eco-strong – The Original Lampasshole

LEDC Discussing “Workplace Business Concept” For Empty $7.4 Million Business Pork Project. Unclear What That Means.

There was a tiny nugget of info in the latest LEDC packet on page 5 (item IX) and buried in the minutes from the February 21st meeting. Naturally, it was discussed in super secret “executive session” so the plebes couldn’t hear what was going on.

According to the packet:

“Discussion and possible action regarding Workspace business concept at the Lampasas Business Park and terms of engagement with the company.”

I’m not sure why they capitalized “workspace,” because that would denote a proper noun and thus the name of the company. But I KNOW from years and years of tangling with the LEDC bozos that they would NEVER let the name of any company out in the minutes this early in the game. They’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on their hack attorney JC Brown just to keep info like that from me.

So it’s clearly a typo by the secretary. Or she doesn’t understand proper nouns. Most likely the latter.

I can also find nothing on any company called “Workspace” except for this one located in the UK.

What this kinda sounds like to me is yet ANOTHER level of scammers trying to insert themselves between the taxpayer, the LEDC and the end user.

For instance: perhaps it is a (as-yet secret and unnamed) company that specializes in the “shared office space” business model. A model that is rife with grifter scumbags and morons like WeWork’s Adam Neumann. A model that is doomed to huge failure especially now, as office space across the U.S. sits unused in the wake of the Covid scamdemic.

I can see the LEDC falling for something this stupid. They would give this “workspace” company a bunch of free stuff and land so they can build some office space there that will likely sit empty forever. Think of that Twisted Oak building right down the street…then multiply by 20.

If the office space never gets filled, the “workspace” company walks away with very little lost.

If it by some miracle makes a ton of money, the workspace company cleans up and LEDC gets nothing.

Heads, I win and tails you lose.

Naturally, this is lose/lose for the taxpayer. Kind of like the retarded “Industrial Park” agreement they recently blew up and wasted $45,000 on.

This will just be a LOT bigger.

Speaking of retarded deals and the LEDC, it looks like Eco-Turd is maybe packing up and vacating that building over there by Lampasas Beer Market. They look to be disassembling that awful, shitty demo fence that has been there for a year or two now. The fences that were marketed at almost $100 per linear foot…

***“Five foot nine? I didn’t know they stacked shit that high!”***

I drive by there all the time and it NEVER looked like anyone was “manufacturing” jack shit, to me. Either way, there are literally ZERO cars out front now and some new signs on both doors that say “Authorized Personnel Only” as if maybe, just maybe, Mike Cour got the boot and is not welcome back.

Don’t forget that Eco-Turd had the gall to ask the City of Lampasas for $1.8 million a couple years ago. LEDC was either smart enough or broke enough that they never entered that deal.

If any birdies want to sing about Eco-Strong leaving town or moving into new digs – you can reach me at lampasshole@protonmail.com

Related: did you know the LEDC has a Twitter page? Yep. Hasn’t been updated in 2.5 years, however. Such a hard-working group. Thank goodness we have them in charge.

Little Birdies: Biz Pork Prospect Likely Eco-Turd and/or Mobile Home Builder

Eco-Turd again? I am really wondering who is dumb enough to pay $90 a foot for a fence. Seems pretty much impossible to me. There must be other parties buying products. Maybe a government or “polluting” company that needs to burnish their “green image” so they buy overpriced crap from Eco-Turd.

No matter. My lawyer is on the job again and we will leave no stone unturned. Be assured I’ll remind the LEDC of all their rules about who they can and cannot hand tax money to.

In honor of Eco-Turd, I’m going to go through my piles of old LEDC stuff and find all the emails I have between Mandy Walsh and Finley discussing the Eco-Turd a couple years ago when they were strung along by Mike Cour.

Eco-Turd Owner Raising Cash?

You’ll recall that last year, Eco-Strong owner Mike Cour was THIS/CLOSE to dumping his entire 199-acre property for around $6 million – or roughly $30,000 per acre.

