Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] My grandpa was one of my favorite all-time people growing up. I remember going to the Tulip Festival with him. I remember his blue jacket was always full of Starburst. 0:10 I remember a lot about my grandfather, but I also remember a lot about what he instilled in me, and some of the values he dropped along the way. Things like, "I could never afford to buy cheap." 0:22 Now, what that means to me is that in the industry that I'm in, mattresses don't last through their warranty, and those big box brands really don't have your best interests in mind. 0:31 They'd rather have you buy a bed and it break down prematurely, and you'd have to buy a new bed again. 0:36 But at Juno Sleep Systems, we value our commitment to our customers and their satisfaction long-term, which is why we only use the best quality ingredients, and we're there for you anytime you wanna make a change to the mattress, even per side. 0:48 At Juno, 1950s values are still alive. We're only as good as the quality products we turn out at the end of the day, and our word is our bond. Come on down and check us out today, 41st and Grange in Sioux Falls. 1:00 [ice crunching] To some, that may just sound like ice hitting heavy-duty plastic, but to a Bud Light legend, it's a signal that says it's time. 1:09 Time to dust off the barbecue tongs and load up the cooler with 37 Bud Lights and an assortment of dips. Because it's time to take back all the fun we've missed. Welcome back, Bud Light legends. 1:20 Let's take summer by the coolers. Cooler up at budlightlegends.com. Enjoy responsibly. 2021 AB, Budweiser, St. Louis, Missouri. Distributed by Beal Distributing, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 1:31 [upbeat rock music] Welcome to The Scouting Lounge, a podcast of [can opening] the Dakota Scout Newspaper. 1:52 We're based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My name's Jonathan Ellis. I'm one of the co-hosts. I'm Joe Sneve. And you already opened your beverage. I did. I was thirsty. We got another beverage in the room. Yep. 2:03 And it should be a beer, but you don't get where you are in life, and through a project [label ripping] probably as stressful at times as what is the $215 million sewer, well, wastewater reclamation facility makeover. 2:20 I feel like kind of an old man, because it was one of those projects that I, I remember writing about the first presentation about it, and now here it is, ribbon cutting today. 2:29 Uh, Mark Cotter, Public Works Director, uh, welcome in. I feel honored. You're very, very, very special guest. Well, thank you for having me. Honored to be here today. 2:40 And I feel like I've worked with you guys for so many years, so this is full circle. Well, it's a big day too, for you. But we should say it's... This program's sponsored by Beal Distributing and Juno Sleep Systems. 2:51 Speaking of that. You better open that. [can opening] So anyway, congratulations- Thank you... by the way. Yeah, that is a big, big job. Been years, years in the making. 3:00 Years in the making, and it was just, um, so gratifying to be able to look back and see the, the team that has not only shaped the design, but they've, they've facilitated the construction. 3:14 And to be able to be highlighted today, the mayor had some great words for the team. Very well deserved. It was, it was great, the ribbon cutting. Uh, we'll get into that, but every week we put together a newspaper. 3:25 Today is print day. Um- Mm... if, it's always like a jigsaw puzzle. You know, you, you got holes here, and the shape of a photo doesn't necessarily... And the amount of text in a story, it all... 3:38 You know, you gotta get creative sometimes. Yes. We deal with that every week on a very tiny, tiny, tiny scale. Public works infrastructure is a huge jigsaw puzzle that's... 3:48 Somebody's constantly at cutting pieces and it's saying, "Now go find a place for this one," or taking pieces you've already put in place and saying, "Now we're gonna make this an edge piece." Mm-hmm. Or whatever. Right. 3:59 Uh, it's quite a complicated thing, and I bet your brain works a lot differently than most people's as an engineer. But the sheer undertaking that just is operating public works is one thing, but 4:12 when you're planning a project like this, I mean, you said you guys built seven new buildings- Mm-hmm... seven new structures, and, uh, renovated or expanded or, you know, made over six more. 4:26 And there's like 3 million pounds of rebar. Wow. It's a shitload of stuff. It was. [laughs] It was. So how long... 4:34 So I can't remember when I first wrote about this, but it was a four-year project, but how long has this been consuming space in your mind? It had to be more than four years. Right. 4:44 So we s- we kicked off the master plan to just try to understand where's the city gonna grow, um, at what rate. 4:51 And then ultimately if, if we do grow at that rate and at, um, what land use, then we take what's currently coming in the pipe, and then what will. And so between 2016, 2018, we really refined that. 5:06 And then at 2018, um, is when we created the project that said to have a good 20-plus years of wastewater service, we need to add onto this plant by 50%. So we, we added... 5:19 You know, we went from 21 million gallons a day, uh, up to 30. So we'll be sitting really good for just more residential, commercial and, uh, industrial growth. Is that... So how long have you been with the city? 5:32 How long have you been in your role now? Uh, 19 years. 19. So in 20- in 2006 I started. Uh, Mayor Munson, uh, appointed me and- I think I wrote a story about you getting appointed. Okay. I remember that. Right. Yep. 5:45 That was a long time ago. It was a long time ago. Almost 20 years ago. We've, we've got some gray hair now. [laughs] We've got, yeah. 5:50 [laughs] Yeah, as the mayor said this morning, he goes, "Yeah, before this project started I had black hair." I said, "Well- Most of us did... and then I said, "And so did he." [laughs] And so anyway. 6:00 Well, and to the mayor's credit, at the ribbon cutting it was, it was very well attended. The who's who, you know, the, all the dignitaries and city officials and business community. 6:12 I mean, there was over 100 people there, I would easily say. Mm-hmm. Um, good turnout. I would hope... 6:19 I think I joked to one of the governor's people, there might be more people at the prison ribbon cutting someday, but maybe not 'cause of the subject matter, but we'll see. 6:28 'Cause they're both not exactly the most glamorous topics, right? [laughs] But, um, that, it turned out well. There's a lot of humor there. 6:36 I also noticed, you know, you got a lot of suits and a lot of people who are usually kind of buttoned up at a, at, like, a, a, you know, every time you fly a poop plant, basically, right? 6:48 [laughs] So the, uh, there's like, everybody's kind of leaned into it. There's a lot of humor, a lot of, not like toil- not, not like lowbrow toilet humor- Well, what was your joke? It was subtle. Yeah. It was subtle. 6:59 It was good. So he-- So you wanna say it or you want me to... Like, so Mark very eloquently opened- Yeah... said how we've all been involved in this thing. Right. 