TenHaken had noted appearance of problems with Village on the River last July

Pat Powers

It wasn’t as if the handwriting wasn’t on the wall for the demise one of Mayor Mike Huether’s legacy projects. Going back to last Summer, Mayor Paul TenHaken noticed that there were… problems with the Village on the River project, and a lack of transparency from the Huether administration:

“The allegations that investors in Legacy and Hultgren may have misrepresented themselves to the City Council and public is disappointing and troubling. As a citizen, I did not like how the previous administration pushed this project so hard with disregard to transparency. 

Read it here.

Between tonight’s announcement and the Premier Center settlement, I tend to believe that Huether’s political career is over. With an exclamation point.

8 thoughts on “TenHaken had noted appearance of problems with Village on the River last July”

  1. I think Huether will run for the mayor of Yankton eventually. He made a big gift for their swimming pool and could easily play the hometown boy card there.

  4. When Mayor TenHaken took office, he announced his administration was vetting the project and development agreement and subsequently endorsed the project during a press conference in July 2018

  5. Don’t forget the rest of the story from last July (2018): Argus Leader 7/30/18. Mayor TenHaken: “What the public needs to know today is that Village on the River is not a Legacy or Hultgren project — it is a Jeff Lamont project,” TenHaken said. “The city’s contract is with Lamont’s company and he maintains the managing control of the development, and the Village on the River can likely survive without Legacy’s involvement.” KELO.com 8/1/18: “TenHaken said at a news conference today that he and his administration have checked out the new developer of the controversial downtown village on the river project and his satisfied that it’s on the right track. “I have a high level of excitement about this project,” TenHaken said. TenHaken said he and the City has done its due diligence about Lamont. Lamont says he’s the only one in the group who can now make decisions about the project. “Yeah, I believe it’s an unlimited guarantee for the project amount, for the completion of the project,” Lamont said. KELO.com News then asked him how that guarantee was secured. “I believe it was a personal guarantee,” Lamont said. Then KELO.com News asked if that meant his personal assets. “Correct,” Lamont replied. Finally, KELO.com News asked Lamont if he had provided any evidence of his wealth to the City. “I wasn’t asked to provide that,” Lamont responded.

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