Sometimes I think The Goldfish do dumb things like this just to see if I’ll have an aneurysm and die. I feel like they can’t POSSIBLY be this stupid. Then again, soon-to-be-former Goldfish Chuck Williamson once complained about the City giving away too much free stuff but then went ahead and gave away a bunch of free stuff to TWO local developers. About $250,000 worth of stuff, to be exact. So we are not exactly dealing with rocket scientists here.
Anyways, take a moment to refresh your memory about local locust and failed ‘life coach’ Janet Yoder Kraeff-Crozier (Thunberg) and her ridiculous “community garden” idea. I’ll wait here while you go re-read the post and get up to speed:
Local Loony “Life Coach” Now An Expert Gardener
Well, apparently City council thinks this is a great idea and is prepared to throw money at it. According to the packets for the 11/9/20 City council meeting tomorrow [page 9, Section 4]:
“The City shall provide, install and maintain, at City expense, Security Lighting for the Garden, in the locations shown on Exhibit A” [note – I could not find ANYTHING labeled ‘Exhibit A’ in the packets]
Furthermore:
“The City shall hire, at City expense, a qualified electrical contractor to connect the Security Lighting installed by the City to the City power supply”
Can’t wait to see what THAT costs. Also, don’t forget that the entire agreement between the City and the Garden needed to be drawn up by the City’s attorney Jo-Christy Brown…and she doesn’t work for free! In October ALONE, Jo-Christy Brown billed the City $15,907.50 for “general matters” (pages 40 and 45). I wonder how much of that was wasted on this idiotic gardening contract. It boggles the mind.
But I have a few obvious questions:
Why in the hell do they need security lighting?? Are you going to be gardening at midnight or are you worried someone is going to jump the fence and steal your radishes? I’ve got news for you: deer, raccoons, squirrels, possums, mice and rats will be doing FAR more damage to you than any mischievous meth head.
You’d think the City might be a little more concerned about the rash of recent vandalism at all the (very expensive!) public restrooms than a sad plot of dirt belonging to Janet Yoder Thunberg..
Why are you paying an outside contractor to hook up a simple security light? You’re telling me that with all the electricians on the City payroll, nobody knows how to do that? Hell, I’ll bet you $100 right now that Rickie Roy could get that job done in 45 minutes with his eyes closed and then yell “Go Badgers” just for good measure.
Oh…and “pest control” will also be the City’s problem, according to the agreement. So when these hippies build their compost pile (and fail to maintain it properly) and attract raccoons, possums and rats from all over the area, then it is the CITY’S problem. LOL.
God, I cannot WAIT to watch this whole thing get halfway built and then implode. Just to warn you nitwits, I’ll be down there a LOT next spring leaning on the fence and watching this whole disaster take place. I’ll also comb through your non-profit “Community Garden” tax fillings with a fine-toothed comb so I can do a cost-benefit analysis of this stupidity. I am stunned that ANYBODY would give this idiot a penny for this. She has absolutely not idea what she is doing – that much is clear to me.
Best case scenario: Janet and the City spend about $15,000 between them setting this thing up, and produce about 20 pounds of veggies before it all gets overrun with weeds and nobody bothers with it anymore. That works out to about $750/lb for veggies you can get at HEB for about $1.50/lb. Compared to the ROI on the ‘business park’ project, that is an incredible deal!
Mark my words. I’ve been involved with helping to build a “community garden” before and it was a total disaster. This will be too.