LEDC – Page 3 – The Original Lampasshole

The Lie That Keeps On Giving

“LEDC Executive Director Talbot stated that he has had several economic development inquiries from prospective businesses in the past few weeks.”

That sentence appeared in the LEDC minutes from May 3rd, 2004. It also appears dozens of other times over the five years of minutes I read.

I’d say 97% of the time it was just like that: nice and vague. No names given.

The other 3% of the time it was much more specific and everyone got an instant erection and ridiculous dreams danced in their heads of some sap who was going to come here and start handing out $100,000 jobs to everybody with a pulse. They threw money at anything during those times – swallowing the hype over and over.

First it was a $20 million medical center. Then it was “second-tier suppliers” for a new Toyota plant in San Antonio. Then it was a high-tech company and maybe the next Dell! And on and on and on. Like Charlie Brown falling for the football trick that Lucy pulled over and over and over.

Sad.

None of it ever came to fruition, obviously. But that lie has been used very successfully ever since.

Talbot used it. Cherry Hargrove used it. So did Kathi Masonheimer. Mandy Walsh has said it countless times as has Misti Talbert. Yet nothing ever happened. It is the irresistible bait that keeps City council coming back for more and lets the LEDC waste their next million.

Talbot and Angelou Economics told us REPEATEDLY we just needed a Business Park (2000 through 2003) – then we’d have street cred since you couldn’t go to potential businesses empty-handed. AND, you could only apply for free Economic Development grant money from the state once you had a viable tenant (just like today).

“We are turning them away because we have no land!”, was the line they used.

“An economic study in 2001, [Neal] Leavell said, concluded a business park was the main item Lampasas needed to attract development.” – Oct 23, 2015

So the plan was always this: buy the land, use it to lure a business, then use that now-solid prospective tenant to get the EDA grant. They even paid Langford & Associates (remember them?) $1,500 in June of 2004 to do a “pre-application’ for an EDA grant!

So, the LEDC chumps bought the land ($1.1 million at 7% interest for 15 years) like Angelou said, and waited. And waited. And waited some more…

For 10 years they waited and not a SINGLE BUSINESS had any interest in moving into the “business complex”. That should have ended it right there. Talbot was wrong. The high-priced consultant Angelou Economics was wrong. Craig Benton and Judith Hetherly were wrong. All of them were wrong.

But that didn’t stop it! After 10 years, they told us “we need to run utilities into the park! THEN the businesses will flock here.

“We are turning them away because we don’t have utilities!”, was the new story.

So, in 2014, the Toups Administration set about wasting another $1.345 million (actually, $1.929 million after interest payments) to bring water, sewer and power to the “business complex” and then they waited. And waited. And waited some more.

They told us tall tales that business would be there any minute!

“Advocates of utility extensions have said entities compete vigorously for new jobs and that cities with ready-to-build sites have an advantage as they try to attract new businesses.” – August 8, 2014

“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015

“Grayson said he hopes to develop the business park and attract companies to the site.” [Then-mayor Grayson running for re-election] – April 3, 2015

For another seven long years they waited. They kept trying to convince themselves the entire time that success was just around the corner:

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017

But no businesses came.

But again, that wasn’t the end of it.

They came back to council in 2021 and assured them that they just needed another $1.9 million – later upped to $2.75 million – to build a couple roads and extend the utilities even FURTHER into the park and to concentrate on a 50-acre area of the 150-acre weed patch.

Misti even managed to grab $971,000 that fell into the City’s lap through the Covid Recovery Act bullshit federal giveaway. That was $971,000 the City could have spent on a lot of things. Instead it will be incinerated with the other millions on the weed patch. Misti facilitated this pilfering by telling that handy and time-proven lie about “we’ve had several economic inquiries in the last few weeks”….

So will the third time be a charm? Don’t bet on it.

LEDC Strikes (Out) Again!

Good thing the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club is spending $7 million on a Business Pork Project to bring “high paying jobs” to Lampasas. They have been at it for almost 20 years now and have squandered millions.

