For those of you who live under a rock, the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) has been wasting millions on a “business park” for YEARS now, with nothing to show for it. They have owned the 165-acre weed patch for about 17 years and plowed about $1 million dollars just in “improvements” into it back in 2015 – promising that “high-paying jobs” would soon follow. That did not happen. The weed patch has sat there as a multi-million-dollar disaster for another five years since then.
[I have covered this ad nauseam HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE]
Recently, the same idiots who said we were all set five years ago, NOW say we need to plow ANOTHER $1.9 million into this fiasco to get it REALLY shovel-ready (even though it was supposedly shovel-ready before). They are even brazenly (and DISHONESTLY) calling this “Phase I” of the ‘business park’ improvements. I guess the ONE MILLION you blew back in 2015 was Phase Zero?
Who would be stupid enough to hand Mandy and the LEDC ANOTHER $1.9 million for this failed project? A project that City council member Mike White HIMSELF called “a goat pasture” and a “poor return on investment” which has been going on for DECADES [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].
Why, the Federal Government would be stupid enough, of course! According to Mandy Walsh at the 6/22/20 City council meeting, they will be applying for grants [free money] from programs established FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF.
According to Mandy Walsh herself at the last meeting [go to 6:34 mark]
“We have discussed the EDA (Economic Development Administration) CARES ACT…with our grant writers at length for community management services. What that is, is Congress appropriated $1.5 billion to strengthen and assist communities recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. So the EDA is accepting applications for grants that support a wide variety of projects…um, including, ah, infrastructure…and economic development projects, so that’s what we’re going to be applying for, is the disaster funding through the EDA”
Yeah Mandy….the ‘business park’ is a disaster, all right. But it is a disaster of YOUR making, NOT because of the coronavirus.
So, Mandy and the LEDC are going to try and scam the feds out of a huge pile of money EVEN THOUGH THIS BUSINESS PARK FIASCO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CORONAVIRUS and has been a disaster for “DECADES”, by the admission of Mike White himself [5/26 council meeting].
This enrages me just as much as when I see scumbag politicians in Illinois/Chicago or New York tell the Federal government that they need to fork over $41.6 billion to their cities/states “because of Covid” and Uncle Sugar should just hand over a check.
I’m sorry, but no, your finances aren’t a train wreck because of Covid. They have been a train wreck for decades because of wasteful and idiotic spending by liberals. Chicago and New York made their beds by electing socialists and morons who ran their budgets into the ground….they should lay in those beds WITHOUT a bailout from the Feds – i.e., the rest of us.
Same goes for Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and our own City council…many of whom I would assume identify as “Republican” or “conservative”. YOU made this mess. YOU kept throwing good money after bad. YOU made this bed and now YOU should lie in it….not some poor tax paying sap who lives in Georgia or Arizona.
I can tell you this: if it’s the last thing I do, I am going to try and stop this theft of federal money you are using to cover up LEDC and City council incompetence. Get ready for a flood of Open Records Requests from me. Who is your grant writer? What percentage of the dough are they getting? Who is your “viable tenant” for the ‘business park’ that you are pinning your hopes on and bullshitting the Feds with on your grant application? I sure hope it isn’t Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong scam, because I already visited his OTHER company (Equicare at 15500 S-US 183) and took photos of the absolute JOKE ‘Eco-Strong” is. It is a weed patch with some crappy rubber mats piled up that have been there for quite a while, by the looks of it.
[Not to mention, Mike Cour and Equicare currently sit on approximately 200 acres ALREADY. He has ZERO need for the business park unless he himself is trying to scam some free stuff from the taxpaying chumps of Lampasas. Don’t worry…I’m all over him like a cheap suit, too]
I’ll be there at every turn calling you all out as welfare queens and parasites, which you most certainly are. This is brazen theft and, in my opinion, fraud. The money you are trying to scam out of Uncle Sugar has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with coronavirus and EVERYTHING to do with rampant incompetence and fiscal mismanagement on the part of the LEDC, City council and Mandy Walsh herself.