The question of the day is...

Does Jim Lane not know where the water district is??

We've received numerous emails since his sign went up last night in Haltom City (on the way in to Watauga).

Neither are in the water district.  Nor is there a polling place nearby.

We can't answer for him but we can tell you those who can't vote, will now be contacting some WHO can.

Someone get the boy a map.

Church & State Update- Seems the church property in Haltom City, where Lane placed his sign without permission, didn't take to kindly to it. Someone might tell him the Fort Worth Way doesn't work over here. 

Star-Telegram Slacking

We know with all the cuts the 'news' paper ain't what it used to be. But they continue to make it so easy for those who would like to point that out. Case in point, take today's Bill Hanna Tarrant Regional Water District opinion piece for example.

Take for instance Marty Leonard saying the board has done a good job preparing for water needs. How much did they spend suing Oklahoma to take their water? $6 million? Of OUR dollars...in case you were wondering, they lost.

Marty also talked about the Corp of Engineers pitching in $17 million for their pet project. Does she know where 'the Corp' gets that money?

For those of you keeping count at home, that's $23 million of YOUR dollars in just one paragraph.

The opinion piece goes on to say the Water District spent the 'majority of their last board meeting explaining its budget and what role TRWD plays in local water rates. Explaining to who?? The board? Marty and Jim who have served 9 years each on the board? (Remember last year they postponed the election and extended their term by a year.  Even though when the last water board crew did that, Jim Lane voted against it).

Lane goes on to say that the board has used eminent domain responsibly, which is in direct conflict with what every group and business owner who has been affected has told Texas Lone Star in recent and past interviews.

Lane also goes on to say the Integrated Pipeline (over $2 billion dollars) will basically solve all our problems. He fails to mention the TRWD's own report that says the pipeline will take water to Dallas NOT Tarrant County. WHY wouldn't he or the 'news' mention that?

Former Mayor Moncrief, the one who sold out FW to Chesapeake, is heading up the incumbents PAC (remember those calls to Dallas begging for money we told you about? Now you know who is making them). Along with Fox, who works at one of Congresswoman Granger's favorite places in FW.

This race will be the hottest race in Tarrant County. Here's hoping the people are tired of the insanity (look up definition) and try something new, like voting for real people (Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner) instead of those owned by the water district contractors.

Also, someone let Hanna know the Texas Supreme Court has picked up the latest case. We know their short staffed over there in the building they share with JD Granger and the Trinity River Vision.

Hey, Hey, Hey - Goodbye

Isn't it funny how your opinion changes when they are talking about YOU.

Parsing That Extra Year

WHO is

J. Parker Ragland?

And what happened to the reporter who was covering TRWD for the Fort Worth Business Press?

The latest article about yesterday's meeting leaves a lot of questions to be answered.

Like are those newly voted on "governance policies" legal?

And if Lane wants to get Mary to vote, get her the info she requested.  Simple.  Stop orchestrating roadblocks.

“I requested records from the board members ... a month has gone by now, and most of the records I have requested have still not been made available to me. This is the first time I have served on a board, and while I may lack procedural knowledge, my common sense remains in tact.”

While there was a small group of observers at a board meeting last month, the Monday, July 22 meeting took place in front of a larger crowd.

“Y’all [Kelleher and her supporters] are all here, and this is all orchestrated, and we all know that, and that’s fine. I’m trying to figure out how to get you [Kelleher] to vote on things at this board and to participate,” said Jim Lane, a TRWD board member.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

What you gonna do when she comes for you?

KERA gives their take on what went down in the TRWD board meeting Tuesday.

Whichever side you're on, you have to admit, the woman has a point.

And by the way, "balked" can be translated into was rude as hell.

From the KERA article.....

Board member Jim Lane balked.

“Why would we want to spend taxpayer funds on another lawyer if we have lawyers already hired by the taxpayers?” questioned Lane.

To which Kelleher pointed out, the district had just lost a legal battle with Oklahoma over water rights that cost the district more than $6 million.

