkill Bill Goes Belly Up

The South Dakota Legislature's roadkill bill has been flattened.

After the House and Senate failed to agree on common language for the measure, a negotiating committee recommended the bill be scrapped.

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to kill the bill. The House was expected to do the same later in the evening.

HB1293 would have required that dead deer be picked up from state highways within 96 hours.

Sen. Jim Lintz of Hermosa said the measure is not needed because state officials realize the Legislature wants dead critters removed from the roadside quickly.

"The dead deer bill is a dead duck," Lintz told the Senate.

Bike Path Committee Meeting

I'm going to remain fairly nondescript in this post just in case there are people out there googling away looking for info. However, I need to vent.

In this sometimes backwards town, I do my part to promote cycling, healthy lifestyles, and alternative transportation. For the past fourteen (14) months I've been on a bike path committee. We have a decent path that we are looking at expanding along the river. Where we are expanding is coming under MUCH scrutiny from a couple of land owners. Understand that this bike path is a CONSIDERABLE distance from their houses. Could the homeowners SEE people on the bike path? Most of them could, although a couple might only see heads.

The good news is that their are only seven land owners to deal with that far back to the river. Five of the seven have signed on to allowing the path to go through. One ALMOST signed but then lost a bid to have his land rezoned to allow a horse on it if he wanted and then he got mad and won't sign. The other person, well, let's just say he's difficult.

The alternative plan would be to NOT go along the river for that stretch and use a city right of way and put an eight foot sidewalk/bike path in front of all these houses. While an option, it's not the option that the committee desires, but if all else fails, it is there. We would lose a scenic view of the river for a not so scenic stretch by the fertilizer plant and grain elevator.

Last night a decision was made to have the architects of the path use their arbitrator for the final two land owners. If that doesn't work, we are looking at condemnation proceedings. That would be when it would get ugly.

I don't want to get into too many details as of yet. I probably have let too much out already just in case there are locals who do read my blog. Not that it's a major secret, but I should let things get rolling before divulging so much. Just in case the Google spiders are in high gear, we are talking about the PORTLAND Bike Trail system. There, that should throw off searches for a bit.

My main reason for the rant is that this "game" has been played out for 14 months. I don't blame anybody on the committee/city of PORTLAND at this point. They/we are just trying to do what's right. What's right for the city is this bike path. This path should already be built or in the process of being built. This is just the next section of a grander plan and it needs to get going NOW.

Once this section is over, we should have much easier sledding as most of the land in the next stretch is owned by the county and they are already on board. More rants to come I'm sure. Hopefully next time it will be good news about the PORTLAND bike trail.

Yet Another Vermillion Cycling Blogger

Here's another one to add to your RSS feed! There is nary a person out there who has been cycling with me longer than Cactus Eyed Joe! He has another blogging site as well located HERE. I'm not sure what he's going to put on the second site, but it could have to do with Yoga and life in general.

He has a different point of view of my MS150 Crash Story of 2004. It is a good read and is located HERE.

The one thing you all need to do for me is to ask him about his name. Although he readily accepts his nickname, it's a subject of much pain in his life. Let's just say a mental picture of Cactus-Eyed Joe equals a pretty accurate description.

Backroad Cycling WILL Stink This Summer in SD

Dreaming of a wonderful, quiet ride in the country this summer? Very few cars to deal with, beautiful skies......and the stench of dead animals....bring it on.

From Keloland.com

Negotiators Change Roadkill Bill

It appears that the financially pinched state highway fund in South Dakota has avoided another million-dollar-plus hit.

Legislative negotiators have stripped a provision from a bill that would have required the state to pay for the removal of dead deer from county roadsides.

HB1293 instead will require dead deer pickup within 96 hours from only state highways.

State Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist says it costs about $380,000 a year to do that now, but it would cost up to $1.5 million more to also pay contractors to retrieve dead deer from county highways.

Craptastic Weather

Sunday - 45-48 degrees. Road bike ride. Beautiful day. February paradise in South Dakota.

Monday - Rain - freezing rain - strong north wind. On the way to the dome to teach cycling class I thought I was being shot at with a pellet rifle. It was still warm enough to be "ridable" outside.

Tuesday morning - NOT warm enough (18 degrees). Schools starting late. Roads are a SHEET of ice. One of my slowest commutes EVAH as I didn't want to "pull a kErnEl". That poor dude has had a long road to recovery from his broken wrist.

This craptastic weather needs to end soon. Even Mr. Bite is getting crabby about the weather towards the end of a recent post.

Here is hoping that this weekend's South Dakota Bicycle Summit will cheer us all up, get us excited about cycling, and also begin the warming of the weather.

Disinfecting Matt

As soon as I find this "Matt" guy, consider him disinfected.



This sign is in the recreation room at the dome where I teach cycling. There are other classes (Yoga, Pilates, etc) taking place at other times in the room. I've had a chuckle out of it ever since it was put up, but finally remembered to take a photo of it.