City reviews $10.5M wastewater funds, housing study

With all members present, the Lennox City Council met on Monday, August 25 at Lennox City Hall. Mayor Danny Fergen and council members heard agenda items, including continued talks on wastewater treatment funding, housing study, and motorized scooter discussions.

The City of Lennox received $10.5 million from the South Dakota Department of Corrections in return for agreeing to provide wastewater treatment for the new men’s prison. 

“I want to get discussion moving on how council wishes to see this money used in the future. I would still caution you against getting too bought into any one idea at this point simply because we don’t know what’s going to happen yet,” said City Administrator, Nate Vander Plaats. 

“I don’t have a change of opinion from two weeks ago when we discussed this. We still need to know what’s going to happen with the prison locations so we can determine what we really have to do and what we have to spend our money on. Obviously, our goal is to get the biggest bang for our citizens and what that looked like is what we’ll have to determine based on. Are we processing sewage from a prison? Can we count on that additional revenue from that agreement or is it over?” said Alderman Bill Daugherty. 

Mayor Fergen thanked the council for their continued ideas and their diligence in moving forward.

The City of Lennox is due for an update to the community’s housing study. 

“We’ve approved an agreement with Porchlight to conduct an updated housing study for Lennox this year. That report is now available for your review and approval. Berk will be in attendance to present the result of the report,” Vander Plaats said. 

“A little bit about our process and what we did is we looked at existing data like building permits, census data, and anything else we could find that helped us understand what’s going on in the community. We did a visual inspection where we drove around the community and looked at all the houses in the community and figured out what shape they were in and then we collected input through interviews and then we were going do a rental input survey, but as a few our members saw, no one showed up to that,” said Berk Ehrmantraut. 

Ehrmantraut and his team have been gathering information to study where Lennox is expected to grow in the next ten years and project housing demands in the area. Ehrmantraut’s projections include a population increase from 2,587 in 2023 to 3,098 by 2033. 

“Key takeaways include that most renters with a household income of below $50,000 are cost burdened and that means they’re paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent. So if you’re making less than $50,000 in Lennox and you’re renting, you’re probably paying a significant portion of your income in rent right now,” he said.

 With lack of apartment rentals in Lennox, many residents are choosing to rent a mobile home and Ehrmantraut feels many people in a mobile home would be better suited in an apartment setting. 

“One of the things we talked about in this report is they might be better aligned to a rental situation where they’re not responsible for maintaining and keeping up with all of those repairs, but right now they’re owning and that’s providing important housing for folks who work at a gas station or grocery store or other places where they may not have the highest income, but they provide important services for the community that everyone values,” he said. 

Ehrmantraut recommends Lennox add 156 multi-family homes and 267 owner-occupied units over the next 10 to 15 years to stay on track with the current demand. Motion to accept the 2025 Housing Study by Daugherty, seconded by Lauren Van Driel, motion carried.

Changes in the state statute necessitate a change in dates for future Lennox elections. 

“Last year, legislature passed and the governor signed a bill that changes how and when municipal elections are held, but deadline changes, changes in election dates, basically we have to pick either the primary date or the general election date for next year. In odd number years, starting in 2027we need to hold it on either June 8 or November 2. My recommendation is that we pick the November election date moving forward simply because it allows full voter participation in ways that a primary doesn’t,” Vander Plaats said. 

Council members advised VanderPlaats to research into when the new members would take over the seats of the existing council after the November election. No action was needed.

Aldermen VanDriel and Welch requested this item be added to the agenda for discussion. 

“This agenda item is an opportunity for the City Council to discuss the growing use of motorized scooters in Lennox, as well as the safety implications and any potential policy approaches,” Vander Plaats said.  

Vander Plaats provided the council with the current ordinance for the City of Madison and the Attorney General’s official opinion.

“This is not necessarily a new issue, but it would be nice to have new guidance because this is over 20 years old,” he said. 

“How this came about was this summer, I think a lot of the residents have noticed increased use in these scooters in particular. We also have golf carts in town, of course, but those we already have permits for. I think the biggest thing is, it doesn’t seem that the majority of these children are following traffic laws necessarily, but they’re on the streets, and that’s a safety concern,” Van Driel said. 

President Chad Swier asked Police Chief Erickson if there is enough clarity in the scooter situation. 

“There hasn’t been. This has come up, not in Lennox itself, but I’ve been involved in numerous conversations with fellows in the surrounding communities about how they’re handling them. It hasn’t been a problem in Lennox until this year. I’ve noticed a couple in the past, a summer or two ago, but somebody had a good sale on them. Everybody’s got one, and the two kids I stopped, I can tell you that neither one of them were over 12 years old,” Erickson said. 

Mayor Fergen asked if there have been any accidents involving the scooters and Chief Erickson reported there have not been any. Chief Erickson suggested getting the bike rodeo going again and inviting all the kids on scooters to join as a safe activity in a controlled location.