7:07 I think I said something along the lines of, um, "I can guarantee everyone here has contributed to the wastewater treatment facility, but this may be the first time you've actually been here," [laughs] "um, and seen it firsthand." 7:20 Yeah. So that, that's very true. That got a good, good reaction. The mayor said, uh, kind of a dad joke type thing, "Sioux Falls is number one, uh, with your number two." [laughs] So that, that was pretty good. 7:34 I'll, I'll tell Kerrigan about those on the ride home tonight. [laughs] I'm sure she will laugh. But, uh, no, it was a good turnout. I mean, it's, it's, it's not a glamorous topic. It's about growth. 7:45 But you've been here since 2006. We were growing at that time, right? Mm-hmm. Were we, were, were we on the clips, the clip we are now back then? 7:55 Yeah, I think, you know, Sioux Falls has been, I mean, just in general, we grow by about two and a half percent a year, and you'll hear different communities across the country, even in our region, that can grow anywhere from 10 to 17%. 8:10 Um, Sioux Falls is based on now its size and just how everything that it has to attract. 8:16 It's very consistent now at about two and a half percent, so that the number of people, obviously as, as we get larger, that two and a half percent, um- A year... goes from 4,000 people a year to five to six- Yeah... 8:29 and then from 6 to 7,000. 8:31 Um, but it's, it's still a very manageable pace, but that's critical to sizing wastewater 'cause really you want, you wanna have a good, solid projection and then you, you wanna balance, um, who pays for that. 8:47 Um, because, like, I got asked a question, "Well, I see you guys upgraded it by 50%, so you took it from 21 up to 30. Well, why didn't you take it up to 40?" Mm. 8:58 And you start to really start to unpack that and you go, well, you don't want one sort of customer base to pay too much and you don't want, you don't wanna wait too long and have, have, you know, maybe the lagging customer base pay too little. 9:13 Right. And so I said, it's a, it's a sweet spot where we're fortunate that we got 40 years out of the first plant. Mm-hmm. Um, now with the value of investment, 9:23 now it's, it's pretty critical to try to tie a planned expansion to one generation. So then that customer base really only pays for, um, you know, a reasonable amount. 9:34 If, you know, if things were really off the scale and you like said, "Let's go from 20 million gallons a day up to 100 million gallons a day," and then you took out a, a 20 or 30-year loan, 9:47 that current customer base is gonna pay too much, if that makes sense. They'll pay the whole thing off, and then- Yes... you won't need to expand for another 80 years or whatever. 9:55 Yeah, and they would've gotten the benefit of- Yes. Yeah, right... you know, today's cost as opposed to what the future is. So it's a balance. Yeah. 10:02 Um, at some, at some point in time during a master plan, you've gotta pick a point. And so we picked a population point and, and I think we're gonna be sitting very good. When you started, we were on this growth pace. 10:17 You know, you started... Uh, how, how soon were you like, "We need to..." I mean, right away were like, "We need to... We're gonna have to do this in 10 years. We're gonna have to do this in 15 years"? 10:27 You guys are al- the city's always doing this long-term planning, and for the public and the, the viewer, the reader, sometimes it seems like what's the point, you know? It's all so far out there. 10:36 It's kinda like federal spending. Right. When the numbers are so big, they don't even know. Well, you know, I think we, um, we just had a couple things really work in our favor. So, 10:47 you know, we, in the early 2000s, we really started to incentivize conservation. So we wanted people to change out their, you know, irrigation, you know, their irrigation controls there. 10:58 At the time, there wasn't a lot in the way of high-efficiency washers that go, you know, that only use four and a half gallons a, a load. Um, lots of, uh, toilets, I mean- Yeah... 11:10 thousands of toilets got rebated that used to flush three and a half gallons a day, now they're down to 1.6, and you can actually get the two button that actually is down to.7. 11:20 Well, we were able to grow for several years and flatline the amount of wastewater coming to us because we were, we were incentivizing conservation and, and it was working. 11:30 And then you j- you got to a critical point, and it was in that, you know, after 2010, where we started to see some of our growth and, you know, all the new houses obviously were already being built with the conservation measures 'cause HE washers were here, low-flow toilets were here. 11:48 Yeah. And so you started to see this then growth and the flow start to pick up, and then we could, we could anticipate that, okay, let's fund a master plan. And so we put that in the operational budget in- 2016. 12:01 We ran that over the two years, established what we needed to do, and then we started to investigate how we're gonna pay for it, how we, how we set rates. Yeah. 12:11 Can we do it a phased approach or do we have to do one big project? So, um, it's really been an interesting, uh, journey, and I'm a, I'm a huge proponent of conservation. I... You know- Yeah... 12:22 we've seen it firsthand where you go, "Okay, will there be at some point in time even toilets that are, are designed different that use even half the water that they do today?" 'Cause that's the... 12:33 That's one of the main- Yeah... um, water users in your house. Mm-hmm. The... Well, and you've managed to do that with... Do I go off on, on the water bills now? [laughs] The water bill, the Dell Rapids water bills. 12:47 Yeah. [laughs] I complain. I don't know if you listen, how often you listen to the program, Mark, but I bitch about the water bills. You boo-hoo-hoo. So every time I'm at a, a function with you, and you know how we... 12:57 Sioux Fall- I say we. I should, I sh- I should live here. I, uh, Sioux Falls has some of the lowest water rates and sewer rates. You know, it always... You know, I feel good for you, but I feel bad for me. 13:11 [laughs] Dell Rapids is a great place. I was bor- Yeah. I- I was born in Dell Rapids, and so I've got a special place in Dell Rapids. I love my town. Um, geez. Them water rates. 13:22 [laughs] I, I did wanna bring it up today 'cause we take a great pride in that is it's all just in time projects 'cause you don't... The other side, the collection side, is how much land do you open up for development. 13:35 Today we have about seven, eight years worth of land supply available, but now we're, you know, we're actively in the west side that ultimately that, that land will be able to... 13:47 The infrastructure we're putting in, uh, this year and next year is sized so we can serve all the way to Wall Lake. Wow. 13:53 And so that'll be an additional 32,000 acres of land that we expect will take about 100 years to mature. Wow. 14:01 And so there's a lot of growth planned on the west side and, and there's three contracts that have been let and are well underway on the west side. 14:08 Next year we'll be in the southeast area, and that'll take us down to our growth boundary with Harrisburg, and that, that has about 8,000 more acres a- available from Veterans Parkway South to the Highway 106. 