I happened to dig up a report called “Quantifying the Economic Value of Alberta’s Recycling Programs“. I was trying to find ANY mention of “Eco-Flex” being an “industry leader” as Alan Champagne likes to brag in his promotional material.
There is ONE mention of “Champagne Edition” on page 78:
They USE already-recycled crumb. They do NOT recycle the tires
The first thing we see is that, indeed, a LOT of crumb rubber is shipped out of province – bolstering my theory that Alan actually might be shipping all this crumb rubber 2,200 miles to Lampasas.
The second thing we see is some OFFICIAL usage numbers for Champagne Edition – not Alan’s bullshit numbers he tells to Mandy Walsh or posts on his website. Two years ago, his OLD website said they “recycled” 6 million tires. In actuality, they don’t recycle SHIT. They use the crumb rubber created when REAL recyclers process tires into usable pieces.
The report says that Eco-Flex USES (not “recycles”) 7,000 to 8,000 tons of material. Which sounds like a lot – call it 15 million pounds. But since the average tire weighs around 22 pounds, this only comes out to about 682,000 tires (and far LESS if there are a lot of 30 and 35 pound truck tires!). A FAR cry from the 5 million he currently has posted on his website.
Also, once again, they DO NOT recycle anything. They take the crumb rubber from ALREADY-RECYCLED tires and mold it into other products. Just like dozens of other companies do. Alan and Mike seem to have trouble telling the truth on this. Here is a copy of their bullshit press release from two years ago when they were stringing the LEDC along the FIRST time:
The above press release from May 2020 encapsulates every reason why I refer to Alan and Mike as lying scumbags:
(1) they were NOT about to break ground on any recycling plants – that was a lie.
(2) they do not recycle tires at all, and thus cannot be a “leader” in that endeavor. It’s about as truthful as me saying I’m a “leading receiver in the NFL” – a complete and utter psycopathic fabrication.
(3) they slipped up when they sent this to Mandy Walsh by forgetting to fill in the CITY and XXX-square feet – even though they gave Mandy and the LEDC the idea that Lampasas was their only choice for location.
(4) they can’t even get their lies straight on how many square feet they need. Mike Cour said 10,000 in his presentation to the LEDC and another fake press release said 25,000 square feet.
(5) There is no way in HELL they will employ 200 people. Their Alberta plant employs less than 50 – and THAT plant is 35,000 square feet and has been there for years. Yet somehow a SMALLER plant here in Texas is going to employ FOUR TIMES that number? BULL SHIT. Absolute fucking lie.
The fact that Alan Champagne and Mike Cour are so loose with facts and the definition of “recycling” should send up red flags for the LEDC and anyone else dealing with these morons.
Lastly, it is now clear that there WERE subsidies at some point. I have no idea when they ended or how much was handed out, but one company immediately went under when they ended – as most of these “green” companies do (see: A-123, Solyndra, etc)
I have zero doubt that Eco-Flex was a beneficiary at some point – despite Mike Cour telling me “we have not received any funding from anyone, and we intend for this to be a private effort.”
Of course, Mike Cour then immediately asked the LEDC for $1.85 million in cash and land to basically pay for the entire startup of this charade here in Lampasas.
The only thing I HAVEN’T figured out yet is who is paying for the rent on that brand-new warehouse on Pecan Street and financing the buying/leasing of the rubber press machines. There is NO WAY Mike Irvin is stupid enough to allow Mike Cour in there without paying some serious rent. Empty promises of a future payout might work on dummies like Talbert, but Mike Irvin would never swallow that tripe.
If anyone has a good explanation on that, feel free to email me at lampasshole@protonmail.com
Oh well. It’ll ALL come out eventually as I chew this bone down to nothing.
Well, the LEDC is certainly throwing caution to the wind and ignoring ALL the past skulduggery with Mike Cour, Alan Champagne and the Eco-Turd plans. They are doubling down and risking looking like complete idiots when this all blows up in their faces AGAIN.
They even have a video up over at the LEDC Facebook page showing TJ Monroe and new council member Davis Keele touring the “plant”. LOL.
Unfortunately for scumbag duo Alan Champagne (Eco-Flex) and Mike Cour (Eco-Strong), I’m smarter than them and when I get hold of a bone, I’m not going to let it go until it’s all chewed up.
