Tag: concrete removal

Industrial Park Agreement Shows City Lied to Public Back in October 2022.

Last October, Finley came to City council asking for $38,300 to demolish all the concrete at the 5.6 acre Industrial Park plot (on east 580 across from Martin’s Rod and Custom) and to haul away approximately 420 tons of said concrete.

His reasoning? [see page 71]

Staff has identified the need to remove surplus, excess, damaged, and unusable concrete work at the City’s Industrial Park to make the property more marketable. Council to consider a motion to award contract for concrete removal in the amount of $38,300 to WT Excavation.

I was highly suspicious of this reason at the time. That was the SAME piece of property that was supposedly being negotiated over with Martin Rod & Custom. It made no sense that this was to “make it more marketable” generally when Martin was looking to “make a deal” on that same piece of land specifically.

What made sense to ME was that Martin demanded the City pay $38,300 to fix it up for him before he would agree to anything. But Finley presented this in a deceptive way – neglecting to inform us this was essentially a gift to Martin Rod and Custom:

Is Finley Getting Nut-Punched Yet Again?

As I wrote at the time:

BUT here’s the rub: if the agreement has been sitting on the desk of and “in the possession” of Mr. Martin and his attorney for the last seven months, then why is the City suddenly unilaterally spending almost $40,000 to “make it more marketable”?

Or did we not get the entire truth? Is the truth maybe “Martin demanded we pay to have to concrete removed or he won’t go forward”? If that is the case, then THAT should have been mentioned at the City council meeting.

… maybe Martin demanded the concrete be removed (at great expense to the taxpayer) and the City lied and said they did it to “make it more marketable” – and conveniently omitted the part about who was actually demanding it be done.

Turns out I was right. This is directly from the newly-released details of the agreement:

ARTICLE IX: City’s Contribution

9.01 – “City agrees to provide and pay for the initial clearing of the property.”

Also in ARTICLE VIII: ACTIONS PRECEDENT TO PHASE II

8.02 – “City commences clearing of concrete structures at the site, leveling with road base material”

So the taxpayer paid to “make it more marketable”, all right. But not more marketable for the CITY in terms of finding a tenant! It was to make it more marketable for MARTIN’s ROD & CUSTOM when they start their “PHASE I” of the agreement – which involves Martin getting paid by people to store their boats and RVs there. Finley just left that part out.

City Council Meeting 10-10-22 Recap

Haven’t been keeping up as much as I’d like with CC meetings. Here is a recap of tonight’s meeting:

Finley made his Manager’s Report. When he got to the “LEDC” line item, he babbled a bit about how the Business Pork has some paved roads now! Halleluiah! No doubt, it will be filled to the brim with “high paying jobs” in no time!

He then quickly segued into how they are looking for a replacement for Economic Director Mandy Walsh, who abruptly resigned last week. He also mentioned that Liberty Hill AND Georgetown are ALSO looking to hire economic directors! What are the odds??

[Actually Finley, Georgetown supposedly hired a new guy 17 days ago. Perhaps he didn’t work out? I know Finley himself has lost new hires (*cough* assistant City manager *cough*) just days after hiring, so I suppose it’s possible.]

Aaaaand, that was it! Not a single mention of how awesome Mandy was or thanking her for her 5.5 years of service. No gushing over her performance and listing of her accomplishments. No decorative pins or medallions for her years of service. No walk down memory lane with council members bawling about her departure. None of the mushy bullshit that Mayor Talbert got in spades when she ended her mayoral service (only 4 years). Nope. Just “we’re looking for Mandy’s replacement” – much in the same tone of voice you might say “I’ll have the Egg McMuffin”. Zero emotion at all. Zero appreciation.

Gee…some thanks, eh? I get the feeling that perhaps some people are miffed about the abrupt resignation right as the Business Pork was nearing its Big Completion Date and unveiling. We’ll see if any little birdies chirp in my ear at lampasshole@protonmail.com one of these days. I get the feeling there’s a story there somewhere.

Wayfinding signs: Council is consideringblowing $60,000on fancy “wayfinding signs” [also called “street signs”] like you may find in Fredericksburg or Marble Falls:

You know…so visitors from out of town can find our opulent vineyards, our many museums and the marina their yacht is moored at. I have foolishly been using the GPS function on my shitty Samsung phone all these years to find stuff. Thank goodness we now will have massive, overpriced signs to direct us where to go.

In fact, in the newspaper article about it, they mentioned Fredericksburg and Marble Falls SPECIFICALLY as models for this project. Because we are SO much like those towns in terms of millions of dollars sloshing around waiting to be wasted.

Council unanimously approved spending $60,000 on this project. Zero discussion.

Concrete removal at the Industrial Pork: I covered this a few days ago. I know City council reads here, but there were no questions about Finley’s assertions that removing the concrete will “make the property more valuable”. There were no questions about why they are bothering with this when they are ALREADY wasting millions to “make the property marketable” over at the Business Pork project. So they will be spending money on TWO ‘industrial parks’ at the same time – with ZERO realistic prospects to fill either one of them.

Of course, this is the same group that sold a City building for $75,000 and then bought it back 15 months later for $229,000 – so clearly they know a LOT about value, right??

The concrete removal money was approved unanimously in the course of maybe 30 seconds.

For those of you keeping count, that was $100,000 in spending approved on very questionable “necessities” in the course of roughly 90 seconds.

But don’t worry. Just keep sending those checks to City Hall!