14:22 Initially it'll open up about 5,000 acres, and then we'll get to 8,000. And then we've all seen what's happening in the northeast with Mapleton and, um, a lot of that close proximity. Yeah. And so we've, 14:35 we've done that study as well, and so it's just kinda unique where if you look on the west side and that's 32,000 acres in the future, you look northeast, that's 15,000 acres, and then the southeast, that's eight. 14:47 If you add those three up, that's the mature boundary of Sioux Falls today. Wow. And so, you know- How many square miles are we now and what would we be then, do you know? Um, well, right now we'd be at about 84. Okay. 15:00 And so we can effectively double that, so. Do you, do you get a... 15:04 I mean, your, your, your job is to kind of plan for some of the stuff in the future, but I, I sense that there's a lot more resistance to growth now- Yeah... in some quarters. Do you, do you get that? 15:13 Does that ever boomerang over to what you guys are doing? You know, I think it goes back to that Sioux Falls grows at about 2.5% a year. It's... 15:22 I think people are always amazed and if they don't live here and if they come back and they take a drive around the outside they go, "Oh my gosh," like I- Mm-hmm... 15:29 um, but we, we have a just a very good, you know, it's... We have one of the best planning departments I've... I think I'd put 'em up against anyone. They over-communicate what the land uses are. 15:41 Um, sure, is there issues about what land use gets built with next to some? But for the most part- Yeah... I think people, um, people are expecting growth. 15:54 I personally don't get a lot of pushback on, on our growth 'cause I think it's measured, it's well-planned. Um, and, and again, just like water and wastewater, we've done so with our water supply. 16:06 Right now we're sitting good. We probably have 35 to 40 years of water supply ahead of us before we need to buy that next. Mm-hmm. Um, but we're at the table with, you know, Dakota Main Stem- Yeah... and Lewis and Clark. 16:18 Um, and so we'll see, but I, I personally don't... I, I don't hear the resistance that you're talking about. Well, I wonder if, if, uh, you know, enterprise funds done the right way, which is like self-sustaining, right? 16:32 And, and growth, that... Some of that helps keep the water rates down though, right? And that's, um, because your new customers are helping pay for the infrastructure upgrades that are necessary to- Yes... 16:43 keep up with old infrastructure. It's sort of a analogous to 16:49 I think what Ellis was sort of getting to with his question is this sort of populous anti-economic development sort of winds that are out there, and the thing that are- Mm... 17:02 you've got the more traditional approach to economic development that are trying to tell these other folks that well, you can't really deal with the property tax issue if, if you're not growing as well. 17:15 Uh, there's some mis- I mean, there's obviously some butting of heads between those camps. But 17:20 the, I, I mean, everything done well in the way it's supposed to be, I th- that growth, that notion of growth helping everybody else is sort of proven in a way with the way water rates are done in Sioux Falls. 17:34 Now, where I live, they neglected everything for so long that now they're trying to catch up, and that's been the reason why we were... you know, our bills are so high. 17:47 But then you've also got some talk about a new hospital coming in that's is it really gonna help us, and why are we gonna fund all this infrastructure- Mm-hmm... 17:58 out to this new hospital campus And there, I mean, there's the rub right there, and that's, uh, so happening in Dell Rapids right now. It happens everywhere. So Mark just does the job. Once planning... 18:10 Once Jeff F- Jeff Eckoff says, "W- we can recommend this for approval," and then the council says, "Okay," and then Mark just goes to work, right? I mean, that's- Right. [laughs] Yeah. 18:22 But I- But I, I mean, we do- Public works. That's right. I love it. [laughs] Um, and I mean, there's obviously a lot of discussion about property taxes and, and that, that discussion's gonna continue. 18:35 Um, and so we'll probably hear more and more about it, but, um, yeah, I think, you know, like with our utility- utilities, we've got one payment left on Lewis & Clark, 18:46 and the Water Purification Enterprise Fund will be debt-free. I mean- That's amazing. I just... I remember when they sold those bonds. Yes. I mean, that's... Well- Yeah... again, [laughs] we're getting old. Right. 18:57 But that's, uh, uh, 20, about 20 years ago, right? Yeah. Yes, and so we'll make our ne- our last payment next year. Um, our light and power team- What's the payment? How much is the payment? 19:07 Is it like a fancy car payment? Um, it's in that $8 million range. Geez, that's a pretty car payment. Yeah, so we, we started it off... Yeah, it's not a car payment. [laughs] It'd be a nice car. Yeah. 19:16 [laughs] We started it off really, um, interest only so we could- Right... get through the construction, and then so they- they've escalated it, so it's not been, it's not been amortized at 8 million. 19:26 It's, it's increased. Yeah. Yeah. You know, our light and power division's debt-free. Our landfill's debt-free. 19:33 Our storm drainage has two loans on it, and so we've been able to, to grow and, and establish rates and at some of the lowest rates in the region while also being very, um, good stewards to those funds. 19:46 The $300 water bill never came. No. Is that what you were gonna say? 19:50 No, I was gonna say, go back to that bond thing that I sp- before, before you guys, uh, before that bond issue, I spent my Memorial Day weekend up at the lake reading a book about municipal bonding. Mm. 20:00 That was the, uh... Because I wanted to know how it all worked because there were complaints about- We have different lives. 20:04 There were complaints about, uh- [laughs] There were complaints about how the process that, that governments in South Dakota used. Mm. 20:11 And you guys actually with that bond issue bucked how it had been used and went to a competitive bid after I wrote some stories about- That's right... and we actually had an analyst that we got on Wall Street- Mm... 20:22 to analyze South Dakota w- uh, bond issues and was saying that the competitive bid method would've been a lot cheaper for taxpayers had- Mm. 20:29 And so heading into that, and then you guys went the competitive the first time really, uh, especially of a bond this size that South Dakota- That's right... the government had used the competitive bid proc- Mm. 20:39 Now it's r- routinely what's used. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a good look back into history. Yeah. Yeah, what a great Memorial Day weekend that was. [laughs] How long ago was that? 2006. Yes. Yeah. So. Wow. 20:53 Do you ever, do you... So you deal with roads, and people get pissed in the summer, especially this last summer was pretty challenging, and I, I s- suspect we have some more challenging summers ahead of us. 21:02 Um, I, I, I'd still like to ask some other questions about the plant, but I... Do you... You have to deal with this stuff and, you know, the, a wastewater treatment plant. 