Meanwhile the private sector is way ahead of them, as usual:

Mandy Walsh had zero to do with this. Misti Talbert had zero to do with this. The LEDC had absolutely zero to do with this. Yet somehow, there are some great jobs available! How did they ever do it without a bunch of bumbling morons wasting millions?? It boggles the mind.

So Wal-Mart is desperate for workers. Everyone is desperate for workers. There are WAY more jobs available than there are people to fill them, so naturally the LEDC thinks they need to spend millions to “bring jobs” here. Makes complete and total sense.

This is the SAME Misti Talbert who, when she was mayor, had trouble finding enough lifeguards to open the City pool! Truly, hers is a towering intellect and razor sharp business mind.

I have already brought this up before: Why the Business Park is a Disaster Than Cannot Be Fixed. But that didn’t deter LEDC President Misti Talbert from scamming $971,000 straight out of the City coffers to waste on this project.

Speaking of Misti…she assured us a mere 7 weeks ago that there is NO commercial space in Lampasas! Her beloved Business Pork is the only game in town! She told us this when she begged the City for $971,000 for her idiotic project:

***Groveling for money: lies and more lies***

Makes me wonder how THIS place opened, if that’s the case….

Not to mention NextLink, PhoLicious, etc, etc, etc – how can this new place possibly exist when “there is no commercial space in Lampasas”?

What a bunch of maroons.

Dispatch Runs LEDC Puff Piece – Part II

We covered a few Lampasas growth basics in Part I. Now let’s dive into the article a bit.

According to The Dispatch: “Mandy Love Walsh…said in an email that sales tax is one sign of economic growth. The City is at a 21% year-to-date increase in sales tax“

I hope this isn’t the number that Mandy and the LEDC hang their hats on as “proof” they are an indispensable group of geniuses we should thank for all new businesses in town. You know what else makes sales tax collections shoot up? Inflation.

If the cost of everything goes up 10% in a year, you are going to collect 10% more sales tax, ceteris paribus. If you sold a million gallons of gas in both years but the price doubled – well, your sales taxes are going to increase quite a bit. This has nothing to do with “growth”.

Many other cities around us are ALSO seeing huge double-digit sales-tax receipt increases (Goldthwaite, San Saba, etc) – and Mandy Walsh doesn’t work in any of those towns. Gee – how did they manage it??

The increase could further be explained by having a moron in the White House printing money out of thin air and handing it out to everyone – which is what we have seen over the last year or more. This is also not “growth” and the bill will come due eventually – as is already happening with supply chain issues, labor shortages and more inflation.

Ergo, the fact that sales tax receipts are up 21% over last year does NOT prove that we grew 21% and it certainly doesn’t prove that any growth was due to the LEDC or Mandy Walsh. All it means is a lot of dummies are smartening up and moving from shitty lib states and big cities and infesting small rural towns – and that the cost of everything is skyrocketing.

The Federal Reserve has printed and the federal government has spent TRILLIONS in fiat currency over the last 18 months. It is an experiment in money printing that is unmatched in all of human history. It is an artificial sugar high and not true organic growth. Lampasas is just another boat being lifted by this tide. It has nothing to do with the LEDC or Mandy Walsh.

Part III coming soon…

Mandy Tells Adorable Fairy Tale To Kids. Too Bad It’s Misleading.

At the last City council meeting, Mandy tried to intimate [go to the 1:19:35 mark in the video] that the LEDC is a bargain for the City and how they hardly spend any money at all! In fact, she has a little story she tells to the kids at school:

“When I do this at career day at school, I like to use the iPad example, cause somehow that just resonates with all the children. Say you buy an iPad here in Lampasas for $574, you can see the breakdown there of what the EDC actually collects to use for economic development purposes – which is $1.43. So we have to be very wise…with our spending” [sarcasm and smirk here]

[Editor: Jesus H Christ – iPads cost almost $600?? Are you shitting me? Out here in the real world, those of us without a government Nerf job would get a Samsung or something for about $200 less. But when you work for Lampasas City government, you can afford to waste money on such frivolities, I guess. Mandy probably has two of them. But I digress…]

Awwww….she only costs you $1.43! Ho ho ho! We have to be very wise with that $1.43! Ho ho ho! Such a paltry amount! Such a pittance, really!

