A few days ago, the Lampasas Dispatch had a front-page story titled “Hearing set for LEDC Business Park plat“.
Towards the end, we got some info from City manager Finley deGraffenreid:
In mid-October, City Manager Finley deGraffenried described the project as “nearing substantial completion.” He told council members the park’s roadways had been paved, and the park will be ready to market to potential commercial tenants soon.
Part of their “marketing” will be blowing about $15,000 on videos and ads for the Business Pork. Of course, they did the exact same thing back in 2015 and 2018 the FIRST time the Business Pork was “finished” and ready to move into….with zero results, obviously. The Pork sits empty despite over $7 million committed to the project to date.
But I have to ask one silly question: why do we need to spend one single penny on marketing? After all, we were told by Mandy Walsh back on July 27, 2021:
“We receive RFIs [request for information] from the governor’s office on a weekly basis – and they’re all looking for acreage and, currently, as it stands, there is nowhere to put someone…that’s looking for even 2 to 5 acres…we’re having to pass up on some possible prospects because we don’t have the land and we’re not fully developed”
In fact, every economic director and LEDC president since Michael Talbot back in May of 2004 has told this exact same lie: we get NUMEROUS requests from the governor’s office from interested businesses, but we just don’t have [fill in the blank here – money, utilities, roads, brains, etc]
So if they have been (and still are) getting NUMEROUS weekly inquiries since 2004 (52 weeks times 18 years = 936 inquiries, at LEAST) then why do they need to spend $15,000 to market this thing? According to their previous lies, there are people beating the door down to move into this thing.
Of course, those lies were usually told when they had their hand out for money. Like The Great Valentine’s Day Begging scene from earlier this year – when Talbert managed to pilfer $971,000 in “Covid relief” funds from the City.
Not to MENTION, the “about four” serious prospects that Mandy told us they had earlier this year. Lemme guess: none of THOSE worked out either??