There is a distinction between prudent frugality and miserly saving. The trick is to know the difference. Often those in government are more concerned about next Friday than the next generation. We’re seeing examples of sincere, but tragically misplaced, concern for the local taxpayer here in Mitchell.
There are two kinds of spending in government. I know, I spent a dozen years in Pierre dealing with state issues and budgets in the South Dakota Legislature and nearly a decade doing the same thing on the local level on the Mitchell City Council. The first kind is immediate, on-going expenditures. That includes government payrolls (law enforcement and other government employees, public officials, etc.) fuel and equipment maintenance etc. The other type of spending is investments that are expected to provide or improve future service. The pipeline from the Missouri River that delivers Mitchell’s City water is one example; capital equipment purchases, road and other infrastructure projects are another.
The Mitchell School District, at least for now, is being penny wise and pound foolish. The proposals for what to do about replacing the high school are all about cost and not about need, vision or the long term. Discussions to merely “fix up” the high school are misplaced. If the high school is truly in need of replacing, it should be scrapped rather than have an expensive temporary band aid face lift instead. The constant trimming, cutting and redesigning of proposed plans for a new school is the wrong approach. The current structure has lasted sixty years and will be there for another five or more years before some version of a new school is built. Assuming the new structure has a similar lifespan, it will be standing at the turn of the 22nd century.
Instead of worrying about the pennies and what the public may now think about the design and cost, the School Board should be focused on the future. What will education look like in the coming years? How will it be conveyed? Will a collective, community setting with students in classrooms, attending dances, pep assemblies, activities etc. continue to be the model or instead will it be an experience of isolated, solitary students bathed in blue light in dark basements huddled over computers learning alone that will be the norm? If the School Board thinks it’s the latter, then a stop gap fix to help the building limp into obscurity as students transition to learning from home is appropriate. However, then the Board should make clear to the public that they think while the current model of education is not dead, it is doomed and justify their chosen course of action.
However, if the School Board believes that the current collective, community model of education will continue to be the foreseeable future for delivering education then a new high school is a priority. Obviously, cost must be factored in, there is a limit to what is available in the public purse and what people are willing to fund. The prudent and proper thing to do is to obtain ideal plans that meet the needs of students and the community. The School Board must then take the case to the public explaining and defending their vision and the expense. The public may reject that view and only then should rethinking and trimming take place – rather than before the plan is even presented to the public for their consideration, which is the Board’s current misguided process. The School Board seems to have no faith in their ability to explain or justify a new school fit for purpose that will serve us into the future or they have no confidence in the community’s ability to understand and support their kids and the future children of the Mitchell community.
The City does a better job of having vision, planning for the future and of doing financing via incremental changes in current fee structures. The area where the City does a relatively poor job of gazing into their crystal ball is in funding subsidies for nonprofits. This is the area where the City of Mitchell has a penny wise and pound-foolish approach.
The Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village is an important part of Mitchell’s tourism picture. It’s not as important as the Corn Palace in terms of pulling people off the interstate, but it is a vital part of the economic leg of tourism for Mitchell. We used to have the Balloon Museum (it was located where the ACT has their theater now) and the Doll Museum downtown (it was located in the castle looking building immediately across from the Corn Palace). Those attractions, along with the Indian Village, helped keep people in town leading to more spending on tourism trinkets at those specific locations but also additional meals and overnight stays in town. The Oscar Howe Art Museum on Third Street, within walking distance of the Corn Palace, was an asset too. Those artworks are now housed in the Dakota Discovery Museum on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University and the former Oscar Howe Museum is now the home of the Mitchell Historical Society.
The Indian Village does a great job of marketing themselves. The latest example is the documentary film about the site screened a few weeks ago at the Logan Luxury Theater (it will air on PBS and perhaps Netflix later in 2023). Much of the independent, private financing that the Indian Village is able to access is dependent on whether or not the City supports the Indian Village. In other words, the Indian Village needs that City support – no matter what a pittance it may be – to leverage other funds. Without funding from the City, the Indian Village automatically becomes ineligible for grants and other private financing that they rely on to continue operating.
If the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village should cease operations, that land and those buildings would revert to the ownership of the City of Mitchell. Because that land is a protected archeological site, the City would have to run the facility as a museum themselves or leave the property dormant. It could not be repurposed for development for homes or used as an event facility (weddings perhaps) or some other commercial enterprise that would generate revenue for the City and relieve them of the obligation for the archeological site. The current situation is much more desirable in so many ways than the alternative. Why there is wrangling over giving the Indian Village the meager support the City does every year is a mystery to me. On a related note, when the City dredges Lake Mitchell they will have to be careful not to dredge up any Native bones or relics. If that were to happen it is not inconceivable that the lakebed could become a protected archeological site and part of the Indian Village as well.
A similar case can be made for Dakota Mental Health. There are many calls to law enforcement that are better dealt with by entities like Dakota Mental Health or related services. Many major cities are now incorporating mental health professionals with their police departments, especially on family dispute and disturbed person calls. To cut funding to Dakota Mental Health saves pennies but may cost pounds when it comes to law enforcement costs and referrals.
Penny wise and pound foolish is a cliché to be sure but it is also a truism. There is another cliché that is apropos of the City and especially the Mitchell School District, “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”. That’s exactly what government entities in Mitchell are doing when they try to save pennies today at the expense of vision and even greater costs of tomorrow.