Nissen retires from city after 21 years

After 21 years of employment with the city, planning and zoning administrator Kevin Nissen retired April 4.

Nissen got his start with the city in the old city hall in 2004 when it was just him and finance officer Dawn Murphy. In his time with the city, he has worked as the economic development director, code enforcement, floodplain administrator, building official and planning and zoning administrator. 

During the past 21 years, Nissen, who has lived in Tea since 1994, has seen the population of Tea go from about 1,800 people to around 8,000.

Nissen remembers when he thought if they could hit a hundred permits for the year that was going to be big.

“It’s been a steady growth this whole time. We’ve had some big years but it’s still been manageable growth,” Nissen said. “Today we’re anywhere from 400-500 permits a year.”

He noted that the implementation of a new online process for permitting has been game changing. 

He said they used to have lines going out the door waiting to fill out paperwork. 

Nissen graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in horticulture and urban planning. He worked as an intern right out of college for the city of Sioux Falls before working for the South Eastern Council of Governments for three years.

He thought he would use his landscape design degree and then an opening with the city of Tea came up.

“I said ‘oh gosh in my hometown.’ I could work and utilize some of my past experience and they hired me,” he said.

Nissen said it has been a lot of work with a lot of night meetings. During his time, he worked with just two mayors - John Lawler and Casey Voelker - and a number of city council members.

City planning 20 years ago have helped set the city up for what it looks like today.

“There’s a lot of things in the early days that set us up to where we are today. Planning, comprehensive plan updates and future land use plans and all the zoning ordinance stuff and subdivision ordinance and all this stuff we needed to get into place,” Nissen said.

He said one of the biggest infrastructure projects was putting sewer in up to 85th Street. That sewer line went in the ground 28-30 feet deep and it rained every other day making it a long and difficult project. Some other big projects included extending Main Street north, building a water tower in Bakker Landing, sidewalk project, Highway 106 and the 85th Street interchange.

Since he is not a builder, Nissen said having the right people around him have helped make his job easier. He is grateful for code review, the city engineer and city administrator Justin Weiland.

While he is not leaving the community, Nissen said he will miss a lot like dealing with developers, the planning and being a part of things. He will be working with American Bank & Trust with their business development department.

“I think the city’s in a good spot,” Nissen said.