She’s such a card. She’s also pulling the wool over the eyes of those kids.

If I followed Mandy at “career day”, I’d have to make a few clarifications for the little nippers when I got up to stand at the front of the room. It might go something like this:

“Well kids, that $1.43 might not sound like a lot, but the reality is that it is more like 305,000 iPads we are talking about, which is the equivalent of every man, woman and child in the City buying FORTY overpriced Apple gadgets – since the LEDC skims $330,000 per year AND Ms. Walsh also costs the taxpayers about $107,000 in salary and benefits!”

“They then take most of that money and set it on fire in a big field on south highway 183. They call it the “business park” but really it is just a big money bonfire. You like bonfires, right kids??“

“Since this is Career Day, you should DEFINITELY think about being an Economic Development Director as a career. That $107,000 she costs taxpayers like your Daddy is WAY more than a worker in the private sector (like your mom or dad) gets! Your mom or dad probably only makes a THIRD of that money! Look how poor they are on the chart compared to her! Suckers!!“

“But it gets better! Unlike your mom or dad, she can NEVER BE FIRED! That’s called an “intangible” benefit, but it is very real, I can assure you. City workers don’t get fired! Even if their incompetence causes the wreckage of tens of thousands of dollars of computer equipment!“

Furthermore, you don’t have to do any hard or icky work. No sweating or getting doody or poopy on your hands. No, you get to play on Facebook all day and hit “REPOST” on stuff that hard-working, risk-taking small businesses owners post! Cool, right? Like The Rolling Pin:

“And here is the VERY best part besides the massive salary and benefits and never getting fired and playing on Facebook a lot: there is NO WAY to judge her performance! That’s right! Every single business that comes to town…SHE CAN TAKE CREDIT FOR! Whataburger…Cefco…Burger King…Best Western. She can take credit for all of it! HAHAHAHAHA! There is no way to prove that they would have come here anyways!“

Ain’t government Nerf work great, kids??

LEDC 2020 Versus LEDC 2021

I love doing these. Catching some of the people in charge completely contradicting themselves with their own words and actions later on. After they get all indignant the first time around when I call them out publicly for being totally full of it.

Who can forget the previous hits like:

Talbert 2017 Versus Talbert 2020

Hostess House 2019 Versus Hostess House 2021

Well, now we have another one.

Remember back on August 12, 2020 when I was lambasting the LEDC for the obvious lies about “economic injury” from Covid? They were trying desperately (and fraudulently, in my opinion) to grab some federal Covid dough to prop up their piece of shit “Business” Park. A project that has been a disaster for about 15 years before Covid showed up. Here is an excerpt from my post:

All these facts didn’t stop City council from lying through their teeth like scumbag welfare queens with their “Resolution Authorizing Application” for this grant – which will be made through Langford Community Management Services. You can find the entire resolution in the City council packets HERE on Page 44.

It partially reads:

“WHEREAS the ‘Applicant’ has determined that the economic activity generated from this project will positively impact the City economy, overall, which has been adversely affected by the COVID19 disaster;

City council then UNANIMOUSLY voted to approve this resolution. You can hear it HERE at the 25 minute mark.

I REPEATEDLY called them out for this whopper of a lie.

Well, it only took them 11 months to admit it, but better late than never. From this weeks LEDC meeting packet (see page 28 under Sales Tax):

Whoopsie!

I’m sorry, I’m not really good at math. So, does the time period of “the last 18 months” encompass last August (11 months ago) when you were spinning piles of bullshit to get a federal grant?? I’m a little confused.

Luckily, LEDC has a brand-new President who is SUPER good at math. At least she was when she was mayor. Maybe she can figure it out!

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.

Welfare Queen Mandy Walsh Pulling Every Sneaky Scumbag Move She Can To Grab Federal Money

New depths are being plumbed by Mandy, the LEDC and (by extension and tacit agreement) our Mayor and City council. They have sunk lower than the lowest level of prehistoric frog turds at the bottom of the New Jersey scum swamp.