Since City council and the LEDC read here, I’ll give you a few big leads to check out and questions to ask these serial con-men:
#1 – According to all their presentations and Internet material, Eco-Flex is a tire recycler in Legal, Alberta – a dying town in very northern Canada:
But according to the website for the Alberta Recycling Management Authority, there are only three tire processors registered with the ARMA: Alberta Environmental Rubber Products (AERP), Crumb Rubber Manufacturers (CRM) and Liberty Tire Recycling Canada, Ltd.
So Alan Champagne and his fake “tire recycling” company are just one of many, many outfits that get crumb rubber from those three REAL tire recyclers and turn it into “green” products. There is nothing “innovative” or special about Eco-Turd. Crumb rubber is a commodity like gravel or sand or aluminum. All this shit has been around for a looooong time.
#2 – In the LEDC video, it shows some guys prepping crumb rubber to be stamped into a mat or a wall or something. So, since Eco-Strong is the “distributor” for Eco-Flex in the U.S., I have to assume that all that crumb rubber comes ALL the way from Eco-Flex in the town of Legal, Alberta – which is a 2,200 mile trip ONE WAY. Considering the high price of diesel here and even HIGHER price in Canada ($8.65/gal) it seems to me it must cost a small fortune to ship all that crumb rubber here just to stamp it into a mat.
There happens to be a very REAL and very BIG (12 million tires per year) tire recycling plant in Houston called Genan. Genan has SIX factories that recycle 54 million tires between them. Houston is only about 180 miles away. The cost to acquire crumb rubber from them would be a fraction (less than 10%) of the cost of having that idiot Alan Champagne send it 2,200 miles from Alberta, right?
You might want to ask Mike Cour about that. Genan also produces all the same shit everyone else does – mats, asphalt replacement, etc. Again – nothing special there.
Pretty sure “Eco-Flex” comes between Coastal and FABA in the alphabet
Wanna know what I think? This is just my OPINION, but I think this Alan Champagne douchebag gets some kind of highly-subsidized deal for crumb rubber. Canada is very socialist and HUGE on handing out “free” stuff to “save the environment”. It is run by people even more greentarded than AOC and Clayton Tucker combined.
Maybe Alan gets taxpayer-subsidized crumb rubber so cheaply that it makes sense to ship it 2,200 miles to a fly speck on the map named “Lampasas”. Why do I think this? Because in the shitty Power Point Mike Cour presented to the LEDC two years ago, I found this nugget:
“Developed a program with the Alberta government“. Sounds like free shit to me! Notice there isn’t a WORD about him actually recycling a single tire – just “controlling” and “managing” the program.
This guy is a serial grifter, in my opinion. Only a serious grifter douche nozzle would put a picture of himself standing next to a private jet to project a false sense of success. I also wouldn’t be shocked if this dildo also legally changed his last name to “Champagne” for the same reason. I had some email exchanges with this anus 21 months ago, and he can barely string a sentence together – not to mention the completely amateurish Power Point piece of shit they presented the LEDC two years ago.
Anyways – there it all is for the LEDC to read, go over and ask the proper questions of this clown horn. I guess they didn’t learn their lesson the LAST time these charlatans tried to rip them off and spew lies:
40 million little piles of bullshit
Remember that time in 2020 the LEDC believed that these idiots were going to recycle FORTY MILLION TIRES in Lampasas when their Alberta plant only does 5 million? I pointed out how ridiculous that was back then when I wrote:
Also, your existing Canadian 35,000 square foot plant recycles 5 million tires per year, but in your bullshit PowerPoint you gave to the LEDC, you are going to recycle 40 million tires in Lampasas with 22,500 square feet. If anyone believes THAT nonsense I have some land to sell you on south 183.
…but I guess Mandy Walsh and Misti Talbert suck at math and logic.
Something about the skate park keeps gnawing at me. I mean besides the fact that a bunch of this was SUPPOSED to be financed by “fundraisers” and “volunteers” which never materialized.
I haven’t figured it all out yet, but let’s take a look at a quick timeline as reported by The Dispatch:
July 10, 2020: Lisa Parker (Wings of Eagles Outreach President) said if the city adds the [skate] park to its budget, the park could be funded jointly by Wings of Eagles and the city, and maintained by the parks department.
October 16, 2020: DeGraffenried said Wings of Eagles members have initiated fundraisers for the skate park.
