• Here's our peers. Sioux Falls City Councilors on Tuesday approved a consistent list of peer cities to use as benchmarks when comparing Sioux Falls in various city presentations. Those cities include: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Overland Park, Kan.; and Rapid City.
  • They did the mash. Downtown Sioux Falls announced the winners of the Mash Madness competition, which had an estimated economic impact of nearly $300,000. Perch's Banana Pudding Matcha won in the non-alcoholic category, and Altered Species Brewing Co. was the craft beer champion with "Courting Dance." Ironwood Steakhouse's Emerald Old Fashioned won the cocktail competition.
  • Meet the folks mapping out the future of school facilities. The Sioux Falls School Board on Monday announced the people who will make up the 2026 Facilities Task Force. The last time the district put a task force together to look at facilities, it resulted in a historic $180 million bond and the construction of Jefferson High School, Ben Reifel Middle School and Marcella LeBeau Elementary, among other improvements.
    • The big focus this year is on replacing Whittier Middle School, a more than 100-year-old building. Task force co-chairs include ClickRain CEO Natalie Eisenberg, Realtor Tony Erickson and Micki Lundin, director of marketing with Avera. The first meeting is tonight at 5:30 at the Instructional Planning Center, and all meetings are open to the public.
    • Here's the full list of task force members:
  • Parks board changes. As part of an effort to standardized city boards and commissions, the parks board will now meet at Carnegie Town Hall, meaning all meetings will be recorded, according to information presented to the council by Councilor Rich Merkouris Tuesday afternoon. The overarching goal is accessibility and civic engagement. Find more background here.
  • Veterans Memorial stalemate. Lincoln County Commissioners rejected a design proposal from Stockwell Engineering for a memorial recognizing veterans in front of the new Lincoln County Justice Center – citing "sticker shock" at the $285,000 price tag. Commissioners said they do want to move forward with a memorial – just not the scale of the one presented.
    • Stockwell's David Locke said there are options to minimize cost – including taking out benches and not using colored concrete. The next steps will be to look at a potential pared-down version of the memorial, though Commissioner Douglas Putnam said he'd vote against it even if someone offered to pay for the whole thing, citing concerns about the ongoing maintenance costs.
    • Here's a look at the design that was rejected: