Tag: Mike Cour

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!

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 August, three months later.  This information is patently false.  

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!

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

Mike Cour, LEDC ‘Business Park’, Eco-Strong, Mr. Champagne, British Tyre & Rubber Recycling – I Have Stumbled Into Crazy Stuff!

I’ve suspected all along that there was something stinky about the LEDC relationship with Mike Cour and Eco-Strong/Eco-Flex. I’ve done a deep dive that took me from a British Tire publication to an arrogant CEO in Canada named “Mr Champagne” who writes like a third grader to a local businessman who can’t keep his stories straight…to a million-dollar ‘business park’ grant that may hinge on all of this crazy stuff somehow being true and holding together.

Hint: it’s all bullshit smoke and mirrors….and YOU might be paying for it!

Stay tuned for the wild twists and turns of the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation’s latest attempts to salvage their ‘business park’ debacle.

**SCOOP ALERT** Are The LEDC and City Council Making Secret Deals? Handing Out Subsidies To Canadian Tire Recycler? *UPDATE*

Did you know Eco-Strong LLC (the distribution arm of Canadian company Eco-Flex) will be breaking ground on a plant here in Lampasas in 16 days? Neither did I. Neither did the Lampasas Dispatch, apparently. All Dispatch archive searches for “Eco-Strong”, “Eco-Flex” and CEO “Mike Cour” came up empty!

Supposedly a 25,000 sq/ft tire recycling plant will be breaking ground on June 2nd….and nary a peep from Mandy Walsh or The Seven Goldfish. Very, very odd.

I DO know that the LEDC has been sneaking around a lot lately, and operating in secret…as I blasted a story about this way back on April 19th…ALMOST A MONTH AGO. My antennae always goes up when the LEDC and City council have meetings in “executive session” with their lawyers and talk about “economic incentives” – which is code-speak for “handing out free tax money to companies”.

Funny how this article hit the web on May 11th. ONE DAY after the latest City council meeting.

Apparently they STILL can’t be bothered to announce this thing, even though the ground-breaking is in 16 days. I had to read about it in a Tyre and Rubber Recycling magazine – a BRITISH industry publication!

How did I ever find this out, if they have been sneaking around and hiding it? Because I’m smarter than they are. I busted them on the ransomware attack back in August and I’m busting them now AGAIN.

The LEDC met with Mike Cour WAY BACK in September of 2019 (page 2, item V). But of course, since the LEDC keeps shitty minutes, we have no idea what the meeting was actually about. Furthermore, NONE of this was EVER mentioned to the local newspaper. Their archives are EMPTY of any of this.

Fast forward to the latest agenda for the LEDC May 20th meeting – and Mike Cour of Eco-Strong pops up again (page 1 item V).

So Misti, Mandy and the gang: what in the hell is going on??? I have a few questions about a tire recycling center being built in Lampasas:

  1. Why has this NEVER been mentioned before when the groundbreaking is in 16 days??
  2. How much money did you throw at them to start up operations here?
  3. Where is the contract showing how much money you threw at them and what they are supposed to do in return??
  4. Does your complete silence and all your sneaking around in executive session have anything to do with your fear that local citizens might go apeshit about possible environmental impacts like the stench of burning rubber in the air?

Lemme guess: Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and City council will announce this with big fanfare as a tenant for the “business park” and try to look like heroes bringing jobs to the area, while failing to mention all the free stuff they handed to Mike Cour?

But why wait? Why rush it through at the last second? It is VERY unlike the LEDC or the Seven Goldfish not to toot their own horns about stuff like this.

I have a guess why: it keeps anyone from asking questions about what they had to give away in return for this “awesome” deal to put up tents here.

Especially telling is Mike Cour’s quote in the article: “Texas is the ideal location for our new facilities. Its strong economy, green-friendly attitude, and the willingness of officials at all levels to collaborate with us made our decision a no-brainer”. Translation: “moron politicians and bureaucrats are giving us all kinds of free stuff.”

Ah yes. It’s a no-brainer, all right. I can just see all the people with no brains who are involved in this tax-dollar giveaway – people like Mandy Walsh, TJ Monroe and Finley deGraffenreid. Not a brain between any of them.

Well, try as you might to keep this secret, the cat is out of the bag. Monday morning, I will be making an official records request for copies of ALL contracts, incentives, subsidies and/or deals being made with Mike Cour and this Eco-Strong LLC distribution concern.

You gotta love these dummies. They hold town hall meetings about every silly-assed minor item in the world (see: tree police) but they keep COMPLETELY SILENT on a tire recycling distribution/manufacturing concern breaking ground in a matter of weeks. Just like a cat burying a turd they are ashamed of.

Stay tuned!!

*UPDATED 5/18* – according to the City secretary and Mandy Walsh, there are no current deals/giveaways/incentives/promises with Mike Cour or Eco-Strong as of today. YET, that article exists AND Mike Cour appeared before the LEDC in September and will do so again this Wednesday, according to the agenda. SO – did Mike already make plans to start this operation and THEN decide to go beg for money? Guess we’ll possibly find out this week – assuming we’re allowed to see the Wednesday meeting