December 4, 2020: The city has issued requests for qualifications for the design, engineering and construction of a skate park and pavilion to be built in Campbell Park.
December 25, 2020: The city received six proposals from contractors for the construction of a skate park…..at Campbell Park. Staff ranked Austin-based SPA Skateparks and Lampasas based Lamco Construction as the best qualified to complete the projects. Council members voted unanimously to allow city staff to negotiate the scope and cost of project with the highest-ranked firms.
January 8, 2021: According to city manager’s report (page 95), “skate park contractor has been contacted for a kick-off meeting…after determining the contractor’s design criteria, staff will have geotechnical surveys done…”
January 19, 2021: During his city manager’s report, Finley deGraffenried said city staff were scheduled to meet last week with the highest-rated contractors for the Campbell Park pavilion and skate park projects.
January 22, 2021: In his manager’s report (page 125), Finley tells us that he has “met with BOTH the skate park contractor and pavilion contractor to timing, scope and tentative project schedules. Additionally, staff has communicated with Langerman Foster regarding geotechnical investigation…”
February 16, 2021: DeGraffenried said preparations for skate park and pavilion construction in Campbell Park are underway.
Okay – if construction preparation is underway, who was chosen as contractor? SPA Skateparks or Lamco? WE ARE NEVER TOLD BY FINLEY! This is the first suspicious item. Lamco is a local outfit that builds houses. As far as I’m aware, they have never done a skatepark. How were they ever included as “best-qualified” to build this thing?
March 9, 2021: Langerman Foster to charge the City $6,400 (pages 103 and 104) to drill two 20-foot bore holes (one for skate park and one for pavilion) for their “geo-tech” report.
April 2, 2021: “We should be open to amenities that support young families and youth activities, like the skate park, for which the council recently approved funding” – Councilwoman TJ Monroe statement while running for Mayor.
So according to the City manager and Mayor Monroe, by April 2021 they had already “approved funding” for the skate park and “preparations for construction were underway”. If that is true, how in the hell did the price “estimate” jump up again in August of 2021? Sounds like everything was already settled, doesn’t it??? That’s our second suspicious item. Also, we STILL haven’t been told who the contractor is.
May 24, 2021: After a bunch of council meetings where the skate park is completely forgotten, Finley reports (page 157) that “Contractors were notified to incorporate the findings and recommendations of the geo-tech into their foundation design and costs. Staff has also included stakeholder representatives in the notification and communicated the need to have a combined stakeholder/contractor meeting within the next 2 weeks.“
June 8, 2021: Finley informs council (page 42): “Design build contractor selected, geo-tech completed – contractor preparing base bid for review by staff”
Hmmm – so I guess all that stuff about “preparations for construction are underway” four months ago was complete nonsense.
July 30, 2021:Included in the base budget, according to staff reports, are the purchase of two police patrol vehicles; pool liner and….upgrades at Campbell Park and the new skate park.
AGAIN – statements made in The Dispatch that money has been set aside for skate park. The same statement appeared on August 6, 2021.
August 17, 2021: Dispatch article tells us “In August of last year, the estimate to fund approximately five projects [Hostess House, pavilion, and SKATE PARK included] totaled around $940,000. Last Monday during a workshop session, City Manager Finley deGraffenried indicated the updated estimate increased to $1.9 million.“ Nothing mentioned about skate park in manager’s report for two months now. This is when the following appeared in the minutes:
Those two projects ALONE increased $1 million total
Ruh roh. Massive increases in the cost of everything (especially Hostess House). How is this possible since Finley told us just six months ago that “preparations for construction were underway”?How these estimates were arrived at is anybody’s guess – since the “skatepark contractor” hasn’t submitted anything yet, according to my reading of the minutes.
September 17, 2021: We get a reprint of the July 30th article – Included in the base budget, according to staff reports, are the purchase of two police patrol vehicles; pool liner and….upgrades at Campbell Park and the new skate park. We also get the headline “Design documents for skate park, pavilion set for unveiling Sept. 27” – which seems odd…seeing as how “preparation for construction” was “underway” seven months ago!!
Holy shit. So basically NOTHING has been done yet! There was no “design unveiled on September 27th”, just SPA laying out “the design and build process”! Oh, and you owe us $18,000 upon “acceptance of the renderings, base plan, drawings and PRELIMINARY COST ESTIMATES” – then you owe us another $12,000 if you decide to use those documents.