If you are new to this issue, Mandy and the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club are busy trying to grab about a million dollars of federal funding to waste on their 17-year-old debacle they call a ‘business park’ – 165 acres of weeds upon which they have wasted over $2 million local tax dollars and have nothing to show for it.

Five or six years ago, it was declared “shovel ready” and lots of moron politicians and City bureaucrats (many of whom still hold those positions today) promised that high-paying jobs were imminent.

That never happened.

But what DID happen is Covid-19. Mandy and the weasels at the LEDC and City saw a chance to blame a virus for their many, many years of blundering and to grab “Covid disaster relief” money from taxpayers all over the United States.

Which is a complete scum bag move.

They have somehow convinced themselves that Lampasas was economically injured by the virus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sales tax receipts are WAY UP this year – and unemployment in Lampasas is far lower than the rest of Texas and the other states

[Lampasas unemployment is 4.8%, Bell County is 7.3%, Texas is 8%, U.S. is 11%]

Lampasas is in SUCH bad shape financially, they handed out ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to countless businesses in ‘Covid relief’ – even though a number of those ‘businesses’ were only open very briefly before Covid hit (*cough* Wool & Vine *cough*).

They were in SUCH bad shape, they quietly gave City manager Finley deGraffenreid a $10,000 raise to $140,000 per year (plus lots of benefits!) right in the MIDDLE of the supposedly economically injurious ‘pandemic’.

They were in SUCH bad shape, they handed out FREE electricity to other “Covid injured” businesses like Burger King…you know, the one that’s listed on the New York Stock Exchange and did a booming drive-through biz during the ‘pandemic’.

Oh, and Finley recently suggested that every single soul in City government get a 3% raise PLUS some other “salary adjustments”, which will cost the City roughly $250,000 per year in perpetuity.

In other words, it’s going to be hard to convince anyone with a brain that Lampasas is in dire straits and needs to pilfer a million bucks from the U.S. Treasury. SO – what is a welfare queen to do?

Why, write a bullshit “letter of support template” for the whole stupid ‘business’ park idea, make dozens of copies and then send them out to local businesses to just sign and throw in the mail to them!

Yes, that’s right. Kind of like writing a flattering Valentine’s Day card to yourself, handing it to your boyfriend and suggesting he sign it before handing it back to you, telling you how awesome and hot you are.

In other words, this is an extremely sad and pathetic (not to mention DISHONEST) move.

ONE business owner I talked to didn’t even KNOW they had gotten the letter from Mandy two weeks ago! They had to call around to their underlings and ask everyone else about it!

Naturally, most business owners will just sign and send back, not even knowing what the hell she is talking about. Why? Because they don’t want to be hassled by the City in the future. Can you see it now? “Hey! That’s an awfully nice bistro you have there! It would be a shame if the health department stops by every day for the next month looking for nits to pick!”

Not to mention, Mandy Clause already took her giant sack of money and handed out $100,000 in ‘free money’ to many of these same businesses a few months ago. You think Wool & Vine is going to bite the hand that fed them? Nope. That $100k handed out was almost like a bribe in advance.

Would you like to see some of the absolute BULLSHIT LIES that Mandy is foisting upon all these business owners in her form letter? Here you go – remember, the business owner is supposed to sign these and send in as if they thought of all this “support” themselves:

Furthermore, our suppliers that depend on us to support them and their communities continue to also have significant financial impacts. Any relief for the community and the workforce is appreciated

Our stores have implemented over [FILL IN NUMBER] actions to help reduce the potential risk to our employees and customers of the virus spreading. Although these actions have been costly, they have proven to keep our teams safe.

Stability of the economy and supply chain is at risk. We need relief and help in the local municipalities or they will struggle to recover from this major economical and health event. Please support the City of Lampasas in their request for infrastructure funding

Oh, so now it is ‘infrastructure funding’? LOL. I thought it was Covid relief. Of course, the feds have ALREADY printed TRILLIONS and handed it out to small businesses, the unemployed and anyone else with a pulse. The City of Lampasas population has seen a roughly $5 million windfall of federal handouts and has collected about $250,000 in EXTRA sales tax because of this windfall.

But…”we need relief”. Yeah, right.

