Brookings to buy disputed land for retailer

The Peoples Republic of Brookings is in the deep freeze again: she owns the liquor store, the hospital, a research park, the golf course, the utilities and now wants to buy a piece of ground for a 'big box retailer' at the expense of local merchants.

During last week’s city council discussion about the city’s purchase of state-owned Department of Transportation property, a local developer drew chuckles from the audience when he complained, “I didn’t even know the land was for sale!” In fact, the land in question, a 26.25-acre chunk of property located in the northeast quadrant of the Interstate 29-U.S. Highway 14 interchange, has been the object of serious purchase negotiations by the city for more than a dozen years. [Brookings Register]

Wtf?

“So far, we are on track,” project director Francine Moudry says with a broad smile.

South Dakota's lack of environmental oversight has everything to do with offshore and out of state investors in economic development initiatives: little wonder the Big Sioux River is a sewer of biblical proportions.