[** UPDATE 4/21 ** – last night’s meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum. That means they couldn’t even get 4 people to show up. As Misti Talbert said: ‘we are all very dedicated to this Business Park and believe in it strongly”. Funny way of showing it!!]
The LEDC skipped their March meeting – which is exactly what you would expect from a group of wizards who are right smack in the middle of incinerating their next $2.75 million on Phase II (Phase I was in 2015 under Toups regime) of their Business Pork project.
As you may recall, these same wizards told us the park was “shovel ready” nearly SEVEN YEARS ago after they wasted the first few million dollars:
Over $7,100,000.00 will have been spent before it is all said and done…and they really have no legitimate tenants for this debacle right now.
As for tonight’s packet:
We already have another “amendment” – which will line the pockets of Pope Eckermann to the tune of $10,000:
As I blogged WAAAAAY back on June 8th, 2021: “Guys like Pope Eckermann are not stupid. Once the big $2 million dollar [update: now $2.75 million] project is well underway, the LEDC and City council will not even blink at a few “cost increases” of $60,000 here and $86,000 there. That’s how these things work. He knows that morons like Chuck Williamson and Total Joke Monroe will fall victim to the Sunk Cost Fallacy, because they have done so repeatedly in the past.“
I was proven right almost immediately back on August 17, 2021 when they piled another $53,700 onto the taxpayer’s tab. More tithes for the Pope!
Then AGAIN on Jan 28th of this year (another $30,000 to $40,000 additional cost) when they decided to use “lime-stabilized subgrade”.
So with this latest $10,000, we are looking at$103,700in additional costs already – and ground is barely being broken!
FEB 2022 MINUTES – LEDC
I finally got a look at the February minutes (two months old now) and here are the highlights:
The Industrial Park agreement with Martin’s Rod & Custom is still languishing in limbo – no surprises there! It has been nearly SIX MONTHS since the “deal” was drawn up. According to the City secretary, the agreement now sits with the lawyers for Martin’s for them to approve.
Here is a refresher on the “deal” the LEDC is making with the “Industrial Park”:
LEDC Swallowing More Bullshit and Hype.
Speaking of handing out free money, supposedly there is a “new tenant” moving into the old “Perks” building that will “be a bar…serving mixed beverages, but highlighting bourbon specifically”.
[See page 53 for all the details!]
You know what that means! LEDC about to hand out some more fat checks as “life safety grants” so the new owners can comply with the onerous and ridiculous building codes that the City has implemented. So with one hand, the City piles expensive and unneeded codes onto any new business and the other hand of the City hands them free shit paid for by the taxpayer.
Out here in the harsh private sector, this is known as a “circle jerk of fuckery”. In government, it is “business as usual”.
There will ALSO supposedly be two MORE businesses “on each side of the formers Rutland’s building. One has a distillery/tasting room concept, with the upstairs as an event rental space“ [emphasis mine].
Oh no! Event rental space?!? The City is already wasting millions on the Hostess House so THEY can run an “event rental space”! I wonder which one will be better run and cost less in the long run? I know who I’m betting against!
Some Lady Rented Out The Hostess House – Shows Us What a Shit Pile It Is…
Poor LEDC. First they spend over seven million bucks on their business pork project and the free market is already beating them with great jobs available WITHOUT wasting seven million.
NOW, the City is wasting $1.4 million on the Hostess House as an “event rental space” and the free market is going to pound their asses in that game too!
The funniest part (if you find humor in flushing tax money down the toilet) is that the morons on the LEDC will likely hand the owners of this new “event rental space” a bunch of free tax dollars as a “life safety grant” for the very spot that will be competing against THEIR OWN $1.4 million dollar Hostess House spot!
You seriously cannot make this shit up.