Speaking of water...

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes another interesting point.  Protecting from flooding and supplying water, isn't that a water district's job?  WHAT are they up to instead?  Ask them.

Water pipelines

I totally agree with Friday letter writer Harry Kelly's logic about a water pipeline to Texas. This exact topic has been raised repeatedly among my engineering friends.

Water pipelines flowing south to Texas and other parched areas could have prevented the recent flooding of farmland along the Mississippi River. Similar pipelines placed strategically in flood-prone areas could be part of a network of pipelines nationwide to relieve drought-stricken areas as well as create new water storage reservoirs. There is no reason why our government cannot see the logic of moving the excess water from one place and send it to another that desperately needs it. This would also create thousands of jobs to build and maintain the life saving network.

-- Steven West, Arlington

Unacceptable

No, not just the new rating on the Trinity River levees in Fort Worth by the Corp of Engineers, but the relationship between the Corp of Engineers and the Tarrant Regional Water District.  You know, those that have partnered with the Trinity River Vision Authority and stand to make a billion or two.  Of YOUR money.

In 2003, the same Corp reported the levees were good, needing only $10 million dollars to fix those that weren't.  WHAT happened in the past 8 years?  Not much, except the cost of the Trinity River Vision skyrocketed.

Yet another ploy in the boondoggle to try and grab more federal money.  Hey project "leaders", the feds don't have any money.  Neither do the citizens that you want to pay for the rest.

As for THE PEOPLE, it's time to get YOUR head out of the sand, and their hand out of YOUR wallet.

Read the latest fluff piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Don't miss the comments from THE PEOPLE.  They speak volumes.

The Army Corps of Engineers rated most of the levees along Fort Worth's Trinity River floodways unacceptable Tuesday but said the levee system is among the best-maintained in the country.

Water district board member Marty Leonard expressed confidence in the partnership between the district and the corps.

"I think we've worked so closely with them through the years and still are continuing to do that that we will not have a problem resolving any issues," Leonard said.

Leonard said she believes that many issues brought up in the inspection may be directly addressed by the Trinity River Vision, the flood-control and economic-development project that will run along the Trinity from the near north side to Gateway Park.

Water WHERE?

While Grand Prairie cuts back on the water drillers can have during the drought/water shortage, Arlington says full steam ahead.  (The picture above was sent to us from Fort Worth last week, no surprise there).

Only one council member had anything to say, really??  THE PEOPLE are the ones bringing this up, WHY aren't the elected officials looking out for their constituents?  Don't they need water, too?  Or did they make a deal?

Read about it on WFAA.com.

TCC and TRV

Read the latest about the Tarrant County College in the Fort Worth Business Press.  YOU and YOUR kids can't afford not to.

The campus on the bluffs was built more to meet the desires of the Trinity River Vision project than for educational purposes, say critics, including TCC trustees Robyn Winnett and O.K. Carter, as well as Picht.

It is the cost of the project – an estimated $1,200-$1,500 a square foot – that raises the most eyebrows. College officials said the actual cost per square foot is not yet available.

But $1,500 per square foot would far exceed the prices of many other community college and university buildings in the state. According to the 2011 College Construction Report, the median cost for academic buildings is about $339 per square foot.

Taxpayers are the losers, Picht said, as TCC’s board considers raising tuition over the next five years to pay for three new facilities.

“They would also raise the tax rate. They are blaming that on the Legislature,” he said. “If they had tried to stay within the concept of low-cost education, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

Guess that answers that...

Earlier today we asked, again, WHO owns the roads in Texas?

Terri Hall from TURF answers.

Rick Perry tied to Agenda 21, globalist policies.  Read it all below, YOU can't afford not to.

