25-03-2025
Candidate townhall for North Sioux City's new governing body
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KCAU) — Residents in North Sioux City got the opportunity on Monday to hear from the candidates who will be on the ballot on April 8, deciding which individuals will sit in the city's new governing body.
The candidate townhall took place in the council chambers at North Sioux City City Hall. All 10 candidates participated in the event. They're going for the open seats on the new Five-Commissioner form of government, that will have one Mayor and 4 Commissioners.
The candidates answered questions from the American Legion, the McCook Lake Association, and the Dakota Valley Business Council, along with some of the residents that showed up for the townhall.
Some of the questions included how do the candidates envision the city growing and developing in the next 5-10 years and how to bring people who work in North Sioux City, but don't live in the city to move into the area. This led to the topic of Tax Increment Financing, or TIF to be discussed.
'The Governor came up with a new kind of TIF, called affordable housing TIF and they keep the school whole. It's a great tool used by many, many communities all over the State of South Dakota. There's 33 right now, that I know of,' said Chris Bogenrief, candidate for Mayor.
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'We must recognize that TIFs take away taxable valuation because it's given to the developer, rather than to the expenses created by the additional growth. So, it's actually a burden on us taxpayers who do not live in TIFs,' said Greg Meyer, candidate for Mayor.
Other questions that were asked to candidates included one about what improvements or investments in infrastructure are most important to the city's continued growth and how does the city pay for it. This brought up the discussion of flood mitigation.
'I think that we need to make sure that the flood thing never happens again and if it does, we're totally prepared. Personally, I feel running the water to the lake is like Plan D. I think we need to come up with better ways to get rid of the water than running it into the lake,' said Vincent D. Tucker, candidate for the 1-year Commissioner seat.
'Greg brought up the idea that you're not going to do that with just one 6-foot culvert and I completely agree with you, Greg. But, creativity would tell us that maybe there's a way that we could identify three or even four spot where we can have culverts going underneath, to be able to absorb more water to send that into the lake and again, have that controlled out,' said David James Wilch, candidate for the 1-year Commissioner seat.
North Sioux City residents can vote on April 8 to choose who will be the Mayor and 4 Commissioners. Absentee voting for this election began on Monday, which happens at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday through April 7.
To watch the replay of Monday's candidate townhall, click here.
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