So we are now at the end of September and apparently there is not even a preliminary cost estimate yet! SPA wants to City to cough up $18,000 just for a preliminary cost estimate and renderings? What the hell have these guys been doing since May when the geo-tech reports were sent to them?
Gee – sounds like things got very bunged up along the way. As usual. But WHO bunged them up? Finley told us he sent the geo-tech report to contractors back in MAY – FOUR MONTHS AGO!! Did Finley just get too busy with all his other ridiculous projects like the Hostess House and New Hope Baptist Church? Did SPA Skatepark just drag their feet all this time??
Clearly, the design documents were NOT unveiled on September 27th – why not? Lots of unanswered questions.
Also, how did TJ Monroe and council “approve funding” in April of 2021 if they didn’t know what the number was? Who supplied them with the original, bullshit low-ball number they okayed? Was Monroe just spouting bullshit to make herself look good right before the mayoral election? “Hey! We’re giving you a skate park!” Yet more unanswered questions.
Mind boggling incompetence.
Keep in mind, as former council wizard “Greasy” Chris Harrison recently informed us, diesel prices just kept going up and up all this time. So why did Finley fart around for 4 months getting nothing accomplished?? ESPECIALLY after “DeGraffenried said preparations for skate park and pavilion construction in Campbell Park are underway” in February of 2021 – a YEAR EARLIER!
THEN there is a HUGE gap of FIVE MONTHS in mentioning the skate park. The next mention in The Dispatch was February 1, 2022: “In reference to the skate park, deGraffenried met with contractors Friday to review and possibly revise the project’s timeline.”
January 10, 2022: We get another update (page 110) that tells us “New Line Skateparks has submitted a project timeline for staff review. As the contract indicates, the timeline allows for public input, conceptual design phase, design development, and construction documents. Bidding is tentatively targeted for September, 2022 with construction 1Q 2023.“
New Line Skateparks? I thought we were dealing with SPA Skateparks? This whole thing is a giant clusterfuck, if you ask me.
February 4, 2022: At the Jan 24th meeting, Councilman Randy “Speedbump” Clark asked about the skate park status. DeGraffenried responded to Clark’s inquiry by stating, “As we’ve discussed, and the contract says, we will go through a public engagement process on that preliminary design and we hope to …I believe the target for the complete design is September [2022], with bidding [during the] first part of [2023].”
Whoa! NOW he’s saying that they won’t even have a design until four months from now!! What happened to “preparations for skate park construction are underway” back in February of 2021?? What happened to “design documents set for unveiling on September 17th, 2021? What happened to “geo-tech reports were sent to contractors to incorporate into their foundation design and cost” back in MAY OF LAST YEAR??
Then comes THIS nugget in the council packet from April 11th, 2022 (page 65):
“Staff participated in an update call on the Skate Park on March 31st. Consultants presented the Workshop Summary and responses to on-line and in-person surveys. Based on the geo-tech report and technical guidance, the consultants estimated the increased costs of construction to be on the order of $170,000”
WTF? Consultants? In-person surveys? What consultants? They are just NOW doing geo-tech reports a YEAR after “approving funding” and “preparing for construction”? None of this makes ANY SENSE at all.
We finally got a look at some plans from SPA – and some hard numbers. WE also find out that they are leaving a LOT of the work to “others”. Would have been nice to know that a year ago when council “approved funding”, no?
“Others” is gonna cost a pile of money. I wonder if “Greasy” Chris Harrison, the dirt mover, is going to be paid a huge pile of money to do the “other” work at the newly inflated price? I’ll bet you $100 that he is.
Pardon me, but after reading through 10 years of city Council packets and minutes, I can tell you with absolute certainty, Finley deGraffenreid doesn’t take a shit or put his pants on in the morning without a geo-tech report. Every single hare-brained scheme council comes up with (business park, pavilion, civic center, Hostess House) ALWAYS STARTS with a nice big bill for a geo-tech report. It is ALWAYS the first thing he does.
I’m seriously starting to wonder if Finley has a massive kick-back scheme going on all these construction projects. It’s about the only thing that makes sense to me. Maybe he’s not happy with his $200,000 per year in salary and benefits. Maybe feathering his nest is a better idea? I really can’t explain this any other way. Same goes for Azbell A/V system, the $185,000 bathroom and all the other massive cost overruns.