21:10 So- sometimes you wish you were like the, the parks and rec guy in Sioux? [laughs] Don Kerney. No, I absolutely... Don's got, Don's, Don's got a big plate to manage, too. 21:24 Um, I absolutely love what I do, and, and we're... 21:28 I mean, to your point, the volume of construction that's happening right now with the investment that the state's making, the investment that we're making, I mean, you... 21:38 It's not normal to see, um, this scale of construction with Arrowhead and Veterans intersection, um, 229 and Cliff Avenue, and then another two miles of Veterans Parkway. 21:52 Uh, two weeks ago we bid the 85th Street and I-29 interchange. We've been working on that for 15 years. Right. Finally got it through all the... That's another 54 million. 22:01 I mean, it's just, um, that's all the big things, and then we're- Mm... we're still going into neighborhoods. We improve- Yeah... 700 blocks a year. And so no, I absolutely love it. I, um, I eat it up. 22:13 So- Well, are you... So you... Don's been around a little bit longer than you but not by much. I think we're within a year. Yeah. You're- Mm-hmm... 'cause he started around the time I started. Mm-hmm. So 22:24 yeah, so- Good, good hires there by... Monson. Monson. Yes. Yeah, Monson. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't wanna have to rehire- I saw, I saw Mayor- It's all been- You don't have to retrain. There's a lot of cost in turnover. 22:34 [laughs] Yeah. I saw, I saw Mayor Monson at the, uh, the, uh, law enforcement dinner- Oh, you did?... this week. Yeah, so he's, he's still around. 22:41 I talked to him at the, uh, the diner actually too about a month or so ago, so- Yeah... good to see him around still. He's a- So-... yes, terrific guy. 22:48 He, he really allowed me to learn the job 'cause public work's the big operation. It's got 10 divisions, 350 employees. 22:56 You know, I came in more with a transportation focus, and I've been able to surround myself with really good, smart people that have, um, I've learned the utility side and, and, and the landfill side. 23:08 So it's been, it's been really good. But, um, always, I always credit him for, um, giving me the opportunity but also allowing me to learn the job. Well, it's my recollection he was, he was hoping that... 23:21 For a long time he was trying to get Kevin Smith, and Kevin Smith was like, "Nope, not gonna do it." So [laughs] then they went out and found you, so there you go. Ke- Kevin, uh, is in planning now, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. 23:31 Well, there's a few directors who will be leaving soon. How long are you sticking around? 23:37 I think you told me once at a press or a- You know, I'd love to work another four years, and so if the next mayor allows me to, that would be terrific. 23:44 Um, that's, that's- You got any inside scoops if Mayor Huether's gonna run again? I don't. Any regrets from you? I haven't had a chance to, I haven't had a chance to talk to him. 23:53 I've, I normally run into him a couple times a year, but I haven't run into him any time recent to ask him. So that would be your fourth administration- Yes... you'd work under, right? Yes. So before you were... 24:04 So you're a Dell's native, born there. The- When I, when we first started the Scout, I was doing a story and I had to dig through old newspaper archives- [laughs]... 24:14 at the Dell Rapids Library, which interestingly enough is, like, the only library in the county that's not a part of Sioux Land Libraries. [laughs] That's what I heard. 24:20 But, you know, I always liked that independence, but then when they had to rebuild the damn thing- [laughs]... I was questioning that. No help. Um, 24:30 anyway, I found an old newspaper, a bunch of them actually, with you in there, um, pitching the city or tell- telling the Dell City Council about something they were gonna have to build or thinking about building. 24:41 Yeah, that was in my previous, um, life at HR Green. And we were doing some work for the city, and they wanted to, I think, im- prove like a... It was something at the main city park. 24:52 And, um, yeah, Dell's has always been... I mean, it's got great bones, you know. It's got a great downtown. I've always liked that, you know. Yeah. 25:03 And so, um, I was born there, but I actually grew up in the country between Colton and Chester. Cool. Chester, yeah. Um, and so. Over there. Yeah. Colton and Chester. Yep. Yeah, went to Chester for- So you're a Flyer? 25:14 ... for high school. Yep, I'm a Flyer. We still- Flyer... my wife and I still have the homestead, um, up there, so, uh, yeah, always very connected to small town, uh, South Dakota. 25:26 So, uh, you did, so that was private sector work. Mm-hmm. And then did you wanna, did you think you'd be with the City of Sioux Falls for this long? And I mean, did you... 25:39 I'm sure you had no idea some of the stuff that was coming down the pipe. [laughs] No, I don't think that, you know, early in all of our careers, you're, you know, you're working hard to, 25:50 you know, you're building your family, you're kind of running hard, and you're learning you're, you know, that step in your career and- Mm-hmm... 25:58 um, but it really after about 10 years, I went, "Wow, this is, you know, public service is..." It's, it's, it's, it's hard to describe, but it's a, it's a very, um, special opportunity. 26:10 And, you know, now as I look back in the last 10 years, it's gone really fast, and you can look in your rear view mirror and see, um, all these people that you've had the opportunity to work with. 26:21 You know, you've, you've hired a number of people that then have been promoted and worked their careers up into leadership roles, and you're seeing them making, um, you know, good decisions for the community. 26:33 They're leveraging their connections with other communities and other agencies. And, um, and then obviously you look in your rear view mirror and you see lots and lots of projects that have been built. Yeah. 26:43 And so it's just very rewarding. We could have saved the three bears a lot of time. Just Right Mattresses, built by mattress nerds with a lifetime comfort commitment. We build them by hand and deliver with love. 26:56 Juno Sleep Systems in Sioux Falls and online at junosleep.com. Come on along, head for the mountains of Busch Beer. Head for the mountains. It's cold and it's snow and it's waiting for you. 27:12 Come on, head for the mountains of Busch Beer. Head for the mountains of Busch. Head for the mountains of Busch Light Beer. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2022. Anheuser-Busch, Busch, and Busch Light Beer. St. 27:30 Louis, Missouri. Beale Distributing, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thanks again to Beale Distributing and Juno Sleep System. Support them because they support local South Dakota journalism. Sorry you didn't win the meat. 27:44 We gave away some meat, Mark. Shoot. [laughs] To, uh, two quarters of Roush beef. Grass finished beef. To two paid subscribers. Nice. I'm excited. We get a, we get a half of it, so we, like, get a cow. 27:57 So we have, we've been responsible for the demise of two cows. [laughs] Hey, it's the best protein you can eat. What was the number on the last one? That's what, they don't have names, they got numbers. 28:10 [laughs] I don't remember. Nice. Did it have a number? It's important to not name your animals. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, what, like 1,102 or something like that. Really? [coughs] [laughs] Wow. Funny story. 