Delbridge Museum fallout, daycare summer study among Sioux Falls City Council's top legislative priorities

Airport funding, school safety also on councilors' wish list heading into South Dakota's 99th Legislative Session

The top priority on the Sioux Falls City Council’s 2024 legislative wish list is the ability to move a rare taxidermy collection out of South Dakota.

Councilors Tuesday night adopted their yearly legislative priorities, listing six areas of law or measures they’d like to see state lawmakers address during the 99th Legislative Session. At the top of the list this year is loosening an existing state law that limits what the city can do with a 170-piece collection of exotic animal mounts that had been on display at the Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum.

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“The Sioux Falls City Council supports legislation amending SDCL 6-13-15 to allow the city the option to transfer the Delbridge Museum collection out of state,” reads the unanimously approved resolution, referencing a prohibition on municipal-owned displays from being gifted or sold to out-of-state nonprofits or organizations.

The Delbridge Museum at the Great Plains Zoo closed in August following the detection of arsenic in several of the mounted animals, many of which were bagged in Africa during the 1950s, 60s and 70s when the hazardous chemical was commonly used in taxidermy. Initially, the zoo and City Hall intended to decommission the exhibits and dispose of the collection. That plan, which would also lend itself to ambitions held by the zoo to make room for a planned aquarium, was met with pushback from the public as well as city councilors, who want to see the collection preserved.