“We need help in the local municipalities or they will struggle to recover“? This sentence is terribly written. Who are “they”? The municipalities? I thought this was about local businesses – NOT the well-paid bureaucrats who are swimming in budget surpluses, according to our City manager!

Also, it’s “economic” not “economical“. Man, you’d think for $100,000 the taxpayer might get a public relations chick who can write at a high school level, at least.

A second letter has THIS bullshit in it:

The infrastructure improvements to the Lampasas Business Park will provide incentive for businesses, like ours, to consider this location in expansion plans. With these proposed improvements and the recovering economy, our company may consider expansion in this area with additional space and [FILL IN BLANK] new employees.

This is the most disgusting and egregious of Mandy Walsh’s many lies. The REALITY is that every single one of the businesses you are sending this bullshit letter to has had FIVE YEARS to consider your ‘business park’ already! And they have ignored your weed patch, knowing full well it is a useless shit heap.

Mandy suggests that if they only had “infrastructure” in the park like “sewer and electricity” then all of these many businesses would be falling over each other to get in there.

Ummm, sweetie? There is ALREADY sewer and electricity” in there! Remember? You dolts spent a MILLION DOLLARS back in 2014/2015 to do that and PROMISED that you were now shovel-ready and the jobs were about to come pouring in. Remember Delana Toups’ quote from 3.5 years ago? Or TJ Monroe from 5.5 years ago?

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017

“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

The rest of their horribly wrong predictions can be found at THIS link.

Up next: According to LEDC minutes (8/19/20 page 3 ), Mandy is paying Impact DataSource to do an economic impact study on their “prospective business park prospect” – presumably Mike Cour and Eco-Flex. You know, the outfit I have already proven are complete liars and bullshitters. Stay tuned…

Eco-Flex and Mike Cour – Bonus Part IV

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?

Eco-Flex Can’t Get Their Stories Straight – PART III

Here we are at Part III. We see what happens when poorly crafted stories unravel into a pile on the floor. We also see that you CAN become a CEO and not know how to write a coherent sentence.

Once Mary Sikora of Scrap Tire News gave me a contact at Eco-Flex named Alan Champagne, I emailed HIM hoping to find out why he was sending out false press releases. Perhaps the LEDC and City council will take the time to read all this so they can see who they are dealing with here.

Actual emails below. Lampasshole in blue. Champagne in red:

(9/3/20) Good morning Alan!

I was reading this article with great interest. I live in Lampasas and there has most certainly NOT been any ground broken on any tire recycling plant – not back in May and certainly not now in September, four months later. This information is patently false. Where did you actually get this “information” you sent out in a press release? Who submitted this press release?

As a citizen in the know in Lampasas, I can say with 100% certainty that there was never any “ground breaking” in the wings for Eco-Flex OR for Mike Cour’s Eco-Strong. Could you please inform me as to how this all came to be in your press release? Thanks

Alan Champagne, CEO of Eco-Flex responds:

Hello Our eco-flex is looking at setting up in Lampassas This release was done before Covid went rapid ,we are a Canadian company and the government has shut the boarders so until th boarders open and we are free too travel we have delayed the setup of the factory in Lampassas .
Thank you for your concern

Alan Champagne
President/CEO
alan@eco-flex.com
780 699-5134
www.eco-flex.com

This didn’t make sense to me. I responded back:

(9/3/20) Hi Allen, sorry, but your explanation below doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The U.S./Canadian border was closed around March 21st. You sent that press release out in early to mid May – which means you HAD to know it was totally inaccurate.

Covid “went rapid” here in Texas between roughly March 17th and April 30th. We were on total lock down for the entire month of April. Yet, you sent out that press release in May. You had to be 100% informed about any Covid effects at that point.

Furthermore, Mike Cour KNOWS that the Lampasas “business park” is nowhere near ready to be used. He made a presentation to them in September of 2019 – so he knows good and well what the situation is there. Mandy Walsh and the LEDC have stated REPEATEDLY and PUBLICLY that they need another $1.9 million to make the park “ready”. Thus, there is absolutely NO WAY anybody here in Lampasas or with the LEDC would have ever agreed to a June 2nd ground breaking – even back in September of last year LONG before your Covid excuse.