This is the SAME guy who wanted some free stuff from the LEDC for this Eco-Turd company. I asked him at the time why he needed free land from the taxpayers if he had 200 acres himself?

He didn’t like me asking those questions.

Anyway, the deal fell through and I hear the would-be buyer walked away from a $100k deposit on the place (this is just what I heard – I have not seen any documentation). THEN, the property was re-listed almost immediately at $5 million. Ouch. Immediate 17% haircut!

So close!

Well, looks like Mike is trying to shave off chunks of the property to raise some cash. Not only do you get 11 whole acres, but you get the apparently-failing “Equicare” business and the included buildings with it…

Trying to keep the Eco-Turd afloat until the LEDC throws some free stuff their way? Guess we’ll soon find out!

Eco-Turd Being Pushed Even Harder By LEDC. I Am About To Blow Them Out Of The Toilet Water…

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:

They supposedly recycle 5 million tires per year.

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.

Eco-Flex is NOT on the list.

However, they DO list “Champagne Edition Inc/Eco-Flex” as one of EIGHTEEN companies (Enviropaving, Rubberon, Rubber Stone, Dinoplay, Urban Rubber Paving, etc) that make products with the crumb rubber produced by those three ACTUAL tire recyclers.

***They make mats, stair treads, ramps, etc – they DON’T recycle shit***

So “Eco-Flex” is nothing special. LOTS of companies take crumb rubber and turn it into “green” products like sidewalks, playgrounds, mats, etc. The Alberta website lists SEVENTEEN other businesses that do essentially the same thing:

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.

#3 – If “Eco-Flex” (or “Champagne Edition”) is a company that is such a boon to their town (Legal, Alberta) and this business employs SO many people that the LEDC is trying to copy it here, then why are neither of those company names listed in the business directory of Legal Alberta???

**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.

LOL. Good times.

Eco-Strong STILL Hanging Around Looking For Handout – Despite Owner Selling His Own Land For $5.95 Million

Mike Cour and Eco-Strong are the turds that just won’t get buried. For some reason, the idiots at the LEDC think this scumbag is a legit prospect and cannot wait to hand the taxpayers’ money to him – despite the fact he is selling HIS OWN 199.93 acres for $5.95 million. The property he is selling is literally RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD from the Business Pork project (he is at 15500 S Hwy 183):

***Note the “Equicare” signage – despite Zillow trying to hide address***

Just to recap:

#1 For the last few years, Mike Cour owned 199 acres literally right down the street from the LEDC Business Pork. He runs what appears to be a failing “Equine care” facility there.

#2 That is MUCH more acreage than the Business Pork land (199 acres versus 150 acres). Yet back in 2020, he didn’t want to use his OWN land for his genius business idea of turning old tires into other other garbage (Eco-Strong).

#3 Instead, Mike Cour and”Eco-Strong” tried to grab $1.85 MILLION in taxpayer funds back in 2020 – INCLUDING five acres of land in the “business park”!! Here is a screen shot from his shitty Power Point packet he gave to the LEDC:

So the guy sitting on 200 acres and a supposedly “can’t miss, brilliant business idea” went with his hat in hand to try and bilk the LEDC out of 5 acres of land AND another $1.75 million to basically pay for the entire thing for him.

Wow – what a deal! The taxpayers take all the risk, and if it pays off, scumbag Mike Cour gets the payout!

As a reminder, Mike Cour was ALSO previously tangled up in Triton Financial a few years back. Triton was sued for fraud and Mike Cour is listed as a defendant:

***Triton was a Ponzi scheme that blew up.***

Sounds like a GREAT guy to get in business with!

So Mike Cour is about to pocket almost $6 million for selling his land on Highway 183 for nearly $30,000 per acre, and he is STILL slutting around the LEDC and angling for some kind of hand out? That’s how it looks from the latest LEDC packet (see page 11)

Eco-Strong has supposedly rented that brand new warehouse over on Pecan Street just south of Brown’s Feed:

I just happened to be over there the other day and took a few photos. It’s definitely the Eco-Turd product out back there:

**I predict that the second part of Cour’s scam is to sell this “green” bullshit to moron cities like Austin who are flush with federal money to “save the environment”.**

According to the LEDC packets, Eco-Strong is “temporarily manufacturing and shipping from their warehouse on Pecan Street“. I can tell you that at least half of that statement is complete horseshit. There is ZERO manufacturing going on there. The inside of the warehouse doesn’t even look complete yet.

