Billions upon billions of dollars in pinwheels sitting idle today. We could have built 6 or 8 nuclear plants for that money. Nuclear plants that basically run 24 hours a day forever and emit ZERO carbon.
I always instinctively know when the pinwheels are idle because it is brutal outside with no breeze at all. It happens many, many times per year – despite the assurances of mouse-jiggling morons that “the wind always blows”
Good thing we have REAL power sources like natural gas to rely upon. Unfortunately, building an entire backup generation system for when the wind dies is very costly…which is why electricity bills have shot up 30% in recent years.
Remember when the City paid $38,000 to clear concrete from the Industrial Park? Then they paid their hack attorney JC Brown $7,000 to draw up an agreement for “Phase I” and “Phase II” of Martin’s Rod’s pie-in-the-sky plans for food trucks and a microbrewery and a barber shop and some other ridiculous shit?
Well the food trucks are coming! Just look!
Oh wait. That’s how it looked today. Not a single food truck to be seen almost a YEAR after the agreement was drawn up. I don’t see any boats or RVs stored there either. Just junk (in direct violation of the $7,000 agreement).
I asked the City secretary what is going on over there. It’s getting time to talk about Phase II, since Phase I was such a roaring success! According to her: “there has been no change in anything.” So – property has NOT been purchased. No RVs. No boats. No cigar shop. Just a lot of bullshit….as predicted 18 months ago.
No, the food trucks are HERE:
How about that! They didn’t even need to take $45,000 from the City to do this! Amazing! Using an EXISTING lot to try out this idea. I know Krab Kingz used to go there every now and then…which would draw that fat prick Bruce Haywood out into the fresh air with promises of gallons and gallons of melted butter….
I’m sure the Industrial Park will follow suit any day now….
These two bullets collided in the battle of Gallipoli in 1915. The chances of this happening are 1 in 70 billion.
This is still more likely to happen than the $7,100,000.00 Business Pork project ever coming CLOSE to producing any kind of positive return on investment.
Just a reminder: the same City council that refuses to cough up $10,000 or $20,000 extra to pay lifeguards a NORMAL wage this summer so they can open the pools ALSO wasted $7,500 on a grant that has yet to be submitted….mainly because Mike Cour of Eco-Strong is a scam artist and scum bag.
Mandy Walsh and the LEDC SHOULD have caught onto this parasitic loser immediately. But they didn’t. They were strung along for at least six months – completely clueless the entire time.
Mandy REALLY earned her $100,000 on THAT whole thing, clearly.
So – another $7,500 down the toilet, right??
Vote out every incumbent on May 1. We need new blood on City council. Lampasas has suffered long enough the same group of 5 or 6 idiots running things into the ground.
The City foolishly took over the Hostess House at the end of 2019, you may recall. Apparently, they think they should be in the business of running an event center instead of just leaving that to the private sector.
They apparently also learned ZERO from the $1.5 million they wasted on the Old City Hall “remodel”.
Immediately after taking over, council approved the expenditure of $5,850 to replace a 5-ton HVAC unit [Dispatch 11/19/19 front page news].
According to then-councilman Mike White: “The Hostess House has had extensive air-conditioning problems, and he alluded to multiple service calls in recent years.“
Here we are about a year later. The City managed to make about $1200 renting this thing out in 2020. Yes, that’s an entire twelve hundred bucks. I requested the rental sheet for 2020.
Clearly, it was a rousing success! So what is City council to do after taking on this idiotic project they never should have touched? Why, go and spend another $300,000 remodeling the building, naturally! A building which everyone NOW apparently sees as a dilapidated piece of shit. Council had Hendrix Engineering come in and do a major assessment of the Hostess House recently.
[Of course, one might ask why they didn’t do all this BEFORE they took it over, but that’s City council for you. Leap first and look later.]
Very weird. They literally just replaced the HVAC 15 months ago, but it is now nearing end of life cycle?
