Hopefully, you are all caught up on our little saga through the first three parts. We ended Part III with CEO Alan Champagne threatening to take his ball and go home. Then Mike Cour popped up in my email (finally!) and he was none too happy!
Emails below – Lampasshole in blue. Mike Cour in red:
(9/3/20) You are talking negatively about a group of people that are trying to improve on a community not rip it off. I would be more then happy to meet you in person right this minute and answer any questions you have. We are already operating so you don’t have your facts straight. So before you head down a path of trying to tear a great thing down and saying things you should not, I highly recommend you take me up on my offer to meet with me. I think you will like what I have to say and agree with everything we are trying to accomplish.
I responded the same day – miffed about the “don’t have your facts straight” since I had done a ton of homework on this AND emailed Mike HIMSELF and gotten no response:
No need to “meet right this minute” – I emailed you three days ago with questions and got no response. The LEDC has also not been helpful at all.
Talking negatively? I asked a bunch of questions about a company that is appearing in front of the LEDC – the LEDC is funded by tax dollars – a hell of a lot of them. Therefore, it’s not AT ALL out of line for taxpaying citizens to be concerned about how those tax dollars might be spent. Wouldn’t you agree?
I used Buffalo NY as an example of a city that was duped and ripped off by Elon Musk and his “green” pie in the sky. I never made that accusation about you. I stated only that my interest in you was due to seeing OTHER cities ripped off. He asked what my interest was and I told him.
When I see press releases splattered all over the Internet about a June 2nd ground breaking and I know for a FACT that is complete nonsense, then I think it behooves me to ask some questions about exactly what the hell is going on and who is fabricating the nonsense.
I have asked Finley AND the LEDC what exactly the “presentation” was by Mike Cour and Eco-Strong and have gotten no answers. They say there are no arrangements with you. I emailed you directly and got no answers. Hopefully, you can understand why that would make my antennae go up with suspicion. I have watched this local government piss away MILLIONS with nothing to show for it. My concern is that not happen once again.
I am a huge believer that 99% of the time when the government gets involved in handing out incentives, they end up getting screwed. When governments throw money at “economic development” they end up spending 10x more than the private sector would have had they left it alone in the first place.
I would love to see the presentation you made to LEDC – including what you are asking from the LEDC and what you are promising in return. Feel free to email me all pertinent documents pertaining to land costs, land rental, jobs promises, tax breaks, any other favors the LEDC is doing, etc. I’d be more than happy to look at them.
One simple question I STILL have is this: who agreed to any June 2nd ground breaking and who sent out that information all over the Internet? Where was this supposed ground breaking going to take place? Did the LEDC also know about this June 2nd ground breaking? Because if they did, they have been completely silent about it.
Thanks for any info
Mike responded – and things get REALLY interesting here. Mike mentions another location. I wonder if the LEDC knew about that while they were trying to move mountains to appease Mr Cour?? Very odd. Email below from September 4th:
This project has been over a year of effort to see if there was a demand for the product.
During the last year, we had 6 very large prospective clients that gave us verbal agreements to do business with us. This got us extremely excited and we started the process of finding a manufacturing plant site.
During the process of finding a location, we found many sites that might work for us to build on. My property was one of the options but unfortunately does not give us enough space to operate the current business and this new business.
We did locate land where we could build “near Lampasas” and after meeting with the builder we decided to get started on the project. We issued a press release with a date because we had discussed with the landowner and builder and everything seemed to be in order. Unfortunately, COVID-19 became too much for us and our prospects to break ground, so unfortunately plans have changed.
We have not received any funding from anyone, and we intend for this to be a private effort. (The city of Lampasas has not given us anything or allocated to give us anything. We have spoken to them about different lots in the city that would work for what we are looking to do.)
We have located land in several sites located outside of the city area and in other counties. Until the Covid-19 issue remedies itself, we will continue to look for land to build our plant on. We hope it is in or near Lampasas as my home is there. I genuinely love this city and area. I am hoping to bring jobs and more prosperity to the area.
I appreciate your concern and questions. So much so, I believe you to be someone that we should collaborate with as you have great passion and interest in the community. My name is Mike Cour. I am your neighbor in the Lampasas area and I would very much like to learn more about your thoughts on this Endeavor. Let me know if you would like to meet?
Either way, it has been good to hear from you, it has opened our minds to people’s concerns and that is particularly important to us.
Sincerely, Mike Cour
Seems nice and reasonable except for some of these new details – like they were dealing with another land owner at the exact same time the LEDC was telling City council that Mike Cour wanted to be THEIR tenant. I responded thus:
(9/4/20) Mike, I want to believe this, but there are STILL problems with the timeline and facts:
1) The press release WAS issued in May (NOT Feb as Mr Champagne contends). COVID was in full swing and a lock down had already come and gone (month of April). Ewan Scott of Tyre and Rubber told me DIRECTLY that the press release was issued in May and they published May 12th. Covid didn’t suddenly appear in the few days after the May 12th press release and before the June 2nd “ground breaking” date. So it is hard to see how it took you by surprise. Covid was a full-on panic back in mid-March and the press release was sent out almost two months later.