Also funny that Eco-Turd hasn’t changed their official “headquarters” address yet on ANY of their Internet sites:

My SUSPICION (and this is not fact, just my guess) is this: Cour will pocket that money he made from the land sale (minus any liens he has on it), he will then rent this warehouse for a year to look “legit”, and at the end of the year when the Business Pork is supposed to be JUST getting finished, he will AGAIN go to the LEDC and try to get a bunch of free shit – including FREE LAND just down the street from his OWN LAND that he just sold for $29,900 per acre!

My opinion is that the ludicrous overpriced-land boom has bailed this asshole out of his crappy Equicare biz and allowed him some breathing room while he tries to scam the LEDC again. Again, this is my opinion – not fact. Only time well tell if I’m correct.

It also proves AGAIN that the best move the LEDC could have made is to sell their shitty 150 acres for around $4.5 million and be done with it. After all, that’s what EVERYONE around here with any big chunks of land is doing right now: just sticking it up the ass of these morons dumb enough to pay $30k per acre.

While I love the idea of libtarded Austinites getting face-raped at these prices, I detest the idea of those same libtards overrunning this town.

The final irony will be when Cour’s 200 acres is chopped into a 400-house subdivision, thus giving us the exact same pile of houses that Talbert says was a bad way to go with the Business Pork land in the first place.

Irony and stupidity abound. Mike Cour and the LEDC are right smack in the middle of all of it.

More to come on Mike Cour and Alan Champagne and and all their lies.

Eco-Strong Money Grab – Part II

We saw in Part I how Alan Champagne and Mike Cour were spinning lies and webs of bullshit for months trying to keep the LEDC and Mandy Walsh on the hook before they foolishly asked for $1.85 million dollars of tax dollars for their “privately funded” project.

I ran across a hilarious fuckup by Mike Cour when he sent Mandy Walsh the “rough draft” of the press release he was about to send out on May 7th:

SO many lies!!! They had NOT relocated corporate headquarters and they were NOT scheduled to break ground anywhere!

Mandy emails him back and asks why it says CITY in there instead of Lampasas! LOL!!

Mike emails back defensively “Does it matter?”. Ummm, yes it matters, moron. You are SUPPOSEDLY going to put your plant HERE…and not anywhere else.

Oops, Mike! Caught red-handed. Looks like Mike might actually be shopping this around at the same time he’s wooing the LEDC with promises of moving into their business park! Mike told me a similar story about another phantom piece of land to try and cover up his PREVIOUS lies about the press release timelines not matching up. I asked who owned the other land and where it was.

No answer. So either THAT was a lie, or he didn’t want LEDC to know he was kissing other asses too in order to try and get more free stuff.

He also doesn’t even have the square footage figured out yet! I pointed THAT out last year too. In his presentation to the City, he quoted 10,000 square feet. Then in the press release it was 25,000 square feet. Either way, he spouts the same lie that it will produce 200 jobs.

Sure buddy. Your plant in Alberta is 35,000 square feet and only employs 50 people! But your 22,000 square foot plant HERE will produce 200 jobs. Sure it will! Can you smell the bullshit from here?? Apparently the LEDC couldn’t.

Also, your existing Canadian 35,000 square foot plant recycles 6 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 Mike Cour and Alan Champagne (despite their protestations to the contrary) are all about GRABBING THAT FREE MONEY!! They can’t be bothered with silly details like square footage or job creation or how many tires will be recycled! You can smell the desperation in these emails below.

I gotta tell you Mike, desperation is a stinky cologne:

Grant money! Grant money! Ask her about it! Ask for more! Money money money!! Grant money!