I see that “nearing end of life cycle” phrase a LOT in the minutes over the years. It’s an easy way to get new stuff they want even if the old stuff is perfectly fine. It’s safe to pull this stunt, because what kind of asshole is going to comb through thousands of purchase orders over 60 or 80 months to try and find out when the original equipment was ACTUALLY purchased??
Seriously. This is how “logic” works in the government sector and in the minds of government bureaucrats who have never worked in the real world. It’s sad, and it always costs the taxpayer a pretty penny.
Here is an idea! If this Hostess House project is SUCH a great use of funds and there is SUCH a high demand for it, why don’t all the Goldfish and Finley get together, open their own wallets, buy the fucking thing, fix it up and rent it out themselves?
Should be a no-brainer, right???
I think council member Cathy Kuehne ESPECIALLY should jump in on my idea! After all – she was quoted in the Dispatch as saying “the city should work to keep the historical integrity of the building, even if it costs a little more.“
Sure, why not? It’s the taxpayers dollars! Not Kuehne’s. So she is all for blowing more dough on the idea. Maybe she and her husband can take some of the roughly $115,000 in salary they are paid by the Lampasas school district and buy the Hostess House! I’d love to see it.
Talk about closing the barn door after the horse has already escaped! I can think of MANY reasons for NOT wasting money on Plexiglas for City council chambers.
The “dead wood” (extremely vulnerable elderly) has pretty much all been killed off by now after 16 months. Which means this thing has already done its worst damage, by far. If you still don’t understand that, you have no business making decisions for the City and their $28 million operating budget.
Much of City council and City Hall has ALREADY gotten ‘sick’ with ‘covid’ (Talbert, Kuehne, Nelson, etc). Therefore, they are no longer at risk. If you still don’t understand that, you have no business making decisions for the City and their $28 million operating budget.
[Incidentally, Kuehne literally wore her mask EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME. She even spoke through it at council meetings. How’d that work out for you?]
There is a vaccine out there spreading like wildfire at over a million doses per day. I certainly won’t take it, but all the scared rabbits are. This will supposedly protect everyone. Therefore, this thing is a miniscule “threat” compared to a year ago….so why bother with this bullshit now?? If you still don’t understand that, you have no business making decisions for the City and their $28 million operating budget.
Herd immunity will be here by April, according to people who are not complete idiots like Dr. Muppet Fauci. You are in FAR less ‘danger’ than you were a year ago, when there were no partitions. If you still don’t understand that, you have no business making decisions for the City and their $28 million operating budget.
This virus is most deadly to the extremely elderly and infirm. Pretty sure nobody on City council fits that description. If you still don’t understand that, you have no business making decisions for the City and their $28 million operating budget. If you ARE elderly and infirm, don’t run for City council. Stay home and watch Wheel of Fortune for the rest of your life.
[Besides, when Myles Haider stomps TJ Monroe for the mayoral position, the average age of council will drop about 6 years anyways]
Of course, they will go ahead and waste money on these ridiculous Plexiglas theatrics anyways, despite all the reasons I’ve given NOT to. Because that’s what the morons in charge do! It’s their nature.
Month after month! Like a greengrocer paying off the mafia or something. Unbelievable!
That was a total of $168,740 back in the 2014 and 2015 timeframe.
The scam started WAY before that, however, as this photo of the LEDC 2004 Form 990 tax filings show [Schedule A – part VII]:
They blew $43,429 on “Engineering/Surveying” right off the bat after purchasing the goat pasture – and those are 2004 dollars!
This “business park” has been engineered and surveyed more times than Ronnie Witcher has cried ‘wolf!’ over Wuhan Flu!
At least back then, they called it what it was: “Engineering/Surveying”, which makes it easy to see and add up. Things then changed, apparently. In an odd way:
The LEDC finally filed their tax forms for the 2018/2019 fiscal year. I saw an odd line in there under“MANAGEMENT” for $57,338[Part IX 11 a]. I have never noticed a “management’ number in their tax filings going back 17 years.