28:20 Like, Farmer Dan, Dan Gelsen, who, who, uh, is our legals and public notice director, he, uh, first year they had, like, I don't know, they were hobby hogs. 28:31 What would you call them when you just have a few hogs- I don't know... around? Well, they named them and, like, like, would go talk to them and stuff. 28:38 [laughs] And then at the end of, once they were ripe for the butcher, they had a real tough time. [laughs] So they never, uh, did that with the, with their season of, of hogs again. 28:49 So anyway, uh, still here, Mark Cotter. The, uh, I was gonna make a connect the hogs to what you do at the sewer plant- [laughs]... but I'm not gonna go there. Thank you. Um, well, what else are we gonna talk about? 29:05 What have we been up to? You, so you got a bunch of stuff ahead. There's a bunch of big pri- Ellis kind of mentioned the orange cones coming, uh- Well, Minnesota Avenue, yeah, that's gonna be- Minnesota... 29:16 then, and then Western, right? Divers- Then it kicks over to Western Western, we've already done the improvements. Um, we, we did some turning lane adjustments. Okay. 29:25 The, the study didn't identify too much there, so we basically did Benson, Benson Road and 229 and Western in the same year. 29:32 The main thing is that if you're southbound on Western and then you're gonna make a left-hand turn, we made that double lane. 29:39 Right So we had to widen the, we had to widen the on-ramp and then we kinda walked in a little bit into Yankton Trails Park, so we reconstructed some of that down there. 29:48 It was pretty, uh, pretty minor compared to everything else. You did that on a weekend, uh, from start to fin- Right. That's like a Tuesday. [laughs] Yeah. That's a... 29:55 I, I'll drive by that intersection tonight after I drop off papers at Active Generations. Nice. Diverging diamonds. There's a lot of, it's kind of like zip emerging. There's a lot of people in the public that 30:07 they're a little s- you know, they're skeptical of any sort- Mm... of changes in traffic behavior or approaches. Um, they don't like zip emerging. People are still kind of upset about diverging diamonds. 30:20 Once you know how to get through them, they're kinda like roundabouts. Once you know how to navigate them- Mm-hmm... they're, I think they're better, but they are a big... change. 30:29 Was that a hard sell when you guys decided maybe we do this? Was that a big sort of breakthrough engineering, public works? 30:37 Lots of public meetings, and at least my view of it is people struggle more with roundabouts than diverging diamonds. 30:45 And, um, you know, they're clearly, they're apples and oranges, but we've, we've heard a lot more positive than we typically do about the diverging diamonds than what we do with roundabouts. And I love them both. 30:57 I think they both work really good. They, you know, the diverging diamond, um, at 41st Street and I- and I-29, the crash reduction's 95%. Wow. 31:08 I mean, that was one of the, that was one of the highest crash interchanges we had in the entire region. And, and it's very rare to actually do a public improvement project and see that type of a change. 31:22 Um- Just demonstrable. It's demonstrable. And so it's just, to me, that's, that's really sold it 'cause I think people, once they get... 31:29 Once they, you know, consistently drive through, they're very high capacity too, so with three lanes going through them, they're not waiting there anymore. So people's delay, their time is worth a lot to them. 31:41 And- Yeah... and so you see that. Same thing where I hope what we see over time is more acceptance for roundabouts, uh, especially in some of these rural areas. So... Yeah. 31:53 I, I think the, where you guys are losing is on the zipper merging. Mm-hmm. There's just, it just, you just can't get it through to people, and it's the Mi- Yeah... 31:59 the Midwestern nice that nobody wants to like, "We'll wait in line, wait in our turn." Mm-hmm. This is one of those, a b- one that bothers Joe- [laughs]... and my- And, and my father. 32:08 My father really would get pissed about people who would... This is the most efficient way to do it. [laughs] You know? I'm too busy to be polite out there in traffic if people aren't doing the beha- Right... 32:18 like I'll just go all the way to the front. I don't care. [laughs] They can honk. I'll be like, "Well, you're the dumbass, so-" [laughs] Uh, I- You're losing, you're losing that battle. You have not... 32:27 You tried, I, I remember in the beginning of the summer, like, you, you were like- If you feel the urge, zipper merge. If you feel the urge. That was our tagline we were trying to do. 32:34 It's, it, it just hasn't- It didn't work. Yeah... hasn't happened. [laughs] Well, it's, man, the comments. They're just crazy on that. 32:41 [laughs] I'm certainly open to suggestions 'cause we, I mean, we could double the capacity in most of our construction intersections if people would zipper merge. Yeah. 32:51 They just, it's, they just have a tendency if they're gonna turn in a quarter or a half mile, they gotta get over, and it's like, get through that next intersection. Those are where all the pinch points are. Yeah. 33:03 I don't deal well with lines anyway. [laughs] Yeah, just get to the front. Uh, what else was I gonna say? Oh, so the, the roundabouts, most of them are kinda like out in like big, they're big intersections- Mm-hmm... 33:17 kind of, right? Like, there's a lot of concrete out there. They might have planters in the middle, things like that. Mm-hmm. 33:23 That's probably two years ago now, you guys put, um, put some smaller ones in the residential neighborhoods kind of by downtown, the Cathedral District or the, uh- Yes... Ninth- That was on a bike tra- bike, uh, route... 33:35 Ninth Street, right? Um, Prairie and- Yeah... s- I don't know, one of the... There's two of them there. Prairie and Duluth, I think. 33:43 I was speaking with the traffic engineer, Heath Hoftiezer, when those went in 'cause I think we did a story. And I said, "How has feedback been?" 33:52 And he said, "Well, everybody likes them except for people who use Ninth Street to cut through between- Right... um, West and, and Minnesota Avenue." 34:02 And I, I kinda sheepishly was like, "That's what I do when I'm in a hurry," so- [laughs]... dang those roundabouts. But I mean, are those the thing of the future? I mean, and where do these recommendations come from? 34:16 Surely these concepts did not get hatched, maybe they did, at City Hall in Sioux Falls. Do these come from traffic, uh, authorities in DC? Yeah, there's- How do these come about? There's a lot of ideas, obviously, that, 34:30 that precipitate up across the country and across the world. You know, roundabouts have been in Europe for, um, many, many generations. And so I think sometimes we're just in some cases a little bit slower to adapt that. 34:43 But like on Ninth Street, that was, that project was, um, the intent was to, to have a safe bike route from downtown west- Okay... out to the zoo. 34:55 And so we put in some circles, so they wouldn't even be traditional roundabouts. Yeah. They are just traditional circles to calm the traffic, slow people down. 35:04 And then if you're, if you're sharing the road with a biker, maybe you're not driving, hopefully, you know, over the speed limit. Yeah, yeah. I was going the speed limit. Yes. Thank you. 35:13 [laughs] And so then the one other change we made this summer, um, is on Kiwanis, we changed out the overhead traffic signal and just put in a rapid flashing rectangular beacon. 