The Star-Telegram has a full front page story this morning on the Trinity River Vision (TRV) in Fort Worth. The TRV is $1B economic development project that is a subsidiary of the Trinity River Water District (TRWD). The TRWD supplies all of our raw water, and is the primary source of the egregious rate increases and bill shock Colleyville and Tarrant residents are experiencing. The TRV is a Kay Granger led initiative and conveniently her son JD, a former assistant district attorney with no business experience, runs the TRV. If you want to know why your water bills are out of control look no further than this project.
Elsie Hotpepper later Sunday evening emailed me the link to the Star-Telegram's Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision moves forward with bridge construction article to which the Colleyville Councilman referred.
This article is basically a propaganda puff piece making a big deal over the fact that, after boondoggling along for years, America's Biggest Boondoggle has finally something to show regarding the three simple little bridges which began construction, with a BIG BANG, a year ago.
The article repeats, a couple times, the absurd propaganda that the bridges are being built over dry land because that is cheaper. When the fact of the matter is the bridges are being built in slow motion over dry land because there is no funding to dig the ditch to go under them, which will only be a wet ditch once the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch at some distant time in the future.
Some nonsense from U.S. Rep. Kay Granger....
“I feel very good about where we are,” said U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who first turned her attention to the Trinity when she was mayor of Fort Worth more than 20 years ago. “We’re on time and on budget. The bridges are where people say, ‘Now I can see this.’”
J.D.'s mama turned her attention to the river 20 years ago and now, in 2015, she feels good about where we are? Supposedly on time and on budget, with a project with no project timeline and no budget. What an observation: People can now see a piece of one of the little bridges under construction. I can see a lot of people seeing that little V pier under construction and proclaiming, 'Now I can see this."
Towards the end of the article more gibberish from J.D.'s mama....
“You never get these projects funded at one time,” Kay Granger said. “What happened in the past is if you started a project it would be finished. This project will absolutely be finished and one of the reasons is Washington said, ‘We’re going to partner with you on this.’ There was an obligation because they made the local funds go first.”
So, that's the excuse for the slow motion project? These projects never get funded at one time. And Kay makes the very cogent observation that once you start a project you finish it. That may be true in other locations in America, not quite sure if that is true in Fort Worth. Washington said they are going to partner with Fort Worth on this? Is Kay channeling the spirit of George Washington or is she referring to the nation's capital? There is an obligation because some un-named "they" made local funds go first?
And then there is a bizarre quote from Kay's son, highly trained project engineer, J.D....
“Trinity River Vision is going to happen,” J.D. Granger said. “It’s a matter of timing right now. We don’t have a reason to slow it down, but we have a commitment to slow it down if the funds come in at a slower pace than anticipated.”
What is J.D. defending here? Is he responding to the growing rumbling that this project has turned ridiculous with its slow motion project timelines, such as taking four years to build three simple little bridges to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island? It's a matter of timing? What is a matter of timing? They don't have a reason to slow it down? But will slow the project down if funds don't show up. Let me shout for a second.
THE PROJECT IS ALREADY SLOWED DOWN DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS YOU CLUELESS CLOWN.
There, I feel better now.
So, we have ourselves yet one more hard hitting Star-Telegram bit of investigative journalism exploring how a relatively simple alleged flood control, but in reality, economic development project has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.
Did the Star-Telegram ask why it is taking longer to build these three bridges over dry land than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge over swift moving, very deep, water?
Did the Star-Telegram ask if it did not make better engineering sense to be digging the ditch under the bridges at the same time the bridges are being built? Will it not cause a construction complication to dig the ditch with the bridges already in place?
Did the Star-Telegram ask what's happened with the first of The Boondoggle's projects to open to the public, that being Cowtown Wakepark? Currently closed.
Did the Star-Telegram ask how much of The Boondoggle's money was spent to build the lake for the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark, including the access road, parking lot and Trinity Trail changes?
If I have said it once I have said it more than once, Fort Worth suffers due to not having a real newspaper investigating real news in a town riddled rife with corrupt cronyism and nepotism....
I read the print edition and there is no mention in the body of the article that the TRWD is "loaning" the project over $200 million dollars to move the project forward. That is asterisked in a separate table showing where the funds are supposed to come from at the bottom of the page.
ReplyDeleteThey also keep saying that 3 bridges are under construction but I have seen no work on North Main other than some utiliy relocations last year that were done before they had the groundbreaking.