For instance, the previous year, there was ZERO on the “Management” line item – although you can see they wasted about$43,000 on “Legal”!!!
[Are you beginning to understand the SCOPE of the absolute WASTE OF MONEY all of this is??]
The year before that, same thing: zero money on “Management” and $41,244 on “Legal”:
And over and over again [2015/2016 return]:
SO! Why the huge “management” fee JUST this past year? The LEDC board works for free and Mandy Walsh is handsomely paid a six-figure package of salary and benefits to be “Economic Director”.
So who the hell was paid $57,338 for “management”?
Turns out Eckermann Engineering got the lion’s share. According to Mandy Walsh, Pope Eckermann “was paid $48,800 for engineering services of Business Park Phase 1 Roadway and Utility Improvements”
Why not break it out as “Engineering/Surveying” as was done many times in the past? Why stick it under the ridiculous line item of “Management” when it has ZERO to do with management?
Maybe because it makes it a little harder to see without a bunch of digging?
After requesting all checks written to Eckermann Engineering for 2019, it turns out that even MORE was paid out to him to “engineer” the business park for the millionth time. Specifically $70,800
06/13/19 [check #005015] – $11,800
09/03/19 [check #002533] – $17,600
09/18/19 [check #002536] – $19,400
12/27/19 [check #005017] – $22,000 (will show up in FY 2019/2020 tax filings)
The first three total out to the $48,800 placed into the “management” line item expense on the latest (2018/2019) LEDC Form 990 tax filing. The last $22,000 occurred after the new fiscal year and will (presumably) show up somewhere in the next tax form – which I’ll be lucky to see by November of this year, even though it is required by law to be filed with the IRS by February 15th.
A colossal $239,540 has been paid to Eckermann Engineering between 9/11/14 and 12/27/19 on this ridiculous ‘business’ park. How many times can you “survey” and “engineer” the same crappy goat pasture??
And you wonder why I beat on this Business Park disaster over and over again.
[I haven’t even asked yet how in the hell they wasted over EIGHTY-FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS on “Legal” in only two years!!]
I’ve called the LEDC’s very existence nothing but a slush fund for idiots to play god with and flush money down the toilet with zero results. Disgusting tax dollar waste like THIS continues to prove me right.
P.S. – that is a grand total of $323,540 wasted JUST on Eckermann and “legal” fees for this corpse repository, for those keeping track at home.
You know…because of the many hundreds of cycling enthusiasts we have here. And the many hundreds of people who are super into exercise and fitness in Lampasas. I can’t go 10 minutes without seeing somebody peddling down the street or jogging up the road.
Lemme guess: is the mystery resident the brother of the guy who is charging you $12,205 for a “set of trail plans” [page 8 through 16]? LOL. I swear, City council is a lot like little babies with candy most of the time. The problem is that when the vultures take the candy from these naive babies, it’s really YOUR candy. The taxpayer.
Hey guys – deal of the century. Lampasshole Unlimited happens to have a bike park division. Here are some plans you can have for the bargain price of $4,999!
This is a drawing! Not a plan! No engineering! Just like the one you are wasting $12,205 on!
During the council meeting [ 10:30 minute mark] Misti lamented that residents need more activities to do “close to home outside” and to get exercise. You know – because of the deadly pandemic and all. The ‘deadly’ virus that Misti herself caught and recovered from easily. That one.
This is also the same Misti and City council that shut down one of the pools this summer! Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t THAT a “close to home activity where people can get outside and get active”? A big, huge, awesome, already-bought-and-paid for pool that sat idle all summer? Yes, I remember that, too.
Or maybe like the walking trails over at Cooper Springs where I’ve seen maybe 7 cars parked over the last year? Like that?
So many of your other plans have turned out so well – why not pile another turd sandwich onto your plate? The business park debacle is not enough, right? Or the Hostess House takeover that is a complete train wreck? Or the $100,000 skate park? Or the $120,000 you handed to Halff Associates for a project that still isn’t done?
