I spend a lot of time leading and supervising activities for young people in city parks, on school grounds and on private property. Every year, our facilities are increasingly damaged.
Our young people deserve a safe place to play.
The City of Storm Lake Parks Department, Storm Lake School Facilities Maintenance Team, and Field of Dreams staff do a fantastic job maintaining our parks and fields. They cannot and should not be asked to pick up animal droppings, pick up trash, or have to repair equipment due to abuse. We cannot ask the Department of Public Safety to patrol these areas more than they do. It is up to users of the facilities to act responsibly and take responsibility.
Over the past year, we have had to secure several facilities in town. Our youth now have less access to recreational opportunities because we cannot afford to continue to repair and maintain facilities.
For example, Field of Dreams has had to install fences and gates to restrict access to the fields due to graffiti, vandalism, and animal droppings on the fields. It uses funds to repair abuses that should be used to upgrade facilities for our youth. The facility is now not as available for children to play freely.
![](https://www.stormlake.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Softball-RV-Vohs-10-300x149.jpg)
Ridge View shortstop Emma Vohs attempts to tag Sergeant Bluff-Luton’s Chloe Buss while attempting to steal second base during their Tornado Classic game last Saturday at Field of Dreams.
West Ninth Ballpark must now be locked down due to vandalism and inappropriate use of the field. Residents must now set aside times to use the field for play. Our Storm Lake youth baseball teams that use the park often have to play in and around dog waste because people let their dogs run on the field and don’t chase them. They also often have to redo the lines on the field and re-slide the field before hosting games.
Additionally, Storm Lake High School had to secure the track and stadium. While many communities had restricted access to their football field and track, the school district was proud to keep ours open to the public. We recently had to make the difficult decision to lock down the facility. We had no choice but to secure the facilities so that our students had a safe place to play.
We know that most community members act responsibly and respect our public spaces. However, the actions of a few prevent our children from having full access to amenities that would otherwise be available to them.
We ask that everyone keep their pets off athletic fields, pick up after them, avoid driving or parking on athletic fields, and respect park/field policies. There is nothing better than seeing children playing in our facilities. Let’s all do our part to make our facilities a safe and fun place where our children can do just that.
I love Storm Lake – help us make it “the beautiful town!” »
Joe Kucera, Storm Lake Community Education Director, Field of Dreams, Youth Baseball and Softball Board Member
Ruminations at the roundabout
As a Times subscriber, I have enjoyed reading many of Art and John’s opinions and stories over the years, but after reading John’s September 22 column, I feel compelled to ease this a little diverted enthusiasm.
In my forty years of travel in the United States and Canada, I have encountered an increasing number of these signaling devices, and while I can think of several that have been well designed, they are the exception rather than Rule. Indeed, I would classify most as belonging to the “this idea lasted about thirty seconds” rule.
For Storm Lake, in particular, which relies on a high volume of truck traffic, I believe these measures would create more problems than they solve. Considering just the Tyson pork plant, current production probably requires 75 to 80 truckloads of pork per day. At least an equal amount of outbound product (and traffic from the turkey plant) also contributes to the problem, as does normal east-west traffic from the highway. 7.
The problem is simple: Large tractor-trailers may have difficulty passing these devices safely, especially when large numbers of motorists may not be aware of these issues. The typical combination vehicle used today is 75 to 80 feet long, and the majority use a trailer length of 53 feet (the legal maximum). Either way, any trailer creates the problem of “off-roading” on twists and turns. Without getting too deep into the math, this typical tractor-trailer on a 161-foot radius curve (a fairly “tight” highway curve) results in 8.45 feet of off-roading. This means that the rear corner of an 8.5-foot-wide vehicle’s trailer in a 12-foot lane will encroach into the adjacent lane by nearly 5 feet. A 100-foot radius turn would result in a little more than 14 feet of off-trail (a 10.5-foot incursion), and 75 feet would result in almost 17 feet of off-trail (13.5 feet ). The result, in any case, means that the typical tractor-trailer must use all (and even part) of the entire 24-foot roadway (a two-lane roundabout). The intersection of Milwaukee and Lake is barely 4 lanes wide (maybe 50 feet wide). Ditto for Flindt Drive (hence the change several years ago to two traffic lanes and a center turning lane). This Milwaukee/Lake intersection (with increased distance due to the curvature outside the right turn lanes) could yield a usable radius of about 50 feet (they told me the trig would come in handy someday – “Long live Pythagoras!”). Also remember that all roundabouts use some sort of circular divider which further reduces the available space. In most cases, separators use a low-height traffic area to help accommodate the previously mentioned “off-roads”, but this nevertheless requires considerable cooperation and awareness from following vehicles to negotiate even a well designed roundabout in a safe and efficient manner. . Unfortunately, the roundabout pictured in the bucolic residential neighborhood is only useful for automobiles and a few small delivery vans. I suppose, however, that barricades and high, non-tapered curbs could generate welcome business for local body and tire shops.
In order to build a proper utility roundabout, Walgreens, Super 8 and the Central Bank would likely have to relocate. The same goes for banking coins. Too bad the poor driver is pulling a decent sized fifth wheel around this corner. Since large vehicles must yield to traffic already in the circle, it can be extremely difficult to enter very quickly. In many cases, a truck must come to a complete stop while waiting for a traffic stop while trying to enter without the benefit of a red light, thereby impeding traffic behind it and creating a whole new type of bottleneck . This fact also makes the idea of a roundabout at the junction of 7 and 110 impractical due to the proximity of the crossing (although I hope the new revisions to this corner will reduce the possibility of a long-term disaster). -waiting for).
The fact is that a truly useful roundabout requires substantial real estate, thoughtful engineering, and a large dose of education, cooperation, and patience on the part of all motorists and commercial traffic. I believe our limited resources would be better spent on our existing street surfaces and infrastructure needs. Traffic lights and traffic jams are frustrating, but building and implementing a number of roundabouts would likely leave us with a whole different set of frustrations. A better solution might be “smart” traffic lights (reverting to flashing yellows and reds late, outside of normal working hours). hours at many intersections), fully shielded left turn signals, and significant setback distances in left turn lanes that improve the ability of large vehicles to turn right more easily, improving traffic flow for all vehicles.
John, I don’t mean to offend you with the “thirty-second ideas” thing. In fact, you can bring any of them to my house and we’ll throw them on my HUGE pile in the corner of the garage. And to any driver who has ever held back in a left turn and waited patiently while I encroached into your lane to make a sharp right turn, a big smile and salute to you for making my job a lot easier! Good road!
Kevin Kelly, Storm Lake
The “big three”
The “big three” federal budget issues for Republicans and Democrats currently are border protection, funding the war in Ukraine and disaster aid.
Disaster aid is an issue that politicians from both parties can support. It’s like spending on health care. We fail to prevent disease and disability by neglecting wellness programs, and then we have the great pleasure of paying for our mistakes in hospitals at a much higher cost.
When it comes to consumerism and industry, we fail to prevent fossil fuel emissions, and then we have the great pleasure of paying for our mistakes in hurricane repairs, floods, fires, and heat.
Politicians love to ride white horses that look gallant and necessary to restore bodies, homes, and businesses. Everyone forgets that prevention is better than cure.
The evil geniuses behind all our curative fiscal burdens are the 1% class who keep getting richer by selling their products and services to the government while the rest of us bury our dead, try to rebuild our homes, and search for a true leader.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Cross of the Woods, Utah