Just a reminder to those of you who actually earn your money out in the real world by getting up and busting your ass: “grant” is a fancy word for “free tax money stolen from someone else that you never have to pay back”. Not a loan. Not an “investment”. Just free shit thrown right into the wallets of scumbag con men like Alan Champagne and Mike Cour.

Alan Champagne and Mike Cour Caught Lying Red-Handed – Part I

When I started asking a few questions about Eco-Flex and Eco-Strong and their weird press releases last year, CEO Alan Champagne could not keep his stories straight.

Eco-Flex Can’t Get Their Stories Straight

His big whopper of a lie was that the joke of a press release I saw about breaking ground in Lampasas on June 2nd was actually sent out in February BEFORE Covid hit. I knew this was bullshit. Now I have proof:

Oh! Lookie there! In an email dated May 7th, good old Mike Cour is still working on his press release – which will hit “around Monday”. Monday would be May 11th. VERY close to the May 12th date I insisted was the ACTUAL release date.

Alan Champagne lied last September and told me:

“The press release was issued late February , I dont feel I have to explain myself. With the boarder closure which was supposed to be temporary and now will probably be closed to the end of this year. This is a private company which is not using any government funds or such.”

[It’s spelled BORDER you absolute moron]

Oops. Guess it wasn’t issued in February after all….was it, scum bag?

Also, the BORDER closure did NOT prevent Alan Champagne from traveling here to Texas to make his pitch (a lie he told Mandy Walsh over and over). The REALITY is he could have come for business if he wanted to. Canada and U.S. only closed their BORDER for NON-ESSENTIAL movement. This is from a press release on 3/21/20:

The border remains open for essential travel, which includes the transportation of goodsand travel for work, in order to not hamper trade and the supply chains between the two countries.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the REAL reason Alan Champagne couldn’t come here is that (1) he has an ankle monitor on for being a serial bullshit artist in Canada OR (2) he knew this project was a giant pile of feces and couldn’t get through the pitch with a straight face.

His THIRD lie in just that one paragraph is “this is a private company which is not using any government funds or such”. Mike Cour ALSO repeated the exact same lie to me in a separate email, saying “we intend for this to be a private effort.”

Uh huh. That wasn’t my accusation, Alan. You might not CURRENTLY be scamming any government funds in Canada, but my accusation is that you were LOOKING to grab some free stuff down here in Lampasas and screw over our local government and LEDC. I was right about that too!

When I FINALLY got my hands on the pathetic Eco-Flex/Eco-Strong pitch that looks like an 8th grader did it, I got to see what they were REALLY asking for from the LEDC and the City:

***How can Lampasas help? Just hand us $1.85 million dollars, suckers!!***

Yeah. We don’t want anything! Totally private effort! Oh, besides the five acres of free land AND another ONE POINT SEVEN FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to build a plant! Besides that, we’ll handle everything!

Are you fucking kidding me?? This moron reminds me of Jerry Lundegaard in the movie Fargo trying to get his rich father-in-law to hand him cash in this classic scene:

“He’s saying we put in all the money and HE collects if it pays off!” [50 second mark]

I’m guessing Mandy and the LEDC were ready to hand over the land. Why not? They have 152 acres of it sitting there. They were also prepared to waste another $1.9 million on “Phase I” (really Phase II) construction. This is on TOP of the million they blew running water and electricity to the site in 2015.

But handing these retards $1.75 million?? That was a bridge too far. Only TJ Monroe would OK a ridiculous waste of money like that, and thankfully she’s not in charge. It’s my belief that Eco-Turd asking for such a ludicrous amount of money is what ultimately blew up the deal. I also think Mandy was starting to suspect this guy was a shit bag for other reasons and was maybe stringing her along. We’ll get to that in Part II.

Has The Eco-Turd Finally Been Buried?

Like a guilty cat burying a stringy and malnourished turd under the sand, so doth the LEDC quietly and unceremoniously dump Eco-Strong as a “business park prospect”.

Cat Poops In The Litter Stock Photo, Picture And Royalty Free Image. Image 27975898.