Shall I go on?
How about the $400,000 Council approved for a solar energy production site back in 2011? How did that solar project work out for you? Even ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison was against that waste of money (TJ Monroe was all for it, of course).
Yes, TJ Monroe was voting for idiocy even back in 2011!
Or how about the stupid rodeo arena idea you guys seriously considered spending $2 million on at one point five or six years ago? Or the pipe dream you had back in, like, 2011 or 2012 when you were pitching the 580 Sports Complex itself – and entertained the notion of hosting tons of adult softball tournaments and supposedly stimulating the local economy with softball tournaments?
LOL. I didn’t think you could top that ridiculous softball tournament idea. Yet here we are.
Sounds completely moronic now, doesn’t it? Well – so will this mountain bike trail idea in a couple years.
I usually agree with Mike White but he is dead wrong on this one. Mike HIMSELF even commented [12:40 minute mark] that there is a killer bike park just 20 minutes away that has a ski lift and everything! [Spider Mountain]. Which then begs the obvious question: why don’t the bikers slip on their spandex pants, load up the Prius and haul their little bikes 20 minutes to a multi-million-dollar bike park? Do you REALLY think the “bike pros” from “out of town” who hit those massive slopes are THEN going to say “hey dudes! That little Lampasas place has a couple miles of shit trails! Let’s go there and spend a bunch of money at their restaurants too!”
You make me laugh.
City council wasting $12,000 on this “bike park drawing” is like the fat 54-year-old who hasn’t done so much as take a walk in 9 years but then spends $12,000 on a Peloton exercise bike. Then they use it twice and it sits collecting dust. The “bike park” project will be much the same. Mark my words. Randy Clark was the lone voice of sanity on this – he voted AGAINST the expenditure. Way to go Randy!!
Some beautiful and unseasonable December weather, once again! December 13th and 15th (just like December 7th) were the kind of days hundreds of in-shape citizens stream to Campbell Park to throw Frisbees, shoot hoops, eat a picnic lunch, and lament the absence of a no-bid $185,000 bathroom.
Just kidding. This isn’t the 1950s nor is it a Leave It To Beaver town and it is also filled with Lampassholes. So the park looked like this (YET AGAIN):
Then yet again yesterday on a lovely 80 degree Sunday….
Isn’t that nice? Grab $167,202 in ‘electric fund surplus‘ and use it to cover all your profligate spending. Just raise electric rates a penny or two every year and…voila! Slush fund.
I really can’t wait to take a nice big dump in the new bathroom. Literally.
After THREE City council meetings in the new Fishbowl and ZERO video records of said meetings, I finally just asked the City outright: “Are you aware of any plans to EVER have video recordings of council meetings? It was promised last year by [recently fired resigned Assistant City Manager] Gary Cox.”
The official response: At this present time, the City does not have any plans to video the Council meetings. If and when the decision is made to video the Council meetings, the videos will be made available on the City’s website.
Just a quick reminder that not only did Gary Cox specifically promise video archives of the meetings, but thousands and thousands of dollars were spent on cameras and other devices to allow video recording of meetings and (later) live streaming.
Some expenses:
The City bought TWO Lumens VC-B30U PTZ cameras with RS232 controllers – those were $920 EACH = $1840
That alone is $3,000 worth of bells and whistles that the IT Department can’t figure out how to use. I have to assume that is the case: either simple incompetence or laziness. Why else would the City blow thousands on cameras and video streaming and recording and then NOT use it???
Of course, tens of thousands are wasted all the time in the IT Department and hundreds of thousands are wasted by the City in general. Three grand is spit in the ocean when it comes to City waste. But it just shows for the umpteenth time how wasteful and incompetent some parts of the City really are.
You would never catch Rickie Roy pissing away money like this in the Public Works Department. Never.