2) The construction and building trade seems to be the ONLY ONE that was NOT affected much by Covid. They are throwing up houses and commercial buildings all over the place in Lampasas. There have been newspaper articles about it. Deorald Finney has been erecting houses every single day at Stone Valley through this entire “pandemic”. A local resident who is opening “Cherry On Top” ice cream parlor told me they are delayed opening because their contractors are “super busy with all the building going on”. There is a new commercial building over by Wal-Mart that will house a Golden Chick and they have worked on it NON STOP since the beginning of this year. Covid has not stopped ANY of that construction all over town.
So I have a very hard time swallowing the “covid” excuse.
3) You say you located land and had a builder….and that this was NOT the LEDC land. So WHERE exactly was the land? Who owned it?
The LEDC has been claiming you as their only “prospective client” for quite a while now. They are likely pinning their grant application hopes on YOU being in the wings and ready to build. So, it doesn’t make sense to me that in April and May, Mandy Walsh and the LEDC were touting you as their prospect while at the VERY SAME TIME you were actually making plans to build on a different piece of land somewhere else on June 2nd.
So either the LEDC is fabricating a story out of whole cloth about YOU being their prospect or you aren’t being truthful with me.
I’d still like to see the materials you presented to the LEDC back in Sept of 2019 and also this past spring. There must have been pages of information or you wouldn’t have shown up there. LEDC does not record their meetings and all it says is “presentation by Mike Cour” – and no other information. They also switched the meeting time from the usual 5:30pm to noon for the meeting you presented at….and most of us work during the day. I was unable to attend.
I have not accused you of taking a single dime of public money. It would be my preference that a single dime of public money is never used. That includes giving land away at far below market prices. If this is a viable project, then there’s no reason it can’t be done on land other than the ‘business park’ land. I’ve lived here almost 9 years now and if there is one thing I see a lot of around the area, it’s WIDE OPEN land. I can’t believe that LAND is the restricting factor in your project.
I look forward to seeing all the information you actually presented to LEDC last September and also this past spring. Thanks.
I guess Mike didn’t like seeing his entire story dismantled logical brick by logical brick. His next email was his last:
I understand what you are saying. We understand COVID was in full swing, but we were optimistic about the orders still coming through. We know that construction did not seem to slow but for whatever the reason our orders from these major companies got put on pause after our announcement. One of the company’s was in the oil and gas industry. They thought every week for a while that their travel ban would be lifted so they could come see our product. I think you will agree that there is uncertainty in that industry so that is still on pause and that was a multimillion dollar transaction. The others that were on pause are now moving forward and things are starting to happen again. One of our options and probably our best option is building in the Business Park whether we buy it at full value, they give it to us or somewhere in between has not been determined. I have verbally committed to doing what is best for Eco-Strong and the City of Lampasas if we chose to put our facility here. Those are the facts and with that being said.
I will not be sending you any documents.
I’ve offered to discuss this with you and it doesn’t seem to be working for you.
Our goal is to help the environment and operate a thriving, profitable business that provides opportunity for all that come into contact with it.
I am sorry if this has been confusing to you.
If you wish to meet then the offer still stands, otherwise, I have nothing else to say.
Wow. Now he’s mentioning the LEDC possibly “giving us” the land. How nice! A little bit of info accidentally slipped out there, buddy!
I made my final response:
That is fine. I have all the information I need to write my exposé on my blog. I will be using all the facts I have gathered and will be sure to mention your refusal to show any of the documents that you ALREADY supposedly showed at LEDC meetings twice.
Considering you did not answer the question about the other land, I have to assume that was all made up?
[note: he never responded to this]
Which thus means you were tied in all along with the LEDC and not some other mystery land owner. That also means that somehow only YOUR side knew about this June 2nd ground breaking and it was never discussed with the LEDC – because they have never made mention of any such thing.
Something stinks here. Just to let you know, I’ll be attempting to uncover every rock with this thing. I don’t just disappear when I think the local government is about to hose the taxpayer…so I’ll be around for a while making waves.
Thanks for your attempt at an explanation, even if a lot of it was contradictory and doesn’t fit facts from the other players in this little drama. Have a lovely holiday weekend.
From these emails, we learn a few things about Mike Cour: He apparently makes “multimillion dollar transactions” with verbal agreements? His 199 acres he owns himself wasn’t suitable to build on but the 165 acre ‘business’ park is?
Here is another weird nugget: According to their website, Eco-Flex operates a 35,000 square foot facility and employs 50 people there.
So if your other giant 35,000 square foot facility only employs 50 people, how is your proposed 10,000 square foot plant here in Lampasas going to employ “up to 200 people”? Or is that just some more pie in the sky bullshit, Mike?