Tag: Industrial park

Is Finley Getting Nut-Punched Yet Again?

According to the City this week: “The Industrial Park agreement is still alive and should be finalized soon“.

My bad. I figured that after a year AND after the City agreed to blow around $40,000 removing old concrete to “make it more marketable” that the deal was dead. Maybe it still is, but something smells funny about “the agreement”….

That would be the “agreement” that was first mentioned in November of 2021 – a year ago. It has been “in the possession of Mr. Martin and his attorney” for QUITE a while now…

March 21, 2021: “No the agreement is not quite finalized.  It is under review by attorneys.  We anticipate it being completed soon.  I will get you a copy as soon as it has been finalized”  

April 13, 2022: “No the agreement is still being reviewed by his attorney.”

June 9th, 2022: “Staff actually followed up this week and it is still in the possession of Mr. Martin and his attorney.  We are hopeful that it will be finalized soon.”

I got the same answer in August and September.

[Apparently “soon” means the same thing here as it meant when City council assured us that “large companies” would soon move into the Business Park back in April of 2017.]

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.

If that is the case, then the story about “making it more marketable” is bullshit. Then the truth would be that the “agreement” that has supposedly been in their possession and waiting for them to sign or not sign is ACTUALLY still an ongoing negotiation and the Martin side is squeezing the City’s nut sack – which has historically been the case.

It wouldn’t be the first time Finley’s nut sack was used as a punching bag.

So either the deal actually IS dead and they are lying about that – and the expenditure really IS to “make it more marketable” to some future as-of-yet-unknown tenant out there somewhere who might come along….

….OR (more likely) 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.

One or the other has to be true.

Ruh Roh. Did Industrial Park Deal Fall Through?

My goodness…how can someone be talking about using the “Industrial Park” for food trucks if Martin Rod & Custom is going to use it for barber shops and breweries??

I’m sure the LEDC would never hide information from the public or refuse to admit failure. Martin will probably move in there any day now and this is all a big misunderstanding.

More LEDC Hype Fizzles Like a Fart In The Wind

Stop me if you’ve heard this one…

The LEDC hypes a bunch of “interest” in the Industrial Park or Business Park and it all turns out to be pie-in-the-sky bullshit as Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second for the 100th time in a row:

I find it hard to believe that Mandy Walsh keeps falling for this over and over again. Then again, her $107,000 in salary and benefits kind of DEPENDS on her believing this shit over and over again. Otherwise she’d be out of a Nerf job and back working for the Houston Rockets or the Texas Renaissance Festival. All those letters after her name would mean nothing anymore.

Tough pill to swallow. Much easier to pretend that these fake businesses like Eco-Strong are viable prospects and then act surprised when it all crumbles like dog shit in the desert.

The latest football to be pulled? Most likely the “big plans” for the Industrial Park that included a “distillery/microbrewery and barber shop”, lol.

I’m referring to the Grand Plans of Martin Rod & Custom and their supposedly imminent move into the shitty 5.6-acre ‘industrial park’ the City has been sitting on since the earth cooled a few billion years ago:

That was from October of last year. Here we are EIGHT MONTHS LATER and the “deal” still isn’t done. According to the City, Martin’s attorneys are still sitting on the “agreement”. The first (and likely only) part of the “deal” is letting Martin use the “park” to charge people to store their boats and RVs.

Sure doesn’t sound like someone who is champing at the bit to build a “distillery”. Sounds like someone who is maybe about to take a pass on the “deal” to me. Either way, none of this other crap mentioned will likely ever come to fruition.

Ever.

Note that “several prospects were interested early on” – which, as readers here know, is the “lie that keeps on giving”:

The Lie That Keeps On Giving

Here is my prediction: there will be no primary jobs created. There will be no “microbrewery”. There will be no “multiple buildings”. The City wasted time and effort “researching flood plain maps” for nothing, as this is just more pie-in-the-sky bullshit.

I asked the City this week if the “agreement” was done yet. You’d think a simple agreement to let them rent out the spot to store RVs and boats would be pretty easy to negotiate. You’d be wrong. According to the City secretary:

“Staff actually followed up this week and it is still in the possession of Mr. Martin and his attorney.  We are hopeful that it will be finalized soon.”

Hope, hope, and more hope. Will it ever amount to a hill of beans?

Don’t get your hopes up.

Didya Know? (Industrial Park Edition)

I decided to start a new feature here called “Didya Know?”. It will be a collection of crazy quotes/facts I find from the archived minutes of City council and the LEDC that wildly contradict their current actions and statements.

It is meant to remind citizens (and the bureaucrats/politicians themselves) of all the empty promises and Big Plans that were made and that never came to fruition.

Hopefully, THAT will lead current council members and citizens to take all of these CURRENT grandiose plans with a grain of salt and to view promises of big returns with a skeptical eye.

DIDYA KNOW??

The ‘industrial park’ that the LEDC is now about to lease out for ‘1-2 years’ for “RV and boat storage” was ORIGINALLY intended “to promote economic development with a discounted lease for the business owneras long as primary jobs were created.” [page 20 under Current Development]

Call me crazy, but letting some guy have the land cheap so he can rent it out for RV and boat storage doesn’t sound to me like it’s going to create ANY jobs, let alone those of the “primary” type. Sounds like a big eyesore that benefits one person, to be honest.

Yet another example of the LEDC being rudderless while going in 12 different directions at once and accomplishing nothing at all.