“Looking at setting up in Lampasas” as YOU just said in your email and “breaking ground on June 2nd” as your PRESS RELEASE said are worlds apart. One is vague and the other is quite precise.

I am CCing Mike Cour AND City Manager Finley deGraffenreid on this. By now, I am sure he is aware of my intention to go over all of this “Eco-Strong”/LEDC partnership with a fine toothed comb as a concerned citizen and taxpayer. The list of local governments being ripped off and scammed by “green” pie in the sky is too long and public for me to ignore and let happen to my own little town. Just ask Buffalo, New York about their Tesla dealings.

Finley: I’d love to hear the explanation from the LEDC about how this all went down and if they ever agreed to any “June 2nd ground breaking”. There is ZERO mention of it in ANY public record, minutes or LEDC agendas or packets. Or the local newspaper, for that matter.

Also Allen, no offense intended, but the email you sent me is so riddled with grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, I have a hard time believing it came from the CEO of a major corporation. Again….no offense.

Alan doesn’t like me asking questions and gets huffy:

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. We were to set up in a rental building while building the new complex. Plans change , but with letters like this form concerned citizens maybe it is best I set up in Houston or Dallas. I dont feel I owe you any explanation.

Lampasshole responds in kind:

Ah. OK. So you sent out a press release in late Feb and everyone sat on it for about 77 days and THEN published it all around the same time independently of each other. Now I understand! Makes total logical sense.

I’ve already asked Ewan Scott from Tyre and Rubber Recycling and Mary Sikora from Scrap Tire News exactly when they actually got the press release in their hands.

Ewan Scott emailed me this verbatim: ” I would say that it was probably issued within a day or two of the 11th of May”

Also weird that the Scrap Tire website reads “breaks ground on a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing, distribution, and sales center in Lampasas, Texas this month.” and was dated June 2020. Why would it read “THIS month” if it was sent out in February and the fantasy ground breaking was actually in June? A small hole in your story, to be sure.

Furthermore Weibold! Tire Recycling printed that: “This May, Eco-Flex announced it would establish a major manufacturing, distribution, and sales center in Lampasas, Texas to help tackle the problem. The new tire recycling plant is expected to bring up to 200 jobs to the area while supporting the state’s progressive economic growth plans. The construction of the 25,000-square-foot tire recycling plant is expected to begin on June 2, 2020.”

Says right there, you announced it in May. They published on May 14th. Two days after Tyre and Rubber.

As for your “I’ll take my ball and go to Houston or Dallas” attitude, I would suggest steering clear of Houston. You would be competing with Genan tire recycling and THEIR $140 million plant. I think they might squash you like a bug. I bet their CEO writes emails with flawless grammar as well.

Perhaps you could try Austin? I think Mike Cour has an office there or a business address. They are very much into the virtue signaling and money wasting that recycling entails. Although they are already losing about $2 million per year on their regular recycling program. Not sure they would fall for the same trick twice. But you never know!

But when you are pitching them your schtick, be sure not to say things like “I don’t owe you any explanations” if you decide on going the route of begging for public funds or sweetheart deals. Mmmkay?

Best of luck.

Unsurprisingly, that is the last I heard from Alan Champagne. BUT, Mike Cour certainly was paying attention now. Ah hell….guess we need a PART IV!!!

Coming soon….

Eco-Flex False Press Release – Part II

I gave you all the set up in Part I: Eco-Flex sending out false press releases at the exact same time the LEDC and City council were spinning their wheels in mid-May trying to figure out how to proceed on scrounging up ANOTHER $1.9 million dollars in tax money to incinerate on the ‘business’ park.

My first step was to email Ewan Scott of Tyre and Rubber Magazine as well as Mary Sikora with Scrap Tire News to find out WHO actually sent them that phony press release and WHEN they got it. Emails copied below.

Lampasshole in blue…responses in red:

(8/31/20) Good morning Mr Scott!

Where did you actually get this “information”? Who submitted this press release? Why has the article not been removed for being entirely factually incorrect? Thanks for any info!