“No offense to our current council but we just lost a huge suit, quite embarrassing. If that was the opinion of our legal counseling I would like an outside one,” responded Kelleher. 

Then some rolled their eyes as Kelleher asked why the engineering firm of Freese and Nichols seemed to be awarded an abundance of work on a new pipeline and other projects.

“When you look at the agendas all you see is Freese and Nichols. Are they the only engineering firm?” Kelleher asked.

Truth, Justice and the Fort Worth Way

We've been playing catch up with all the election emails we've received. Seems folks are very interested in the Tarrant Regional Water Board election.

And it looks like we're not the only ones playing catch up. In the past two days the TRWD incumbents and their crew have started sending out mailers.  We hear even some in the halls of Austin are being approached about this quiet little election.  Water Board Member, Marty Leonard's NEGATIVE email and letter was first.  Then they sent one for mail in ballots to seniors. (BNK already did that). Some Seniors reported their precinct and voter ID number were in the wrong spots. They wondered if it was a ploy by TRWD or just more sloppy work. Then the "Clean Water Committee" (is that an oxymoron?) PAC sent one showing Mayor Price on one side and the ballot on the other (BNK - been there, done that too). That mailer also mentioned the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. (More on that connection to come...)  Jim Lane left a couple of interesting voicemails around town and of course, a ST employee is shilling for him.  (Shouldn't Jim be concerned with his own race?  The one the downtown crowd doesn't want him to win?)

Kay Granger also sent out an email to her "friends" accusing many people of many things. She made it clear she wants things to stay the same. Since her son is employed by the water district, one would guess so.  One would also guess this was made clear to everyone (and their employees) from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram all the way to the Bank of Texas. 

Mayor Price and Congresswoman Granger both held fundraisers in the past couple of weeks, one for the incumbents and one where they handed out information for the incumbents.

Riddle us this Batman, WHY would local and federal elected officials be so engrossed in the TRWD campaign? Have they met all the candidates? (Aside from Mary Kelleher addressing City Council)? Have they heard all of the candidates speak? There has been no debate (unless you count the conversation between a water district employee and a candidate at a local restaurant). BNK shows up to talk to the voters, the incumbents do not. One incumbent did show up to a recent meeting, after the crowd was finished, we're guessing he wished he hadn't.

WHO do YOU want in office? Someone that will get out among the voters or those WHO YOUR elected officials want to keep in their place? Literally. 

VOTE BNK!  John Basham, Timothy Nold and Mary Kelleher for the Tarrant Regional Water District!

Don't you just Love it?

The Woodshed is back in the spotlight.  Or rather, Tim Love is. 

The DFW.com article goes on and on.  While it did discuss the Tim Love restaurants that didn't survive, (New York City didn't quite love Love) it reminded us of an infomercial.  Well, Love did say he loves to be on TV. You can read it on DFW.com. 

We found a few notes of interest, other than that, more of the Fort Worth Way. 

We do love THE PEOPLE in Fort Worth, their comments are usually right on the money. 

Too many good BBQ places in FTW to be wasting your time with wanna be BBQ at the Woodshed.  The only reason why people go there is to check out the TCU hotties.  Once the hotties move on to the next new place to be seen, the Woodshed will fold.

Timeline:  2011  Star Telegram's  "Battle Of The Burgers"
Timeline:  2012  Star Telegram's  "Battle Of The Barbecue"

And take note of WHO is mentioned in the story.   WHO's money is that?

In early 2000, Love ran into Star-Telegram Eats Beat columnist Bud Kennedy in Milano's, the Seventh Street pizza-and-pasta restaurant not far from Michaels. He told Kennedy that he was a chef and that he was about to open a great new restaurant. Kennedy shrugged it off as a random encounter with a stranger. Six months later, he wrote that Lonesome Dove Western Bistro might be the best of several new restaurants that opened in Fort Worth that year.

