Coincidence?

Tarrant County and surrounding area leads the way in gas wells and the dirtiest air in Texas.  We're sure it's just a coincidence, aren't YOU?  

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In 2009, Tarrant County had an 8-hour average ozone reading of 86 ppb at two locations, one in far north Fort Worth near Keller and another at Eagle Mountain Lake. Both were the highest readings in the state and well above the 2008 revised standard of 75 ppb and much higher than the proposed rule changes.

Jim Schermbeck, head of the environmental group Downwinders at Risk, questioned TCEQ staff about whether any ozone monitoring devices would be placed in Wise County since the highest concentrations of ozone in the Metroplex have consistently been found in northwest Tarrant County, near the Wise County line.

The Sierra Club has threatened to file a lawsuit if the EPA fails to make Texas comply with the Clean Air Act.

You are invited!

To the Shale Energy Forum in Fort Worth next week.  Details in the Fort Worth Business Press.

Also, in the Fort Worth Business Press, more information on the TCEQ blunder.

“I have worked diligently to be certain that TCEQ will do its job to protect us, and I am extremely disappointed that they have damaged their credibility so badly,” State Sen. Wendy Davis, District 10, said following the revelations that an anonymous fraud complaint filed led to the investigation and new data analyses showing benzene – although nothing was disclosed to the public.

“It is disappointing that TCEQ has violated the public’s trust and now local officials are being forced to spend scarce local dollars to perform their own air quality tests,” she said.

Not if...when...

Luckily this pipeline was not in a residential area (like front yards on Carter Avenue or next door to a school).  Read about the pipeline explosion on Durango.

Our thoughts are with the families of those lost in this tragedy.

Common Sense

See why we love this guy?  Mr. Woodard has an excellent Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford to miss it.

A shell game

The Tarrant Regional Water District approved a funding agreement May 18 for the Trinity River Vision project, allowing it to loan up to $226 million interest free to the project's tax increment financing district until it starts generating revenue. Isn't this like taking money out of one pocket and putting it in another? What kind of razzle-dazzle shell game is this?

There is no guarantee that the TIF will ever generate a sufficient amount to repay that loan, and even if it does, that money will sound for 40 years like a giant sucking sound flowing out of the city's general fund.

We are told that the TRWD loan is not tax money, that it's coming from the water district's natural gas revenue. What fools do they take us for? That natural gas revenue belongs to the taxpayers.

Instead of squandering it on the earmark boondoggle Trinity Uptown, TRWD could invest it in a fund to build a future Marvin Nichols dam.

I resent it being said that the TRWD is spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. I was in the Navy. Every drunken sailor I knew stopped spending when his money ran out.

- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

Holy Cow

More cows dead, this time in Palo Pinto.

 Read about it on TXSharon.

What happens when it's our kids??

Of course they do...

Title of an article in the Dallas Morning News  - "Texans in Congress say drilling support not tied to oil industry donations."  Put your boots on, then read the article.  Be sure and check out the chart of how many millions YOUR representative has received from the industry.  If someone gave you $2 million WHO would you vote for?

Texans in Congress – many of whom have received hefty campaign contributions from the oil industry – are standing firm in their support for offshore drilling as oil gushes into the Gulf of Mexico.

Federal campaign records show that nearly a third of the Texans in Congress get more donations from oil and gas companies than from any other industry.

"Companies do not give contributions out of an altruistic feeling of supporting the democratic process," said Tyson Slocum, energy program director of the consumer protection group Public Citizen. "They expect a return on their investment. Their return is access. Their return is favorable treatment."

What do the TRV and the NBA have in common?

We are told we can't survive without the economic impact of both.  What was the projected economic impact of the NBA All-star game? $152 Million.  What was the actual?  $0.   Imagine that. 

Read the article on WFAA.comhttp://www.wfaa.com/news/investigates/NBA-All-Star-Game-Falls-Short-of-Predictions-95467734.html.  You can't afford not to.   Remember the Super Bowl is coming, Fort Worth wants to spend $4.5 Million on that.   Yes, the same Fort Worth who is currently $77 Million short on their budget.  Sounds like the Fort Worth Way.

That raises new questions about the consultant who produced the study — the same man who says next year's Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium will deliver a $600 million boost to the region.

But the State of Texas set aside $15 million in taxpayer money to get the whole party off the ground. About $2 million of that has already gone to cities for costs they incurred.

TODAY!

Be there.
Your health depends on it.

Say it ain't so...

Mayor Tillman can't go.

He's the only HOPE we know.

Check it out on Durango.

Catching on...

THE PEOPLE are catching on to their politicians, guess what that means?  For some of you, your days in office are numbered.  Let's hope you can count something besides other people's money.

Seems like Keller took a vote, then ignored it. Is that legal?  WHO should be held accountable?  Reminds us of the bond passing for roads, promised by Mayor Moncrief, instead the money is being used to fund the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the one in which no one got a vote.

Hats off to Mr. Souder  for his Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram!

Ignoring 'no' vote

In the Tarrant County city where I live and work, our elected city and school officials have defied the will of the constituency on numerous occasions in recent years.

The latest and most glaring example of this indifference to the electorate is the new Keller Library.

I recall no less than two elections for a library that were soundly defeated at the polls. It appears that our city leaders took a page out of the Keller school district playbook (the million-dollar artificial turf after a "no" vote) and scammed the citizenry to build a new library anyway by paying for a plan to "refurbish" the old library.

I encourage all registered voters in Keller to visit the "refurbished" library and let our city leaders hear about it. The planners and contractors did an excellent job, and our "new" library is first-rate, but that is not really the point. Was this really the best use of our tax base? How can the city leadership so brazenly execute its own agenda against the will of the people?

It will only get worse unless all residents get involved, attend a City Council meeting, a school board meeting or make an appointment with the leadership to discuss concerns. Demand transparency, fiscal responsibility and ethical conduct and take your city back!

-- Timothy J. Souder, Keller