Rapid City’s mayor says the city could have communicated better with groups that serve meals to homeless people before building a fence around the area those meals are served.
The fence surprised organizers at the latest meal service.
Those organizers say the bandshell at Memorial Park is optimal for serving food, because it keeps servers and those served out of the elements.
“We’ve served in blizzards and thunderstorms and 107 [degrees] and all that stuff," said Tom Whillock.
He helps organize a group that serves a meal to homeless or housing insecure people in Rapid City every Friday. They’ve held a feed at the bandshell in Rapid City near the civic center nearly every week since April of 2019.
Whillock said seeing the fence on Friday felt like a gut punch.
“It echoes fencing people out. It looks like a cage. To see it. To see the bolts in the concrete pads and in the chains to the side walls. It has this visceral ‘You are not welcome here,’ and this is the message the people on the street are getting,” Whillock added.
Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun said the city could have done a better job in coordinating with groups affected why the bandshell was being secured.
“I’m disappointed. We did drop the ball on the communication," Salamun said the city is securing the bandshell due to persistent safety and health concerns.
He said law enforcement and EMT’s responded to over 800 incidents in the last two years. Salamun says the parks department regularly cleans up blood, fecal matter and vandalism.
However, going forward, he said groups serving meals can coordinate with the parks department to use the bandshell and the fees for that use will get waived.
“I encourage them. We’ll be reasonable. We’ll waive these fees," Salamun said. "Go work with the parks department to schedule that, because you also don’t want to have multiple events happening at the same time. We’ll certainly be willing to work with those groups.”
Organizers say it’s their intention to serve a meal at the bandshell this Friday.