Well, I tried to take a relaxing day with the kids and enjoy the water slides at Kalahari yesterday. It was all well and good until late evening when the Dispatch electronic issue dumped into my email box. I should have let it lie there until today, but I saw the front page with “skate park” and “historic buildings” and I foolishly opened it up.
What I found was quite disgusting and enraging. FORMER council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and FORMER mayor “Transparency” Talbert yammering total nonsense about the skate park.
Why a has-been council member and failed mayor are involved in this at ALL is beyond me. Doesn’t Talbert have enough on her plate wasting money in her $7 million dollar sandbox over on Highway 183? I guess not.
The skate park is a disaster that has been out of control for a while. Even Cathy “Pork Chop” Kuehne (who is almost as profligate a spender as Talbert) finally asked “how did it jump like that?”
You KNOW it’s getting stupid when Pork Chop arises from her slumber and asks some obvious questions.
First up to explain this train wreck was former council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison. Harrison hasn’t been on City council for years, so I have no idea why he was wheeled in to bloviate on this topic in the first place.
Then after he left office, he whored himself out to developer S2M2 Inc and went to his good buddy and former council chum Misti Talbert to grab $185,000 in taxpayers’ money to “fund a private business” that he now happened to work for and which wanted a free detention pond built. The very same detention pond that Misti and council had said “NO” to before Greasy got hired on to lobby for them:
Anyways, I guess old Chris felt he owed a favor to Misti for getting him that big $185,000 check, so he was in the paper carrying water for her skate park disaster yesterday and trying to tell us why the costs exploded.
His brilliant answer?
Diesel.
Yeah, according to Chris: “Diesel went from $2 to $5.19”
This is complete horseshit, of course. Harrison is cherry-picking the dead-nut low price and the current ridiculous $5.19 price and blaming it all on that.
[Note: Waste Connections is a hell of a lot more “diesel sensitive” in the business of hauling garbage than the skate park is – and THEY are ‘only’ raising trash rates 8.8% – NOT doubling them. Hmmmmm]
The problem is that the original estimate was made in 2020 and the new “doubling of price” estimate was made the next year – LONG before diesel went parabolic.
Let’s see what diesel prices were in August of 2020 and then in August 2021 – which are the two dates the estimates were made (as you can see from City council’s own minutes):
We can see that diesel actually went from $2.37 to $3.45 during that time.
Harrison blaming the skate park cost doubling on diesel is like that moron Biden blaming high gas prices on Putin invading Ukraine. Sorry, but the damage was done LONG before all that.
Granted, that 45% increase sucks, but no way in hell that is to blame for a doubling of the skate park cost. I actually live in the real world and help run real businesses. The cost of everything has been screwing us too, but NOTHING has doubled in price in a year. We’ve had 15% increases, 25% increases and some 30% increases – but NOTHING has doubled.
It is also the result of a City council heavily populated by idiots like Chuck Williamson and Cathy Kuehne who have never worked in the private sector in their lives and do not value a tax dollar properly.
Their attitude for YEARS, no matter what the project cost overrun (and there have been MANY), was always “well, it’s just another [fill in amount], we can’t stop now”.
Over and over and over again, ridiculous bungling, cost overruns and fiscal waste were left unmentioned and unpunished. Everyone just went back to the Magic Money Tree to pay for all the stupidity. Wildly overpriced elevators, selling a building for $75k and buying it back for $225k, paying $96,000 for a $33,000 A/V system, not bothering to get bids on bathroom construction, etc, etc, etc. It has been going on for YEARS!
I can almost hear Talbert sitting in on this skate park discussion (where she had no business being in the first place – you are a FORMER council member, sugar) and blabbering something like “well, it’s only another $90,000 and we have to get this done”.
This is known as the Sunk Cost Fallacy and it is why the shitty Business Pork is STILL going strong and wasting $7 million over 20 years despite not a single prospect showing any interest in the damn thing.
Then our Parks Director made a ridiculous statement too! Here is what Chris Eicher had to say in the newspaper:
“We knew if we wanted a $300,000 skate park, we would have to budget $400,000. That’s just the way it is”
Huh? Ummm, no. If you know it’s going to be $400,000 then you SAY it’s going to be $400,000. Anything else is bordering on fraud as you give a bullshit low-ball number to get your project passed and then admit the “real” much-higher number later. I can’t believe he actually said that out loud. It reeks of dishonesty or incompetence, I’m not sure which.