Mr Scott responds:

(9/1/20) Okay, Eco-flex.

This article came from a text only press release – it is, almost verbatim, available on several publication websites. We have not removed it because we were not aware of any issues.

As it was published elsewhere though, we ran the press release.

I would be very grateful if you could give me some more information. Firstly, what is your interest in this “project”? Are you involved in the recycling sector? Or are you a concerned resident?

Could I ask you to send me a photograph of the proposed site and the lack of development? I can then go and ask Eco-Flex questions about the project. In fact, having taken a closer look at Eco-Flex, I can go to Kal Tire for some information.

I will get back to you when I know more.

Regards, Ewan Scott

Lampasshole responds:

Thanks so much! I’m just a citizen of Lampasas who keeps a very close eye on our local government. The Lampasas Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) has been trying to develop 165 acres into a ‘business park’ for over 10 years now and it has been an unmitigated disaster and a waste of millions.

They are trying AGAIN to scam almost a million bucks from the US Government in the form of a “covid grant” claiming our town was ‘economically injured’ by Covid (not true – quite the opposite). Anyhow, Mike Cour and “Eco-Strong” is supposedly going to be their tenant. Mike has made a presentation to the LEDC twice, but that is as far as it has gone. They are still FAR away from any usable ‘business park’. Any talk of a ‘ground breaking’ is laughable and completely false (unless it is in another town, but I would think Mike Cour would be trumpeting that on all his social media sites – he hasn’t)

I have emailed Mike himself over this and he hasn’t responded. He appears to be a one-man operation working out of his home.

My concern is as a citizen and a taxpayer. I’m always suspicious of all this “green new deal” b.s. It’s my personal contention that Cour is trying to make a money grab from the LEDC and thus, the taxpayers of our tiny town of 7,500 people.

There is no ground-breaking. There never was. There isn’t even a viable site at the ‘business park’ yet and won’t be for a while, since they haven’t even submitted the grant application yet. All they have is about $850,000 worth of empty water pipes underground.

SO – I am just trying to establish who handed out that line of b.s. in the press release. It appears it was Eco-Strong/Eco-Flex, as I suspected but I didn’t want to assume anything.

Thanks very much for your quick response!! I have enclosed a photo of current ‘business park’ – as you can see, no activity.

Ewan Scott responds:

(9/1/20) We are making enquiries in Canada and in Lampasas. We have asked Mike Cour for a response.

I can’t say any more than that at the moment as we have not had any responses from any of the parties involved.

I have contacted LEDC for a comment as well.

Regards, Ewan Scott

Lampasshole asks again a couple days later if anyone has responded:

(9/3/20) Good morning Mr Scott! Any luck digging up an answer yet?

Thanks very much.

Ewan Scott responds and inadvertently exposes what I suspected was the truth all along:

Don’t expect any quick responses.

One partner in the Legal, Alberta, operation has referred me to Liberty Tire… Mike Cour is not responding… Neither have I had any response from Lampasas Economic Development. We have altered the title and heading on the May news item.

I don’t hold out getting much of a response on this. To be honest, this is, and I’m sorry to say this, rather typical of many US projects where there is more show than go, to raise funds – then it all goes flat and everyone disappears until they come up with their next big idea. I have lost count of the operations that have come and gone. I only ran this because it was everywhere and it was tied to Eco-Flex, which is an established player.

Excuse my cynicism, but this is what the American Dream seems to bring with it – no offence intended.

Regards, Ewan Scott

WOW!! “More show than go“. In other words – a lot of hype and bullshit in the green energy/recycling/green new deal area. Usually to raise funds and look viable when they are actually far from getting anywhere. Gee. Who woulda thunk it!

Also notice Mike Cour doesn’t bother responding to either of us. Only when I go poking around to even more publications and pointing out Eco-Flex are lying does Mike Cour email me in a panic.

In part III, we will see how Mike Cour, Eco-Flex and a moron named Alan Champagne (supposedly CEO of Eco-Flex) send me emails with various stories trying to explain the lies. Of course, they just get more tangled in their own bullshit. Stay tuned!