Council members mutely table warming center

RAPID CITY – After asking for divine guidance, it took less than twenty minutes, from invocation to final consideration of the item, for the Rapid City Council to vote unanimously to table the warming center.

The meeting began with an invocation to God. “Heavenly father,” said Alderman Greg Strommen, “we just thank you for the opportunity to be together tonight as a community and for the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, um, ask that you fill each heart with your spirit tonight. And ask a special blessing for wisdom on the council as we make the decisions that will govern the community and the Bible says in the Book of James, Lord, that, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives freely and without finding fault. And so, God we’re just asking for wisdom tonight and ask that you bring your peace and your spirit upon us and bless this time, in Jesus name Amen.” They turned, each placing hand over heart, to give the Pledge of Allegiance.

In January, the Planning Commission voted 6 to 2 to deny the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to operate the warming center at the First Presbyterian Church downtown on Kansas City Street.

The appeal to overturn the Planning Commission’s denial for a warming center was denied for the final time with all council members voting 10 to 0 to table the item. The issue moved quickly as council members asked no questions and made no comments. There was only a smattering of people who came to make public comment.

Adam Knudson, the pastor and head of staff at the First Presbyterian Church once again shared how his church had received a request to partner with He Sapa Community Alliance (HSCA) to house a warming center inside their church facility. “Because of the zoning codes of this city, our church leadership has not been able to explore that type of ministry and program with a conditional use permit. We have been informed that we need our property to be rezoned as a mission.

“I ask you this evening to reconsider the Planning Commission’s recent decision to allow our church to continue as a mission, he too invoking Christian teachings. “‘Mission’ is a powerful word. More secular terms would include purpose or objective in the lectionary readings from Scripture used by Christian churches all over the world. We recently read from Luke’s Gospel, hearing that Jesus stood in the temple and in front of everyone, he unrolled the scroll, found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free.’ That’s it. That’s what Jesus wanted to do. That was his mission. Good news to the poor, release to the captive, sight to the blind, set the oppressed free.”

Knudson said that helping those less fortunate was not a political issue for the million plus members of the Presbyterian Church USA. “In its governing documents, our Constitution states the great ends of the church, the purpose for which the church exists, is the shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. Our congregation has a mandate to serve our neighbors.”

He said they weren’t asking the city to support the church. “I’m asking for the city of Rapid City Council to allow the free and reasonable exercise of religion in our churches.”

Lila Mehlhoff, the Executive Director of the HSCA, thanked council for allowing the appeal. She explained it was important to be able to offer emergency services. “Defined as a mission, an overnight shelter, to whomever needs it at their church during cold weather months. The only reason the church has approached the city is because the city of Rapid City appears determined that there is no zoning district where the mission is permitted. Each and every time a church, person or group seeks to serve the unsheltered community with overnight accommodations or other services, the city must be approached for permission to do so for faith-based groups. Such service in our community is an important part of living out their faith.”

“For the city deny a C.U.P., without even giving the group the opportunity to meet safety standards and establish a viable program, denies this group the opportunity to practice their faith. Neighbors who don’t share the same faith will always object, whether or not there is a perceived need, and the city denies a C.U.P. on that basis, the city seems to now have made a determination and judgment on how this church chooses to live out their faith. The message becomes, we judge whether or not our community needs your faith-based program by requiring anyone, whether faith-based or not, to have the approval of the city in any zoning district, to establish a mission. The city has taken on the responsibility for selecting the location of such programs. If not here, then where?” she asked. “Just saying no and requiring applicants wishing to comply with the law to pay $250 for you to say no each time is not an acceptable solution for the overall good of the community. Separately from the zoning issue, by requiring a Christian or any church to have city permissions for such activity, orders on impermissible restriction on the church members exercise of their faith. People of faith in our community are ready to move forward with serving the less fortunate.”

“It boils down to safety,” said Debra Jensen, long-time downtown businesswoman and President of the Mount Rushmore Road group. She said it’s about safety for everyone including those who live on the streets. “We know that safety is the key to a thriving community and safe business communities, downtown parks and streets promote economic vitality. Safety is a reason that the public stops coming, and businesses move. In recent years, some of my friends stopped shopping downtown, contributing to the increasing insecurity where the Faith Temple warming center and the Hope Center both were near this proposed overnight mission. By the time the Hope Center closed down, there were 200 to 300 people a day who were using as many services, but they were also just wandering streets, asking for money, openly drinking, leaving bottles and needles, urinating and defecating on sidewalks and buildings after closure, the number of incidents decreased dramatically.”

She said the services have been increased to leave no one behind in the cold. “More detox and safe beds are made available right now.”

The matter was concluded without any discussion or comments from council members, nor were any solutions proposed to address the issue.

“While we expected an uphill battle, we were extremely disappointed that the city council chose to table the matter rather than discuss it and vote for or against it,” Mehlhoff told Native Sun News Today. “Unfortunately, city leadership had made up their minds prior to the meeting and chose not to lead on this matter. They took an easy way out.”

She said the HSCA has chosen to continue to move forward to find a location for the warming center. “If any facility that might fit the need or would like to support us in this effort, please contact us online at the commongracewarmingcenter.org.”

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm871@gmail.com)

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