The whole fiasco wouldn’t be complete without a zinger from Finley himself. Here is his brilliant addition to the anaylsis:
“The only thing I can guarantee is that the exact cost will be different than budgeted”
THAT is the wizard who is supposed to be on top of things and who costs the city around $200,000 per year for his “expertise”. For 25 years he has been working in the government sector doing this shit, but hey – don’t expect him to have a fucking clue either!
Well, Waste Connections is dropping the bomb on Lampasas [page 70]. They, too, are using the Brandon Administration’s massive inflation to stick it to the citizens.
Waste Connections hands out ‘prize’ to City council girls…Waste Connections then gets $5.5 million contract renewed (which was not put out for bids to anyone else).
They also did a pretty shitty job last year and had a LOT of complaints against them. There is is again! Just like the pool – higher costs and worse service. It’s almost like there’s a pattern there!
So the question is: will the City eat this cost or pass it along to the consumer? You’d think that maybe the City would swallow this one since:
#1 – they just got handed almost $2 million from the Feds in “free Covid money”.
#2 – they just decided to borrow $6.5 million more for some questionable projects like sprucing up the landscaping at the Wastewater plant and Old City Hall.
#3 – they ALREADY jammed everyone with higher electricity rates last November while at the same time giving a lot of “free” electrical hookups to all the rich developers in town!
What will Finley do here? Will he earn his bloated salary? Stay tuned!
P.S. – don’t forget these guys ALSO run our retarded “recycling program” that loses over $12,000 per year. Looks like it’s going to lose even more now! Man, I really hate being right all the time.
I’m going to reprint my annual screed about government employees versus the private sector. Every government worker is going to be howling for raises this year since Brandon’s runaway inflation has given them the perfect cover.
Finley and his new Assistant Manager are preparing to do just that at tomorrow’s City council meeting [page 7]
Of course, they fail to mention that they are ALREADY paid more than their private-sector counterparts AND get incredible benefits like medical, dental, life insurance and free retirement contributions.
In fact, Lampasas matches retirement contributions 2-1, if you can believe that! So if Finley contributes $7,000 towards his pension, the City puts in $14,000. YOU the taxpayer pay for that $14,000.
Even during the pandemic when people were losing their livelihoods, Finley was handed a TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR raise (or 7.7% increase)! UPDATE – it was actually $20,000 as he got ANOTHER $10,000 raise later that year. Grand total of a 15% raise in one year.
In the most recent budget, the line items for “City Manager” [page 18, line 502-5100 under “Benefits”] (salaries ALONE for Finley and ACM Ryan Ward total up to $284,803)
Retirement benefits for Finley and Ryan were $45,440 just for last year. That is $45,440 the taxpayer hands to Finley and Ryan for their future retirement. That is REAL MONEY. That is almost $23,000 each.
The City then pays for their insurance as well. Last budget, it was $23,587 – or close to $12,000 for each of them.
Out here in the real world, I just got my bill for my health insurance for the next year – it is over $9,000. I get to pay that out of my own checking account. But Finley and Ryan don’t have to worry about that stuff. The taxpayer pays for that too! Of course, Finley never mentions all these benefits when he cries poor to City council for higher wages.
Add up those bennies and the taxpayer is forking over $91,348 JUST for the benefits for those two guys!
But wait! There’s more!
There is a line item for “Telephone Services” [page 18] amounting to $2,250. I’m guessing they both get free cell phone plans – since that works out to about $95 a month for each of them. No cell phone bill! Cool!
There is also a line item for “Car Allowance” for $6,000! That’s $250 per month for each guy. That just about covers gas, doesn’t it? Nice benefit!
Anyways – remember that when poor Finley (and all the other Big Wigs at the top of City government – **cough** Monica Wright **cough **) cries about his $150,000 wage not being very much, he is failing to mention the OTHER $40,000 or $50,000 in benefits that goes unseen into his pocket.
One of the most exasperating things to see over 22 years of “economic development” is the ridiculous amount of conventions, courses, webinars, summits, workshops, clinics, and travel these “economic developers” waste mountains of time and money on.