The TRVA may have provided nearly a million dollars toward building the structure, but Love points out that he still put a lot of his own money into the project and he feels confident that, in the long run, Woodshed will be seen as a trailblazer along the river.

Fort Worth Drive-In

Has everybody talking. 

Durango does it again.  YOU don't want to miss it, or the comments.

Yes. That sounds like a good plan, lease land to a startup business starting up a new business they've not started up before. Sounds like a recipe for success. Sort of like building the world's premiere wakeboard park where it can get wiped out by a flood.

The TRV Boondoggle Drive-In propaganda promoters are saying they anticipate around 300,000 TRVBDIT (Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Drive-In Theater) movie goers a year.

That works out to about 822 paying customers a day.

That sounds believable. Sort of like how the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and its propaganda co-horts claimed 7 to 8 million visitors a year to the Fort Worth Cabela's sporting goods store would make Cabela's the top tourist attraction in Texas. With apparently no one doing the math to see how unlikely was a daily average of around 22,000 visitors to a sporting goods store.

Three screens with up to 500 cars each? That'd be 1,500 cars running their A/Cs to keep cool on a HOT Texas summer night. That does not sound very eco-friendly to me.

Water Boarding 3-2

Earlier we told you the Tarrant Regional Water District held a vote to give them themselves another year in office.

Wouldn't it be a conflict of interest for someone to vote on extending their own term?  You know, even in Fort Worth?

Kudos to Jim Lane and Hal Sparks for possibly making history on a TRWD vote.  Even the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noticed.

But the water board, which historically has been known for casting unanimous votes, was split on the issue.

Sparks said he felt like he made an agreement with voters to serve four years when he was elected and voted his conscience on the issue.

Does that mean the other board members don't have one?

WHO do you Love?

The Fort Worth Business Press has a follow up article on the Tim Love Woodshed on the Trinity River.  We've added our own questions.  YOU should too. 

Calls to David Hall and Randal Harwood at the Fort Worth planning and development department requesting information about the code compliance issues were not returned. Love also did not return calls.

WHY is that?  Hello...?  Anyone there?

The Woodshed was scheduled to open on Labor Day, then in October, and then last week, but Love told questioners on Twitter that the opening is several weeks away and that the outdoor deck “might” be opened in mid-January to attract visitors to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.


“He’s a world-class chef; he’s famous,” Lane said. “This was a business proposition, trying to stimulate interest in the river and in Fort Worth. Sit and watch, there’ll be money made for the regional water district.”

Was Lane elected to promote famous people or protect those WHO elected him?  WHEN did the Tarrant Regional Water District change its mission to "make money"?

That might answer a few questions about why a water district – without competitive bidding or a vote by its board of directors – would spend nearly $1 million to build a restaurant and sign a 10-year contract with Tim Love to manage it.

Information about the deal was made public after Texas Public Information Act requests by the Fort Worth Business Press and was featured in a story in the Dec. 5 edition.

WHY would that be?  Wonder WHAT else could be learned from more requests?  Ask YOUR local media. 

The Woodshed restaurant is located at 3201 Riverfront Drive, near the Fort Worth Zoo and University Park Village shopping center, on land the water district owns. Instead of paying rent on the building, Love will pay a percentage of the restaurant’s total sales to the Trinity River Vision, a subsidiary of the TRWD. Love also is responsible for utilities, maintenance and upkeep of the building.

A taxpayer purchased, risk free restaurant in a floodplain, next to the contaminated Trinity River, on land owned by the Tarrant Regional Water District...WHAT could possibly go wrong with that?

He was recruited for the deal by J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority and the son of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), a proponent for the TRV development and flood-control project along the river.

Proponent made us laugh.  The following says it all:

“Whether it’s an abatement, TIF, public/private partnership, getting favorable changes in the law to reduce private risk – it never stops,” Picht said. “TRV is in a class by itself for getting so much public money from so many sources while having no transparency, no hope of keeping within budget, no competent management, and no hope of producing the product that was advertised in the original concept plan.” he said.

