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The construction of malls and other retail space, office buildings, and houses and apartments – all of that stuff is great. In part, it represents human vision made real.
Even the establishment of infrastructure – roads, water, sewer services and such – is wonderfully progressive.
But in a world filled with Homo sapiens, one of the crucial steps to meeting the total needs of any community is to secure the people’s safety.
Remember Maslow and his hierarchy of needs?
Still it’s clear that as the Sioux Falls area continues to grow, the challenge to pay for public-safety services is rising evermore to the top of cities’ priorities.
That’s because as growth and development unfolds, the need to increase protection services soon follows.
Take recent safety-oriented issues bubbling throughout the region, for example.
Voters in several smaller Minnehaha County communities recently considered a plan to create and fund a proposed ambulance district. The plan was designed to help pay for full-time ambulance employees – a need that has surfaced because of population increases in several smaller cities.
From 2000 to 2006, Baltic’s population increased 16.8 percent, Dell Rapids’ grew 8.8 percent and Humboldt’s 8.1 percent, U.S. Census Bureau figures show. Even tiny Sherman grew 4.6 percent.
However, voters rejected the proposal. So county and officials in those cities now are scrambling to develop an alternative.
Meanwhile, Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson is moving ahead with plans to abolish hiring ratios for the city’s police and fire departments.
Initially, city officials thought the ratios were a good idea. They must have because they established them about four years ago.
At the time, city officials set a hiring ratio of 1.5 police officers and 1.4 firefighters per 1,000 residents.
However, Sioux Falls’ population growth as been averaging 3,000 people a year.
Do the math, and it’s easy to see how a revenue crunch for funding those departments while also funding others would develop.
The upshot is that tough choices must be made throughout the Sioux Falls region.
South Dakotans are proud of our tax aversion, and that perspective helps us pare our public expenditures to the bare necessities.
However, I would argue that securing adequate police, fire and ambulance services reasonably can be considered among the bare necessities.
That means our city and county officials increasingly must be prepared to do what they must to find new revenue streams.
Abolishing ratios and passing the baton to small cities will not be enough.
To be fair, the options available for elected officials are rather skimpy. Some county officials have floated the possibility of a liquor tax to help that governing body. Sioux Falls officials are dealing with a revenue budget that’s been increasing because of the city’s growth. It’s just that increases haven’t been enough to match growing needs.
However, one thing is for sure: The people are coming.
They’re coming to Sioux Falls and to Baltic and to Dell Rapids and to Humboldt. They’re even coming to Sherman.
And as communities, we’ve got to find ways to be ready for them. That means we must be financially prepared to offer them more than malls and office spaces and houses and apartments.
We must be determined to protect them, too.
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