Planning starts for second tornado shelter

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A tornado shelter will be built in the north part of Flandreau, despite opposition by some city council members.
The single-use building that would hold 80 people is expensive in a time where there are better warning systems and buildings that could have multiple uses, including a safe place to go in a storm, said Dan Sutton, council president. He said he spoke with residents in the area where the shelter is planned for, and they don’t think it is needed either.
Originally, the shelter was going to be in Hardin Park, at the southwest corner of Prospect and Crescent, but when council members looked into it more, the building would have taken up most of the green space in that small park and would have been farther away from housing that doesn’t have basements.
The city then spent $3000 to buy the lot at the northeast corner of Prospect and Henry and will have to bring in several feet of fill because the property is in a 500-year-flood plain.
“The more and more I think about this project, the more and more questions come to my mind,” Sutton said. “I try to find multipurpose uses. There’s really nothing this offers.”
Under the grant the city received for the shelter, taxpayers must cover 20 percent of the costs. The last shelter cost $171,000. Estimated costs this time are $190,000 to $210,000, a number that will be unknown until the project is bid, which is scheduled for March.
The city has $75,922 in hand to take care of its match. The grant is for $167,766.

“I appreciate that those dollars are available. I do think there are other things we can use the money on and there are other multi-use facilities,” Sutton said. “If we don’t do this, I still think there are adequate facilities and multi-use buildings.”
The vote to hire Banner & Associates for $32,850 to do the planning for the building was 4-2 with Sutton and Alderman Bob Pesall voting no.
The planned schedule is to complete soil and site borings this month, do design work by the end of February and seek bids in March with construction work beginning as soon as weather allows in April.
While Mayor Mark Bonrud supports building the tornado shelter, he would prefer it would never be needed.
“I hope these things never get used. I hope they set there as a monument and never get used.
If they ever get used, I think that means something bad happened,” he said.
City Administrator Jeff Pederson said Flandreau is a model for other communities that have followed the city’s plans for their own towns. The first tornado shelter is off Broad Avenue in a mobile home park. Securing a grant for the second safe house was a competitive process.
In other council news,
•The city will have to wait longer to install new playground equipment at the mobile home park on Broad Avenue because of the federal government shutdown, Pederson said.
“At best, we will get the go-ahead in June,” he said. “We should get it completed sometime in the summer.”
The city is replacing the equipment because it had deteriorated and was broken to the point that it was unsafe, he said. The city received an $18,000 grant from the South Dakota Land and Water Conservation Fund to pay for half of the $36,000 cost of the project. The new equipment also will be handicap accessible.
•Missouri River Energy Services, which supplies electricity to Flandreau Municipal Electric, has a new rebate program for 2019. The program includes rebates if residents buy “Energy Star” appliances, including washing machines, dehumidifiers, refrigerators, heat pumps and other items.
The city has more information on the program.