So this has been making the rounds lately:
Awesome idea! Who DOESN’T love splash pads? This would be a GREAT addition to the City and can be used by literally HUNDREDS of kids.
But $50,000 sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? Actually, with the amount of money wasted by Misti Talbert (as mayor), the LEDC board, most of city council and then Misti Talbert (as LEDC president), the City could have a splash pad on every corner of the City. Literally dozens and dozens of them! We’d be up to our assholes in splash pads.
Since we don’t have even ONE splash pad, I have to assume that Misti Talbert hates children. She chose to blow hundreds of thousands millions of dollars during her tenure as mayor and LEDC prez, but not a penny on anything for the kids. Look at all the dumb shit she wasted money on that benefited NOBODY at all or only a select few:
Most recently, LEDC Prez Talbert begged City council for $971,000 for the Business Pork project. That was money the City got from the Feds and could have been used for a LOT of City projects. Instead it will be set on fire with the other $6 million dollars before it. That’s almost TWENTY SPLASH PADS!
Talbert was a HUGE cheerleader for the opulent City council chambers (which gets used about 4 hours per month and only by City council and City employees). Many council members didn’t want to spend $750,000 on the project but Misti and her crew ended up blowing $1.5 million on it anyways. That’s THIRTY SPLASH PADS!
She and her council were instrumental in selling the building for $75,000 and then buying it back for $229,000 – oops. Another THREE SPLASH PADS right there!
Talbert and her crew also okayed blowing $180,000 on a pre-fab bathroom at Campbell Park – even though Misti herself signed off on a combo concessions stand AND restrooms at Garret Soccer Complex for only $19,000 prior to that! It never registered in her pea brain that she shouldn’t pay almost TEN TIMES MORE than she did previously for LESS building! The difference between $19,000 and $180,000? That would be THREE MORE SPLASH PADS!
Let’s not forget the Azbell Electronics A/V system scam that started this entire blog. Misti and City council accepted a bid from Broadcast Works for $34,000 but then inexplicably handed Azbell $95,000 for the exact same job a year later without offering Broadcast Works a chance to rebid. That $60,000 difference could have bought yet another nice splash pad for the kids.
How many splash pads are we up to? I lost count.
Let not forget Deorald Finney – the rich developer that was gifted $72,000 in ‘free’ electrical hookups for his subdivision (Stone Valley) – another splash pad right there!
Oh, and former City council member Chris Harrison with S2M2 begged for $185,000 for HIS development (Brodie Estates) – which he got. There goes another THREE SPLASH PADS! Sheeeit!
Just a small example of how Misti Talbert, TJ Monroe and the LEDC have wasted MOUNTAINS of money that could have been used for something awesome like a splash pad. Instead, it was handed away to special interests or themselves.
What meanies who clearly hate kids.
Honorable mentions:
Hostess House “facelift” of $1.4 million = 28 splash pads
Running electricity and water to Business Pork in 2015 for $1 million (still sits empty 7 years later) = 20 splash pads
Blowing $120,000 on a “comprehensive plan” for the City’s growth = 2.4 splash pads
Wasting $12,000 for plans for a $1.4 million bike trail that will never get built = 1/4 of a splash pad