Property rights shredded

The Trans Texas Corridor, and P3s in general, represent an imminent threat to private property rights. While lawmakers repealed the Trans Texas Corridor from state statute only months ago due to the public backlash, the re-named corridor (‘Innovative Connectivity Plan’) and its threat to property rights lives on through P3s. Two such projects underway by a Spanish developer, Cintra, will charge Texans 75 cents per mile in tolls (nearly $13 a day while Perry claims he hasn’t raised taxes or indebted Texans to foreign creditors) to access lanes on two public interstates -- I-635 and I-820. A third project being developed by the same company for two segments on SH 130 is, perhaps, the only leg of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 project that will ever be built.

Dan Shelley worked for Cintra, who had its sites set on developing the Trans Texas Corridor. Shelley lands a job as Perry’s aide, steers the $7 billion corridor P3 to his former employer Cintra, then goes back to work for Cintra. That’s how Perry does business -- pay to play.

Again, WHO owns the roads?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram article speaks volumes - HOV lanes in DFW being converted to tollways

"HOV lanes were a stupid idea to begin with, and in practice they have been a disaster," said Coughlin, a real estate broker who lives in downtown Dallas. He said he has never heard an argument in favor of HOV lanes, other than from "the bureaucrats, consultants and blow-up-doll manufacturers who defend it."

And there they are again...
 
"We have recognized over the years that HOV lanes have transitioned beyond their initial purpose," said Dan Lamers, senior program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. 

"The economic advantage of HOV lanes has changed," he said.

More Texas Political Gerrymandering...

Read what THE PEOPLE the gerrymandering affects have to say in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Did anyone ask THE PEOPLE??

Want a good example of Texas district gerrymandering?  Try reading a Tarrant Regional Water District voting area map. 

Redistricting map

Tarrant County voters should be outraged at the congressional districts drawn by Republicans in Austin. There is no excuse for this type of gerrymandering.

This county deserves to have its own congressional representative, not divided up by four different ones. I don't know why voters even considered voting for those people in Austin in the first place.

There is a sure way for voters to put an end to such ridiculous practices and that is to vote out every politician who has served more than two terms.

-- Edward Lindsay, Fort Worth

WHO's to blame?

The same folks that want to move and remove the levees in Fort Worth???

Pay attention, it could keep YOU from being a victim.

Read what THE PEOPLE say in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram letters.

Who's to blame?


Ahh baseball. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the incorrect information in this article. (See: "Wash to assist New Orleans youth," Wednesday) Yes, that's right, Drew Davison, in writing about a no doubt heart-warming event for Ron Washington, failed to grasp what happened in Washington's hometown in 2005. Davison said that the "devastation" was "left by Hurricane Katrina."

Hurricane Katrina did not devastate New Orleans. Point the finger of blame in the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers, the entity responsible for the devastation that wracked the Big Easy that summer six years ago.

-- Jamie Radley, San Leandro, Calif.

We cannot thank Ron Washington enough for the stadium, but it was the Army Corps of Engineers that devastated NOLA by building inferior levees and concrete walls. Please do not mislead your readers; one day they may also be victims.

-- Cathy Cole Hightower, Metairie, La.

Finally...

A city with common sense?

From the Dallas Morning News - Grand Prairie cutting off the water supply for some gas drilling operations because of drought conditions.

Duh. 

You won't believe this #$@%

We'll let Durango tell you about it.  As you laugh along, ask yourself, WHO paid for this?  WHO paid for the four page color mailer of pictures of people floating in the TRINITY RIVER?!?  YOU did.  It's not as funny now, huh? 

While the Trinity River Vision Authority and the Tarrant Regional Water District are laughing up and down the "banks" of the Trinity River where people are "having the time of their lives"...the Fort Worth Star-Telegram front page headline reads - Water, water, nowhere.  (We'll get back to that and we'll link to it when we can find it online - best line "Those lakes also supply the Tarrant Regional Water District , which is finding it increasingly difficult to meet cities demands".)

As you read along with Durango, notice the names, all the same.   (There's that COG again). 

Also, notice the pictures.  They're clues. Play along.  YOU can't afford to not be paying attention.  Wake up, it's YOUR money.