Well, it took a looong time, but there are FINALLY some new LEDC minutes on the City website. Specifically, the minutes from the Feb 24th meeting.

Hey…just because they didn’t meet in December (which is normal) or January (which is not) doesn’t mean they aren’t hard at work!!

Anyways, it looks like the sad and sorry Eco-Strong “business prospect” turd might finally be buried. Even after paying Impact DataSource a bunch of money to paint Eco-Turd in a flattering light, they must have realized that Mike Cour was just too full of shit even for THEM to spin the story in a positive light.

So now it looks like they are back to square one. I would like to think my tireless exposing of Mike Cour and Eco-Strong had something to do with this. Don’t worry Mike, I have zero doubt you will try and run your scam again in another town. Best of luck!

According to the LEDC minutes from Feb 24th:

“Mandy Walsh (Economic Development ‘Director’) discussed with the board the options of the Business Park. One being the possibility of applying for the standard EDA grant contingent on a business prospect. Second option is to request an updated loan proposal from Bancorp South to fund development of Phase I”

Looks to me like they no longer have any “business prospects” for their ~~goat pasture~~ ‘business’ park. Which means Eco-Turd must have been flushed down the toilet. Finally.

[That would be the “standard EDA grant” that Langford was supposed to have done WAY BACK on July 31, 2020. I’m guessing that in order to complete the grant, they needed to show they had a viable business prospect. Despite SIX YEARS of trying, they STILL don’t have one]

Oh, they tried mightily to polish the Eco-Turd and pin their hopes on Mike Cour – but that was a sorry joke. I have detailed Eco-Strong HERE and HERE and HERE.

Also, it is NOT “Phase I” as they continually lie about in public. Phase I was actually back in 2015 when they pissed away over a million bucks to make the ‘business’ park ‘shovel ready’. That was a lie then and it still is today:

*Hey! There’s TJ Monroe smiling about another one of her many screw-ups! I hear she’s running for mayor now! Yipeeee!!*

So – now they are mulling the options between finding another “business prospect” to hand a bunch of free shit to in exchange for dubious promises of growth. OR they go back to the bank and try to borrow the money to put themselves even deeper in the hole in this idiotic project.

[Let’s NOT forget, they have already handed Pope Eckermann about $70,000 to draw up plans for “Phase I” (really Phase II) and they STILL don’t have any idea how they are going to pay for it! Classic! Spend $70,000 on plans you might never be able to use]

I suggest a third option, which I have suggested for about 8 years now: sell the piece of shit and get out of the entire thing. It is and was a doomed project. Putting the likes of TJ Monroe and Cathy Kuehne in charge of millions of tax dollars for “economic development” is a recipe for disaster.

Just remember TJ Monroe’s colossally terrible prediction about the ~~weed patch~~ ‘business’ park almost SIX YEARS AGO to the day:

“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015

For some other hilariously wrong predictions, you can click on this link and read them all.

City Forced To Turn Over LEDC ‘Business’ Park Prospect Impact Study

Well, score one for the taxpayer and the little guy.

Despite JC Brown and Finley’s best efforts to stymie me, the “impact study” the City had conducted for Eco-Strong as a viable candidate to be a “business” park tenant is now in my hands.

I think this is the first time the Attorney General has sided with me. The score may be something like 4-1 in favor of City attorney JC Brown and Mayor “Transparency” Talbert, but that’s ok. It’s nice to finally win one.

I started perusing the docs yesterday and I can already say, it looks like a whole lot of numbers pulled from asses. I will post more detailed analysis over the next week or so, but there are a few tidbits below. I figured the taxpayers of Lampasas would like to know what their City is considering getting into:

[If you need to brush up on Eco-Strong, please start HERE]

They are proposing the following:

“A 35,000 square foot facility that will recycle 500,000+ tires per MONTH”.

By my math, that is 16,600 tires EVERY SINGLE DAY moving through the “business park”. Sounds like absolute horseshit to me. Assume you had a truck big enough to carry 1000 tires at a time (a random guess by me). That means a truck pulling in there every hour between 5am and 10pm. Every single day. Forever.