If all of these clinics and workshops worked so well, why are you still going to them after 22 years? Reminds me of “couples therapy” that lasts for 5 years. If you can’t figure your shit out long before that, you are clearly being ripped off by charlatans who just want to keep you coming back so they can bill you even more.
Here is just a small sample from ONE LEDC meeting back in October of 2006:
“Board member Yancy stated that she had attended the AUSA convention in Washington D.C. – she felt the convention was a good tool to promote Lampasas”
“Board President Hetherly stated that she had attended the Texas Municipal League’s “Conference on Small Cities Problem Solving Clinic” and that the clinic was very informative in regards to Economic Development.”
“President Hetherly stated that she had attended the ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making. She stated that it was a good conference to attend.”
All of these conferences, workshops, clinics and nonsense cost the taxpayer a bundle in travel, hotel rooms, meals and fat registration fees.
Naturally, this still goes on today. Our very own City officials travel to the Texas Municipal League convention every fall and do important work like ride on teeter-totters and sing karaoke.
Why, just recently, Mandy Walsh informed the LEDC she had joined the Rural Sparks Roadmap Course, run by another charlatan named Jimi Coplen. Hey it’s “only” $247, but if this chick finds 15 or 20 government-employed suckers who have tax dollars to spend for a few courses every year, that adds up to a nice side hustle for her!
I’m going to have to start keeping track of all the conventions and clinics on this page so we can see just how ridiculous it all is. I don’t have the costs for all of these and it’s frankly too much work to dig into. If cost is listed in the minutes and easy to see, I’ll post it.
This list will be updated frequently:
Grand Central Texas Conference in Atlanta, Georgia [April 2024 LEDC packet]
AUSA Convention in Washington D.C.
Texas Municipal League – annual convention
ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making
TEDC Legislative conference
Economic Board Retreat hosted by Opportunity Strategies LLC (cost of over $2,500 and suggested/approved by Misti Talbert)
I’m sure the city Big Wigs are counting on everyone to forget this, but in the OLD DAYS (like 3 years ago), the pool used to be open on Sundays from 1pm to 6pm. You know – so those of who work during the week can enjoy it.
This is typical of inept government: costs go up and services go down.
With the recent redesign of the LEDC’s Web site — lampasasedc.com — growing interest in Lampasas at the retail conventions she attends and state awards the city has received recently, Mrs. Hargrove believes ongoing economic development efforts will bear fruit soon.
Fast forward 11 years to today: the LEDC is AGAIN re-designing their website. Mandy Walsh is the new Cherry Hargrove. She goes to all these conventions about “revitalizing downtown”. Hargrove ALSO believed that the business recruitment and Business Park efforts would “soon bear fruit”. Just like councilwoman Delana Toups said in 2017, six years after Hargrove’s assurances:
“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017
As did former-councilwoman and complete numb nuts Wanda Biershwale two years before Toups:
“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015
It is like the movie Groundhog Day but not nearly as funny and it will NEVER make a profit.
Well, there certainly is no shortage of dummies who think that a small group of “economic developers” can bring prosperity to a town better than the free market can. Burnet has the same cancer!
I will say, their website is nicer and their free giveaway land looks nicer and is already done!
Here is an article from September 2021:
Construction is progressing at the U.S. 281 South Commercial Park site, located at the corner of Houston Clinton Drive and 281 South in Burnet. Work began in late August.
The 13-acre park will include about six commercial lots and potentially a hotel.
No businesses have signed on as of yet, but, in his weekly report, Burnet City Manager David Vaughn said the city has received a number of calls from interested parties.
“The City has received a number of calls from interested parties”.
Even City manager David Vaughn knows “The Lie That Keeps On Giving”! They must teach that line at City Manager’s School.
Since the article was 8 months ago, I decided to email David and see if these super hot in-demand properties were still available! After all, LEDC Prez Talbert keeps telling us there is just NO commercial property anywhere around here!
What did Vaughn tell me? Here it is:
“We still own the entire 13 acres on 281 south and we have an 8 acre lot and a 3.4 acre lot left out of the original 21 acres on Hwy 29 East.”
Gee, you mean nobody has knocked down your door yet? Even though you are arguably closer to civilization like Austin and Marble Falls? Color me shocked.
Hey Cour! Why don’t you go hit up those Burnet idiots to invest in your Eco-Turd scam? I bet they would bite!
