Environment

State Crews Aid SF Cleanup

SDPB Radio | By Kealey Bultena

Published April 22, 2013 at 11:42 AM CDT

More snow is slowing the cleanup effort in Sioux Falls since a vicious ice storm and inches of snow broke thousands of trees. The city declared a state of emergency and is using public and private resources in the recovery effort.

Sioux Falls Public Works Director Mark Cotter says the governor is making some state resources available, including the Bear Mountain Hand Crew. It’s made up of trained saw teams out of Custer.

"They’ll really compliment the amount of work that we can get done," Cotter says. "They’ll essentially be walking through a number of the park areas and helping us cut a lot of that material. And then we can utilize the inmate labor to pull and stack that material."

Cotter says state inmates couldn’t work Monday because of the falling snow. He anticipates the inmates can help clean up the debris again Tuesday.

Tags

Environment Sioux Falls & Minnehaha County, South Dakota

Kealey Bultena

Kealey Bultena grew up in South Dakota, where her grandparents took advantage of the state’s agriculture at nap time, tricking her into car rides to “go see cows.” Rarely did she stay awake long enough to see the livestock, but now she writes stories about the animals – and the legislature and education and much more. Kealey worked in television for four years while attending the University of South Dakota. She started interning with South Dakota Public Broadcasting in September 2010 and accepted a position with television in 2011. Now Kealey is the radio news producer stationed in Sioux Falls. As a multi-media journalist, Kealey prides herself on the diversity of the stories she tells and the impact her work has on people across the state. Kealey is always searching for new ideas. Let her know of a great story! Find her on Facebook and twitter (@KealeySDPB).

See stories by Kealey Bultena