I don’t buy that shit for a minute.

“The firm will initially have 30 workers – the initial average annual salaries of these workers will be $33,000”

Wow. Those are some high-paying, high-tech jobs there, Mandy! Shoveling tire crumbs into a furnace, or however they do it, for about $16/hr. I think I’d rather work my way up at Wal-Mart to $16 in a year or two, but that’s me.

Has anybody given a moment’s thought to JUST the massive amount of traffic required to transport 500,000 tires worth of material into and then back out of the property every month? The pollution?

I doubt it.

There is much, much more. We’ll be back soon with all of it.

Somebody Has Some ‘Splaining To Do Regarding Eco-Strong, Mike Cour and the ‘Business’ Park Money Pit

[There is a LOT of nonsense and lies to sort through in this story. This will be PART I of III]

So it’s time to find out once and for all who is lying through their teeth. Is it the LEDC (Lampasas Economic Development Corp)? Mike Cour of Eco-Strong? Alan Champagne the asshole Canadian CEO? All of the above? With all the evidence I have here (press releases, minutes, emails, etc) I have DEFINITIVE PROOF that somebody is completely full of shit and got caught RED HANDED spewing falsehoods.

Oh my. THAT won’t look good on any federal application for free money, will it?

Let’s start with a brief recap of the LEDC’s ‘business’ park boondoggle and exactly when Mike Cour and Eco-Strong came into the picture.

2004: LEDC buys 152 acres on south 183 – $909,835 value on tax filings. I am not going off into the weeds, but I believe it was smaller to start and more land was added later. Makes no difference in our story.

2004 through 2013: land sits as unused weed patch but money is wasted on it CONSTANTLY as vultures feast on taxpayer’s asses [See: Business Park is Huge Piece of Pork]

2012: land appraised by Herbst Real Estate. Now valued at $817,978 or down 10% in value.

2014/2015: LEDC and City council convince themselves that if they just spend ANOTHER million, the business park will see “high paying jobs” come rolling in. LEDC and City spend over a million bucks for pipes in the ground and wires for electricity. I have covered this ad nauseam. Park is now “shovel ready” according to all involved. Money is spent to promote ‘business park’.

2015 through 2019: ZERO companies move into the ‘shovel ready’ ‘business park’ despite all the promises from politicians and City employees – many of whom are STILL sitting in those positions.

September 2019: Eco-Strong is incorporated in Texas (yes, it was just formed).

September 18, 2019: LEDC minutes show “presentation by Mike Cour of Eco-Strong. That’s it. ZERO details. This is the first appearance of Mike Cour.

February 19, 2020: Mike Cour and Eco-Strong are never mentioned again in LEDC minutes OR City council minutes until Feb 19th. The LEDC agenda shows Mike Cour to make another presentation [page 1, item III]. The minutes [page 1, item III] show ‘Mike Cour not present‘. Boy…he must REALLY be serious since he bailed at the last second and couldn’t be bothered to show up, eh?

March 18, 2020 LEDC meeting – cancelled due to COVID.

April 15,2020 LEDC meeting – ALL that is discussed is how to throw $100,000 in free money to any local business asking for it. ZERO mention of any Eco-Strong or Mike Cour items.

Here is where it all gets interesting. Mike Cour/Eco-Strong/Eco-Flex start sending out press releases that are outright lies.

May 15, 2020: I find ridiculous bullshit “press releases” that Mike Cour and Eco-Strong/Eco-Flex are about to break ground on June 2nd on a manufacturing plant IN LAMPASAS. This is a lie. Who made it up? Why? We’ll get to that in Part II. Press release was sent out around May 10th, according to Ewan Scott of Tyre and Rubber Recycling Magazine.

May 20, 2020: Mike Cour FINALLY appears before LEDC a second time – EIGHT MONTHS after the initial ‘presentation’. LEDC changes meeting time to NOON instead of the usual 5:30pm. This prevents prying eyes from learning anything about Mike Cour.