Water district officials say the criticism is unwarranted. The idea behind the TRV always has been to reintegrate the Trinity River back into the city and make it a centerpiece of economic development, they say.

Funny, we thought the plan was always "flood control".  Oops. 

Taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for the restaurant, Oliver said. “The project was paid for with oil and gas revenues so it didn’t impact the portion of our budget funded by taxpayers,” he said.

Those revenues, however, come from gas wells located on public land owned by the water district. 

Duh.  

Turkey's Ready

Fort Worth Weekly serves up another round of Turkey's.  While Chesapeake takes the cake, there were others we couldn't help but applaud.  Check out the list of WHO made the cut here. 

Virtual Turkey

Last month, the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) sponsored a forum at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to discuss the merits of the $900 million Trinity River Vision project and ask questions about where that money will come from, what the justification for the project is, and what it has to do with flooding and water quality issues. About 125 people showed up, but it was one person missing that stirred the ire of the citizens. J. D. Granger, executive director of TRV, had promised to sit on the panel and give direct answers to those important questions. But at the last minute, he cancelled. The only one to show up on the “pro-TRV” side was a gutsy Jim Lane, a board member of the Tarrant Regional Water District. Lane did his best to answer some of the questions, but the water district is handling only part of the project. The reason given for Granger’s backpedaling was that he realized the event would involve discussing policy, and, shucks, he’s just the hired hand (although he’d known about the format of the event for weeks). But the fact is that Granger is in charge and is one of the few people who can sort out where this multi-agency project is going. Canceling at the last minute just doesn’t cut it. Maybe voters should drop him from their holiday invitation list. Oh, wait. That’s right. He’s not an elected official.

Eww, Don’t Talk About That at Dinner

This past summer, the Trinity River Vision produced several concerts on the river, with the audience floating on inner tubes while listening to the music. TRV also promoted a wakeboard park, where boarders would be pulled around a retention pond on the river by a whirling cable. It was all part of an effort to get Cowtowners more comfortable using the river, which many thought of as a big ditch full of debris and bacteria. But did TRV test the water to see if it was safe? No, they said they were relying on state-provided data. Journalists at WFAA-TV/Channel 8 decided to do the testing themselves. They found that several sections of the river –– including the concert area for the tubers –– had double to triple the amount of harmful bacteria that the EPA considered a safe level.

Most notable was the presence of E. coli, which comes from, um, human waste.

TRV officials never really explained why they didn’t test before they urged people to jump in but indicated they would get to it at a later date. Warning: Don’t eat any turkey served up by these folks.

YOU Do Not Want To Miss This

Dear Friends of the Trinity River,

Please join us for an unprecedented event that promises to be an enlightening and educational evening. Bring your questions. And bring your neighborhood associations, groups and clubs - all taxpayers need to hear this.

Sincerely,

Your friends at TRIP

Trinity River Talk

Have questions about TRV?  Want to hear both sides?

Join us.

October 12th @ 6:30 p.m.
Botanic Garden, Fort Worth  - Lecture Hall

Panelists include:

Jim Lane - Tarrant Regional Water District Board member and former Fort Worth City Council member

J.D. Granger - Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director and former Assistant District Attorney

Mark Rauscher - City of Fort Worth - Trinity River Vision Director

Clyde Picht - Former Fort Worth City Council member

Steve Hollern - CPA and former Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman

John Basham - Consulting Meteorologist

TRIP would like to thank the SPJFW for moderating this important community event for the citizens.

FINALLY - A reporter in the house?

Lots of them.

Join the Trinity River Improvement Partnership and the Society of Professional Journalists to ask questions from those on both sides of the Trinity River Vision.

YOU aren't going to want to miss this.  YOU can't afford to.  After all, it's YOUR money and YOUR river. 

Please join us -
October 12th @ 6:30 p.m. Botanic Garden, Fort Worth  - Lecture Hall

Panelists include:

Jim Lane - Tarrant Regional Water District Board member and former Fort Worth City Council member.