35:24 And those, those seem like they're catching the drivers better, and so if a biker or walker is crossing- Yeah, okay... um, they get it. 35:31 So, but yeah, those, there's a lot of different strategies where you choke, whether you choke in the curbs- Mm... to make people feel like they have to go a little bit slower, similar to downtown. Yep. 35:42 Um, or roundabouts or circles. There's, there's always gonna be strategies that we employ to try to calm the traffic. And some of it probably comes down to preference, right? Mm-hmm. Which way you wanna go. 35:52 I mean, probably some data supports that stuff. But, uh, I always found, when I covered city beat more, like if it, when it was my only beat at the mothership, 36:03 I, it always kinda, I found merit in the psychological effects- Mm-hmm... Heath would talk about a lot. Just painting lines. Yeah. Things like that. I mean, that makes sense to me. 36:13 It's kinda like when you're on a motorcycle, and you're out in the, in like April or May, and there's no corn even growing, and there are no trees. You can see for miles. Right. 36:25 You don't even feel scared going 120 miles an hour maybe 'cause you can see everything. But if there's trees, if there's a tree canopy- 36:34 Totally different game because you don't know if there's deer hiding in there or what. I know. Um, so probably the same thing even when you're in the city driving. Well, and, and I'm just in front of your office here. 36:44 So this used to be three lanes going one direction. Um, and so we studied it with downtown and ended up repurposing one of the lanes for angled parking, and then we pulled in the curbs at the intersections. 36:57 And so now you, you naturally calm the traffic. I think we've seen it calm by about 10% on speed, but we also created, like, another 75 parking spaces. And so you're gonna cut at least- Matt Nelson loved that. 37:10 Yeah, yeah. [laughs] What's that? Matt Nelson loved that. Yes, he did. [laughs] Um- Parking, parking manager. Yes, and Matt's- More coins. More coins. Matt's excellent 'cause he also... He has two roles at the city. 37:22 He also leads our utility billing team, makes sure our 60,000-plus customers every month get a utility bill. And I'm just joshing him. We have a cat and mouse game with public parking. 37:35 [laughs] So, uh, had to take a little dig. So the, you... Multimodal transportation- Yes... is a, is a thing you're always thinking about, right? Yeah, the, kind of the industry term is complete street. 37:46 So you're looking at all modes of traffic, and you just wanna make sure that you're creating the environments that are right for the particular environment. 37:54 Downtown's gonna be a different environment you're gonna design for than what you're gonna see maybe out on 69th and Southeastern. And we're talking like pedestrians, cyclists, cars. Walkers, joggers, yes. 38:07 People with, uh, riding the bus, so if there's a bus stop that needs to be in that area, we'll accomplish that too. But you said, what's the term you use in the industry? Complete streets. Complete. Mm-hmm. 38:17 Well, I suppose complete streets. I was gonna say if it was all forms, that wouldn't be technically accurate 'cause there's no airplane, right? 38:25 That's the one mode of transportation you might not have to think about, right- Right... at this point. So you don't have to worry about that, but- You gotta have the roads going to the airport. Mm. Right. 38:35 But if there's only a few terminals, this is my horrible segue. Are we, are we gonna get anything... Are we gonna... What, what's going on at the airport? Well, that was... Yeah. This is my way of getting into some news. 38:46 Yeah. Uh, Governor... I almost said Governor DuGard. Governor Noem, um, wants $30 million for the airport. In Rapid City. 38:58 For our airport and Rapid City's airport on a low or no interest program, similar to what City of Sioux Falls set up, um, on the condition the state chips in back in July. It was 39:12 not as many people as at your event, Mark. But were you there Friday for that? I wasn't able to. Okay. I was out of town. I saw, I saw some city folks there. Um, they... I, I mean, it was lawmakers and city councilors. 39:28 Councilor Thompson was there. Um, it seemed... I mean, it was the Governor's Hunt weekend too, so that probably helped with the attendance, but seemed a little bit political. 39:40 I've also heard behind the scenes that, um, people are wondering if it was rolled out the right way, and they put the governor's name on it. That just shaves off a few votes right there for some people. But, uh, 39:56 I mean, what do you think, Jonathan? Do you think they're gonna get that through given all the anti-economic development stuff coming out of Pierre? 40:06 Governors have, governors historically have gotten most of what they wanted. Mm-hmm. You know? And they've, they've, uh... And I, it... You know, I think that- Yeah, but- Governor Noem is in position to... 40:17 Is in probably a pretty decent position to, should he run again, which we are 99% certain he is, uh, that he would, uh, that he was in, in a good position to win reelection. Well, actually, he, he... 40:31 I think he went from the airport thing to a fundraiser and then to some, uh, Governor's Hunt stuff. But if those fundraisers went well, I think you're right. Yeah. 40:43 So, but airport infrastructure, I think that's a tough sell for the middle part of the state. 40:50 Yeah, I think there's a se- uh, there's merit to, you know, pe- business for the entire s- uh, business in Sioux Falls and Rapid City and anywhere people are flying into and going is good for the state collectively. 41:05 But some folks in Java, South Dakota might have, uh... I don't know. If I really, if I want, I don't go flying, you know? They'd probably drive to Bismarck anyway. So, you know, what do you do? I think it's tough. 41:21 I don't know that... I think all these, any one-time spending initiatives or programs at the legislature are gonna maybe be, uh, uh, stuck in a holding pattern until the next election. So I've been wrong before. 41:36 I'll be wrong again. And for the sake of the airport backers that want the fun, hopefully I'm wrong again. Well, the governor, speaking of the governor, he was, uh... And you, you didn't go to the law enforcement dinner. 41:48 I, no, I stayed. I was busy. Yeah, the, uh, the, uh- He's too busy making sure our toilet's flushed and doing fun stuff. Right. To do fun stuff. 41:55 The, uh, the governor, uh, and, uh, and Representative Dusty Johnson were sitting, uh, at the head table together next to each other. Awkward. 