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New fence at bandshell used to serve food to homeless sparks backlash

Rapid City parks department installed the fence at the Memorial Park bandshell last week. Organizers who use the bandshell to serve a meal to the homeless say they were surprised to see it on Friday.
Lee Strubinger
/
SDPB
Rapid City parks department installed the fence at the Memorial Park bandshell last week. Organizers who use the bandshell to serve a meal to the homeless say they were surprised to see it on Friday.

Rapid City’s mayor says the city could have communicated better with groups that serve meals to homeless people before building a fence around the area those meals are served.

The fence surprised organizers at the latest meal service.

Those organizers say the bandshell at Memorial Park is optimal for serving food, because it keeps servers and those served out of the elements.

“We’ve served in blizzards and thunderstorms and 107 [degrees] and all that stuff," said Tom Whillock.

He helps organize a group that serves a meal to homeless or housing insecure people in Rapid City every Friday. They’ve held a feed at the bandshell in Rapid City near the civic center nearly every week since April of 2019.

Whillock said seeing the fence on Friday felt like a gut punch.

“It echoes fencing people out. It looks like a cage. To see it. To see the bolts in the concrete pads and in the chains to the side walls. It has this visceral ‘You are not welcome here,’ and this is the message the people on the street are getting,” Whillock added.

Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun said the city could have done a better job in coordinating with groups affected why the bandshell was being secured.

Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun at a press conference Monday addressing the new fence at the Memorial Park bandshell.
Lee Strubinger
/
SDPB
Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun at a press conference Monday addressing the new fence at the Memorial Park bandshell.

“I’m disappointed. We did drop the ball on the communication," Salamun said the city is securing the bandshell due to persistent safety and health concerns.

He said law enforcement and EMT’s responded to over 800 incidents in the last two years. Salamun says the parks department regularly cleans up blood, fecal matter and vandalism.

However, going forward, he said groups serving meals can coordinate with the parks department to use the bandshell and the fees for that use will get waived.

“I encourage them. We’ll be reasonable. We’ll waive these fees," Salamun said. "Go work with the parks department to schedule that, because you also don’t want to have multiple events happening at the same time. We’ll certainly be willing to work with those groups.”

Organizers say it’s their intention to serve a meal at the bandshell this Friday.

Lee Strubinger is SDPB’s Rapid City-based politics and public policy reporter. Lee is a two-time national Edward R. Murrow Award winning reporter. He holds a master’s in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois-Springfield.