Saturday, November 8, 2014

Mary Kelleher Will Not Be Attending The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Groundbreaking Ceremony For Three Bridges Over Nothing

Mary Kelleher Likely Not Aboard the
TRWD Helicopter
Whilst away from my computer I got a text message asking me if I'd received  an email from Mary Kelleher. I informed the text messenger I was not in contact with my computer, but would soon be.

When I re-established contact with my computer I quickly learned it was a Press Release from Mary Kelleher that was the issue in the email.

In that Press Release I learned I am not alone in realizing the Trinity River Vision is a Boondoggle time bomb which will likely be an embarrassing sore point in Fort Worth for decades.

I thought the TRV Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing had begun their laboriously slow four year construction back in August. However, in the Mary Kelleher Press Release I learned that the Fort Worth Boondogglers are having a Ground Breaking Party this coming November 10. I don't think one breaks ground on something which is already under construction, so it would seem we can deduce the Three Bridges Over Nothing Project is already three months behind schedule.

Mary Kelleher's Press Release also refers to the TRV Boondoggle's Town Lake as being 33 acres. I thought years ago that proposed lake had shrunk from 33 acre lake size to 12 acre pond size.

Til the Mary Kelleher Press Release made reference to it I had forgotten that back in 2008  Fort Worth voters got hornswoggled by approving a proposition that purported to be for street improvements, but was instead a scheme to divert tax revenue to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. With so much boondoggling hornswoggling going on it is difficult for a person such as myself, with limited memory function, to remember it all.

Anyway, the Mary Kelleher Press Release in its entirety.....

Press Release
November 7, 2014
Mary Kelleher, Director TRWD
Subject:  Groundbreaking-TRV Panther Island Bridges

On Monday, November 10, 2014, many of Fort Worth's elite will attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the TRV (Trinity River Vision) Panther Island Bridges. As a Director of the TRWD (Tarrant Regional Water District), I received an invitation to this event but I will not be in attendance. I do not want to go down in history as being present for the groundbreaking of what many anticipate, myself included, will be referred to one day as the biggest boondoggle in the history of Fort Worth. I'm disappointed in the decision to move ahead with building bridges over dry land without funding certainty.  

Some of you may not know about the TRV project and don’t feel bad because you never actually voted for it.  What you voted for back in 2008 was a proposition which read, “The issuance of public securities for street improvements in the aggregate sum of $150,000,000”.  This proposition passed and has turned into a public/private development scheme using tax revenues to finance a giant waterfront project to attract more people to Fort Worth.  The plan is to divert the Trinity River to create a 33-acre town lake with water-front restaurants, bars, businesses, and condos. 

Sounds great…..but there’s one big problem.  This almost billion dollar water project won’t bring one drop of water to Fort Worth and will place even more strain on the limited water supply we do have. It’s irresponsible to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for an economic development project when we are in a record drought and there are cities in Texas running out of water.

This serious issue was raised and the public/private clique responded with claims that this project is necessary for flood control.  Part of the plan calls for lowering the levees so people can have more access to the Trinity River.  Lowering levees increases flood risks.

The TRV is an unnecessary financial risk to the taxpayers, a financial blow to many of the Fort Worth property owners displaced by the taking of their land for this project, and a financial windfall for the chosen individuals, businesses, developers, contractors, and elected officials who have and will benefit from this project. 

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