Hot Springs Star
Recently I broke a tie vote at a city council meeting to accept an initiative petition regarding the Marty Dahl horse manure issue. The voters in Hot Springs will decide this issue at the next election in June. If the initiative is approved by the voters, the city will have our attorney ask the court if we can pay Mr. Dahl the $800 it cost him to haul the manure out of his yard.
South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson confirmed last Thursday that sufficient signatures had been collected and submitted to refer a law banning smoking to the November 2010 ballot. Both the S.D. House and Senate passed HB 1240 by a wide margins and Governor Mike Rounds signed the bill into law on March 30. HB 1240 “prohibits smoking or carrying lighted tobacco products in certain places and to require certain persons to inform violators of the prohibition.”
The Hot Springs City Council accepted a municipal initiative petition at its April 6 meeting, which will place the issue of the Martin Dahl horse manure situation before the voters. Petition circulators gathered 193 signatures according to city finance officer Cheryl Wait, far surpassing the five percent of registered voters needed.