At this meeting, Mike Cour says “would like to begin manufacturing in August 2020” [see LEDC minutes page 2, item V at bottom]. This is bizarre because Eco-Flex has ALREADY sent out press releases 10 days earlier babbling that they “will break ground on June 2nd“.

It is ALSO bizarre because according to EVERYTHING the LEDC and City council have been discussing, there is NO WAY the ‘business’ park will be ready in three months (August 2020). They are talking more like 8 to 10 months – which REALLY means more like 1.5 years if history is any guide.

[Gee – here we are now.. WELL past the month of August…and NOTHING has happened. As usual. Better revise those bullshit timelines again!]

Mike also presents to the LEDC that he is interested in a “10,000 square foot manufacturing plant” but his press releases say 25,000 square feet. Which is it, Mike? HUGE difference. Also, your current business (Equicare) sits on a piece of land that is BIGGER than the entire Lampasas Business Park (199 acres versus 165 acres, roughly). So I’m wondering why you don’t just go ahead and build your killer plant on YOUR OWN property! Why get the LEDC involved?

Wait, don’t tell me….you want some free shit, maybe?

May 26, 2020: Joint City/LEDC meeting. City and LEDC lament that property is NOT ‘ready’ [video archive at 7:30 mark – “we have the land but it’s not ready to go into”]. Weird, since they have been touting “SHOVEL READY” for almost FIVE YEARS now. Councilman Mike White refers to the current state of the two million dollar project as a “goat pasture” [9:40 mark in video]

A portly fellow at the table on right side of video (no idea who he is) speaks of a ‘current prospect’ but never names names [10:35 mark]. This ‘current prospect’ is “ready to pull this trigger on their side if we’re able to help them on our side“

[Help them on our side? Sounds like “hand them a lotta free shit” to me. But I digress]

The portly fellow then goes on at the 11:34 mark: “from what I understand, if we are able to commit, I think it would fit their [Eco-Strong’s] timeline”

Ummm…what?? Ex-squeeze me? Mike Cour already claimed he’s breaking ground SEVEN DAYS from this meeting! LOL. THEN, he said August 2020 during his second presentation. NEITHER of those “fits your timeline” of 8 to 10 months, buddy.

Somebody is lying like a rug here.

I finally emailed Finley and asked point blank what all the secrecy was about. Was the prospect Mike Cour and Eco-Strong? Finley confirms that YES, it is Mike Cour and Eco-Strong they are referring to as their ONE and ONLY prospect for their business park.

In other words, the LEDC and City of Lampasas are ready to squander $1.9 MILLION DOLLARS to have this park be “ready” for Mike Cour and his ‘business’. The SAME Mike Cour who is telling the world in press releases something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. The same Mike Cour who already sits on a piece of property bigger than the LEDC business park land….and all for a measly 10,000 square foot building?

LOL. Makes total sense!

To recap:

Mike Cour and/or Eco-Flex/Eco-Strong sends out a false press release around May 10th that they will be breaking ground on a tire plant in Lampasas on June 2nd…

THEN Mike Cour gets up in front of the LEDC a week later and says they want to start manufacturing in August 2020…

THEN this portly fellow at the joint LEDC/City meeting sits there and says that the time lines mesh. Sorry but 7 days isn’t the same as three months which also isn’t the same as 8 to 10 months. Finley also says “we are VERY very early in this process [18:33 mark]” YET Eco-Flex has ALREADY been spewing out press releases that ground breaking is imminent.

Lies, lies and more lies. And ALL of this before the grant application has even been submitted!!

Finley scrambled with some bullshit [11:50 mark] about how they can maybe make a ‘temporary’ spot in the park for Mike Cour to get going. Really? If that’s true, then why spend the $1.9 million at all?

I’m guessing the LEDC and the City REALLY need to show the Feds they have a “legit” prospect for their grant application and they’ll spin as many yarns and stretch as many truths as they have to in order to do it.

So of course….I went digging to trap these morons in their own lies. Parts II and III will cover all the emails between myself, Mike Cour, Eco-Flex, the moron CEO Alan Champagne and Ewan Scott, publisher of Tyre and Rubber Recycling Magazine