42:05 [laughs] And, uh, it was, you know, interesting, interesting, um, uh, eh, interesting time, let's just say. They were all interested in what Tom Holman had to say, but they all had to give a little bit of a speech too. 42:15 Yeah. So, um, we live in interesting political times, no doubt about it. Mm-hmm. It's like a Thanksgiving where you don't really like your siblings, but Mom and Dad are still around. [laughs] So [laughs] kinda like that. 42:29 I, I went to the, some of the pheasant hunt festivities a little bit. Some I was officially invited to and some I was not. Did you get in trouble? I don't know. I'm not gonna talk about all that. [laughs] But afterwards- 42:42 I went out, saw some interesting people rubbing elbows, interesting groups. Um, so you can see the alliances and the, you know, the political 42:54 connections or who's, who's gonna back who sort of rising to the surface, you know, in an off-election year. It's, it's one big cake, you know? 43:05 And then the ele- the election comes, or like a, a, a sauce basically, you know? And then something happens to it where things kinda separate. So you're starting to see that amongst the, uh, 43:18 legislators and the people that operate in the peer world. Because Dusty and Larry, and you know, Marty, in normal times, they're all buddies, right? It's not normal times though, so it's gonna get interesting. 43:34 And I wrote a story about how the airport funding has sort of shined a light on some of the proxy wars that we could see happening in the legislature. Hmm. Which goes back to 43:48 with the, with the, with four candidates in, I don't think John Hansen's gonna drop out either, given the new polling we saw. He rose from 2% to 10, so he's gotta feel really good. 44:01 I think Toby Don stays in because he's... Well, he, he's, he's not, I don't think... I think he would've wanted to move higher in the polls given his, the rate at which he's spending money, but 44:14 I don't think he can give up 'cause he didn't move up. But that ain't a good poll for him 'cause John caught up. And then Larry's gotta feel good 'cause he's statistically tied. 44:22 So they're all gonna be there come session, is what I'm saying, and that's gonna gum up the works. That's my assessment. [laughs] You just, you like, you, you... 44:32 'Cause you're, like, in a total non-political position, you just, like, watch it for entertainment reasons- Mm... or does it scare you? I mean, uh, what were you, like, hide, hide and watch kind of thing? 44:42 Well, the city government's nonpartisan too, so- Yeah... like, Mark's just over there glad he's not in state government. [laughs] Yeah. We try to keep, we try to keep politics out of water and sewer, so- Yeah. 44:53 [laughs]... um, as best we can. There's enough. There's a joke in there somewhere- Yeah... too, isn't there? Well, we talked about the airport. The airport's a regional airport- Mm-hmm... 45:02 you know, which is maybe one of the, on the, one of the arguments that other parts of South Dakota could potentially s- wanna support the fact that, you know, Rapid City is, uh, services the west side of the state. 45:12 So, um, but you're dealing with, like, regional issues in your department. Mm-hmm. Like, we've got a landfill that's a regional landfill. Mm-hmm. Okay? 45:21 And it was, I remember I could go back to stories I wrote back when you started or whatever, that, you know, the projections on the, on the la- how, how long the landfill was gonna last. 45:31 Those projections have to be off now because of so much growth that we've seen in this region. So- Yeah. We're, we're currently at, like, um, 2070, but we're updating the master plan of that utility as well. 45:45 We bought another 70 acres, and so once we incorporate that, we think that'll take us to, like, um, you know, it'll get us out to almost 100-year, uh, planning horizon. Hmm. Wow. 45:56 And that's really if nothing measurably happens with either creating a fuel source, um, really getting aggressive with recycling, maybe at the point of source. 46:09 So but yeah, um, when it comes to regional utilities, they absolutely work. 46:14 If you look back in, you know, how the, the whole concept of rural water systems, that's really, that's really some of the first regional solutions that came out of, um, uh, came into the state, and it's proven that that's worked. 46:31 And then one regional system could, well, just like Minot Community Rural Water. That'll, they'll hook up, you know, almost every city, and then every farmstead and every acreage in the county. 46:42 That, that regional approach works and, and so we've, we've seen that. We've seen it with water. Um, you know, being a part of Lewis and Clark, being, you know, one of the very fortunate 20 members. Yeah. 46:54 Uh, wastewater certainly works. Um, you know, and T and Brandon Renner have joined us. 47:01 So I think, you know, the, the answer is absolutely regionalizing because you've gotta be able to somehow control some of these fixed costs but have... And the way you do that, 47:11 um, or at least stabilize fixed costs, you have more users paying those fixed costs, and that regional approach has worked. You mentioned, like, getting more, uh, aggressive on recycling issues. 47:21 I had noticed that you can't even recycle, like, at some of the city, city facilities, right? Like State Theater, for example. I had a beer there and I'm like, "Where do you put my can?" They're like, "We don't recycle." 47:31 I don't know. I mean, is there- Well, that's not a city facility, so that's, uh- Oh, true. But, uh, what about the- Um, well- We're gonna have to cut this part. What about the Denny? [laughs] Yeah. 47:40 I think the Denny, um, I haven't been out there- It's not recycling... for some time, but- Is there? You know, when we constructed it, we worked, you know, with a vendor and, and there's, you know, recycling. 47:51 I have not been out there of recent to confirm it, but it, there's a lot of behavioral science that's come, you know, in, in those venues, things. It's a challenge. 48:00 You know, if you don't, um, if you're not within 15 feet of a receptacle that's n- that you can actually- Mm... get rid of your can, you're gonna throw it in the trash. Mm-hmm. 48:10 And so I would say we've always got room to learn and grow to... You know, multifamily, that's one of our, that's one of our really, um, big focus areas here because, you know, some of these, 48:26 you know, d- to get the 10-year-old that his job is to take, his or her job is to take the trash out, they walk down the steps, if they're in third floor or fourth floor, and, and then they ask to go down to the garbage receptacles. 48:40 So you gotta clearly see which one is-... recycling which one's trash. Yeah. Um, and I don't wanna pick on 10-year-olds- Yeah, well... but I mean, let's face it, they gotta have some chores. Right. 48:49 And so recycling at multifamily is, is a challenge. We're putting a lot of effort into it. 48:56 Um, and I think just as a community, whether it's conserving water, um, 'cause if you conserve water, then you also conserve the amount of wastewater that you send down. 49:05 If you recycle, you can extend the life of the landfill. 49:09 You-- we started talking about the Siouxland Libraries, these regional solutions work, and we've just gotta continue to work together so we can, we can get more, um, out of these systems. 49:19 There are market changes too, right? Um- Yeah... like sometimes those that we're not gonna take glass now because there's no market demand for it. So what's expected of people changes here and there as well. 49:34 Then I remember I wrote once about, uh, windmills, right? Mm-hmm. Wind towers- Yeah... and how you guys were taking those at the landfill, and they're like, they were, uh, these are stacking up faster than we want. 49:45 They were coming from Minnesota, weren't they? Yeah. I think Minnesota was dumping them. Yeah, we said that we'd do a test, and wow, are they built, um, heavy. 