J.D. Granger - Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director.

City of Fort Worth Representative - to be announced.

TRIP Board Members and guests  - to be announced.

TRIP would like to thank the SPJFW for cosponsoring this important community event for the citizens.

What's in the water? Kool-Aid

Interesting letters in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as of late.  The following may be one of our favorites.  Seems a lot of folks crossing party lines on the supposedly nonpartisan Fort Worth Mayoral election.  That's a good thing.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid, it's too expensive.

I urge all readers to vote for Jim Lane, a proven leader, successful lawyer, small businessman and Vietnam veteran. Jim has an outstanding record of public service to our city and community. Don't drink the Kool-Aid being prepared by Kay Granger, Mike Moncrief et al. and served by Betsy Price. I am a proud Republican and urge you to join me and vote for Democrat Jim Lane for mayor of Fort Worth.

-- William Head, Fort Worth

Time to Vote...Again

The Fort Worth Business Press has quotes from each Mayor candidate.  While we were left with not much for our choices, we're voting for Jim Lane.  He wasn't hand picked by the 7th Street Gang.  Which while surprising, speaks volumes.

If you're in District 7, vote for Jon Perry, he's not the 'establishment' candidate. 

Do YOU want someone watching out for YOU?  or the establishment?

VOTE.

Name your Price...

Mayor Moncrief has announced his support for Betsy Price.  What does that tell you? 

THE PEOPLE have plenty to tell you, read the comments on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article.

Well if Mongrief says Price is the man, then that's enough for me. I'm voting for Lane.

So are we.  Don't be sheep -

VOTE!!!

Mayor of the Trinity River

The comments on the Fort Worth Weekly article show that some are still confused.  To clear things up, Kay Granger asked Betsy Price to run for Mayor.  Not Jim Lane.  What does that tell you?

Read the article and the comments on Fort Worth Weekly.

Crossing party lines

WHY would Betsy Price not attend Democrat forums in Fort Worth?  Aren't there Democrats in Fort Worth?  Why, yes, there are.  As matter of fact, our Congresswoman was one before she switched sides. 

WHY would Betsy not agree to attend a forum in each district and turn down many organizations for an open debate?

Part of a recent letter may say it all -

We do not need a mayor who was anointed by the establishment.

We do not need a mayor who cannot find her way to a forum in Stop Six.

Doesn't add up...

Some good Letters to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  We wonder how much they were edited? 

Seems people have the same question we've been hearing since news broke Betsy Price was running for Mayor...WHO pays??

A tax assessor makes more than a hundred grand a year. The Fort Worth mayor's position pays about $30,000. Why would a person leave a well-paying public position for one that doesn't even pay one-fourth as much? Maybe there's some outside lobbying going on. I think we'll be the ones paying for it down the line. I just don't trust a person who has made that much money on the taxpayers' dime for so many years to suddenly take a huge cut in pay, all for "the good of the people."

I am voting for Jim Lane in this runoff. He's given a lot to this city without the large salary. He's the clear choice for Fort Worth.

-- Don Beims, Fort Worth
 
The next letter made us laugh.  Beholden to the taxpayers?  Which ones?  The Grangers? Cheseapeake? The Kelly's?   Where do they find these people?  City Hall?
 
Betsy is beholden only to taxpayers, not to special interests inside or outside city government.
 
And they'll be laughing, all the way to the bank...

What they said...

The Fort Worth Weekly has a good overview on the Mayor's election.  YOU can't afford to miss it.  Oh wait, most of you did.

Only one in 10 voters bothered to cast a ballot in last week’s mayoral election, and the large majority of them preferred either Betsy Price or Jim Lane, the two candidates least likely to poke a stick in any of the powerful groups that run this town.

Well, not too concerned. Not worried enough to take an hour out of their Saturday to go vote. For all you in the nine-tenths out there: If things don’t go the way you like locally in the next few years, don’t call us.