49:54 I mean, we were, we were trying to get a local contractor to do a- We're talking the blades? Yeah, the blades, and so we were trying to get a local contractor that normally would use a shear on a bridge. 50:05 Like, could they come out with a shear and try to slice those up? 'Cause being a regional landfill, you gotta find a solution, and whether we're gonna be that person or someone else is, we thought about grinding them. 50:17 That'd take a massive grinder, and then you got the, you got the harmful factors of grinding a fiberglass product. And so we, we did stop taking them. Um- Yeah... 50:27 you know, we had 120,000 pound compactors that could hardly flatten them. Oh, geez. I mean, they're just... They, they're up there in the environment, and they're, they're tough. 50:39 So- So when you, when you were taking 'em, you'd flatten 'em or try to- Yeah... or cut 'em up or ma- make 'em as small as you can and then bury 'em. Yes. That's how that works? 50:48 And so we were, we were trying to do a calculation to say, okay, what's the typical density that we can compact, uh, municipal solid waste, which that usually ran- ranges around 1,600 pounds per cubic yard. 51:00 So then we took this volume of this wind blade, and we were trying to back calculate so we could appropriately charge. 51:07 So say in hindsight you could only get 200 pounds per cubic yard, then they should pay proportionate more- Right... because they're using a lot more airspace than what we're... 51:18 And so we were trying to find that relationship. We were driving over 'em with these massive 120 pound... [laughs] And we thought, okay, if we could do that, maybe we could shear 'em. 51:27 Maybe that there's a, maybe there's an economic piece here that we can- Yeah... um, justify. But we just, um, w- weren't at the right solution for 'em, so we stopped taking 'em. Where do they take 'em? 51:38 Yeah, what do they do? I don't, I mean, they've found other venues and/or maybe they're, maybe they're landfilling them out in other areas. I don't know. 51:47 [laughs] You see weird stuff at like farmer's markets where people turn stuff into something else. Yeah. Maybe see one out there that's like- Yeah, cattle fences or something... it's all painted with an American- Yeah... 51:55 flag on it. [laughs] Ah. That's pretty interesting. The stuff you, you don't really think about. What was a... 52:02 Do you ever, did you ever find out, like what's the lifespan on one of those, like, in terms of like it's usable and then before they have to actually landfill it? Did that ever come up? 52:09 Well, I think what, I think we've always heard 20 years- Okay... um, on the unit. 52:14 Well, then what, what I understand came out is that a number of these got built, and then before they even reached their lifespan, there was another federal program that came- Oh, I'm sure there was... that- [laughs] 52:27 And so yeah, don't... Yeah. But there was another federal program that allowed for the upgrades, so you could actually get more energy out of 'em, which w- 52:35 you know, it, you know, whether, you know, a number of 'em weren't gonna reach the end of their useful life, but it also made, made economic sense to upgrade 'em so you could take 'em from X megawatts to Y megawatts. 52:49 The, uh, there are a bunch of different... Now, we obviously don't format this 'cause I wasn't thinking about this for a long time, but you see a lot of different size windmills. 53:01 You know, like, if you're driving through Minnesota, and that's probably when they were built maybe, or what the standards were. But like in Minnesota, southern Minnesota, you see these, 53:11 I think the ones we all think of now, these big massive ones. But if you get into like northwest, uh, Iowa, you see older ones that seem- Mm-hmm... a little more janky, you know. 53:21 And those ones seem like every once in a while there's one that's been on fire. [laughs] Like, you can tell something happened up there. Uh, 53:32 uh- But you guys tried, you guys, you guys tried to make it work and it just, you're like, "Okay, we tried. We, the economics aren't gonna work for us." It would fill up too fast. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Okay. 53:41 Yeah, it didn't work out. Hmm. Yeah. 53:43 Well, uh, I suppose the citizens of Sioux Falls should probably appreciate that move, because if it was gonna fill up faster, then you guys would be making more land purchases or scrambling to free up space that these 53:58 most likely out of town companies were ha- trucking 'em in, right? Right. So, well, you got a lot on your plate. I, I'd imagine you're good at math growing up. Yeah. [laughs] Yep. Math and physics. So- It's gotta help. 54:11 [laughs] It's gotta, as you try to project that kind of thing, and that's a lot of what long, long-term planning is. So, well, thanks for coming in and cutting- Yeah... loose with us a little bit, Mark. 54:19 Thank you for having me. This was fun. Congratulations on seeing that project through. Yeah. Uh, good luck on the next one. I'd imagine, um, would they undertake a ta- a project like this with, with... 54:35 Like, if you would've had a retirement plan halfway through the sewer plant expansion Would, how, how would that work? [laughs] I don't know. 54:43 Well, that, I mean, you'd have to hand the baton off, but I'd imagine that kind of thing is, is to be avoided if possible. [laughs] Well, you were, um... 54:50 I'm fortunate you guys were there today and wrote a story about it, but, you know, the layered project management that we had, that project would've, would've finished whether I was in my seat or not. 55:02 And so, um, we have very capable people, very talented people all throughout our organization, and, um, it would've absolutely been, uh, completed. It has to be, so. 55:12 Well, I'll, I, uh, I've appreciated always working with you on, um, on stuff, and you're, you deal with complicated issues, and you're good at simplifying them so a reporter can understand that. 55:25 I'd imagine your skills there around making counselors understand it, um, we're just the beneficiary to that. But, uh, so hopefully, uh, we can c- we can cover you through the next big one. Um- Nice. Yes. 55:37 Thank you for having me. Yeah. News Tips welcome. Thanks. Let me grab my car keys and we'll roll. Are we still going to that new bar downtown? Yeah. It's supposed to be fun. 55:47 Lexi, give me driving directions from home to downtown bar district. Autocorrect. Suggest Uber. Pickup home, drop-off downtown bar district. No, I'm driving. Suggest the Metro Bus departing in 12 minutes. Huh. 56:00 Point taken, Lexi. We'll grab a ride. If you drink, don't drive. Decide to ride. Brought to you in partnership by Anheuser-Busch, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Uber. 56:08 This message brought to you by Beal Distributing of Sioux Falls. Ryan, come smell this. I'm not falling for that again. Hey, folks. Have you ever had the displeasure of opening up a bed in a box? It's really stinky. Why? 56:22 Because of all the toxicity in the foams they use. At Juna, we only use safe, hypoallergenic, non-toxic materials. 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