Which translated means Andy sent me blogging fodder on Facebook.
The blogging fodder is a link to an article in this week's Fort Worth Weekly titled Wakeboard Revival.
The blurb from the article, which you see in the screen cap says, "The city’s biggest wakeboard park is being resuscitated after it was flooded by Tropical Storm Bill in June. A new owner is rebuilding ramps at the donut-shaped watercourse at the West Fork of the Trinity River downtown and adding several..."
Adding several what? Lucky for me I had acquired this week's Weekly at my neighborhood library. I could not find where I'd put this week's Weekly, then remembered I likely left it in my vehicle. Soon upon retrieving this week's Weekly I found the rest of the paragraph following several... to be "new features, including shaded seating and a place to get food and drinks."
I have several problems with this FW Weekly article. For one, it reads like a Press Release. I mentioned a couple other problems I had with this article in the comment I made to Andy's Facebook post, before I had actually read the entire article....
Durango Jones: City's biggest wakeboard park? Does that mean there is another one and it is smaller? How could one get any smaller? This being re-opened under new management has been the operating propaganda on the Cowtown Wakepark Facebook page for months. If it is being re-opened, will the problem with it getting flood damaged be fixed? After all, America's Biggest Boondoggle is primarily a flood control project. Sort of ironic that the first project completed by The Boondoggle has been flood damaged twice....
Well, the article answers the question about there being multiple wakeboard parks in Fort Worth...
About a half-dozen are in Texas, and two are in Fort Worth: the full-sized Cowtown WakePark, with its endless loop cable hauling people around in circles, and TXMC Wake Park, which has a smaller, straight-line cable system.
I have no idea where in Fort Worth this TXMC Wake Park is located. I'd never heard of it before today.
Another paragraph was very perplexing to me....
Water levels on the West Fork, according to the USGS National Water Information System, rose by nearly 6-and-a -half feet during the last two weeks of May. These waters normally flow at low levels –– the West Fork is part of a flood control reservoir.
Only a nincompoop would look at the Cowtown Wakepark pond and not realize that whenever the Trinity River goes into flood mode the little pond is going to be flooded. The flood in May was not the first time the little pond has suffered flood damage. What did they think was going to happen when the river next door floods? And what is this about this area of the West Fork of the Trinity being part of a flood control reservoir.
Huh?
Doesn't a reservoir require a dam which holds back water? Thus controlling a flood? Where is this downriver dam creating a reservoir?
I tell you, Fort Worth Weekly is getting to be almost as embarrassing as reading Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda. Or a Star-Telegram puff piece.
So, when Cowtown Wakepark reopens it will have a new name, Republic Waterpark DFW. The new owner of the so-called "park" is a Philippine man named Lray Villafuerte who is paying for its reconstruction. Supposedly new parts for the renewed park are being assembled in a Manila warehouse owned by Mr. Villafuerte.
I remember when America's Biggest Boondoggle put up signage along the Trinity Trails pointing out the direction to the various wonders one could find along the trails I opined that etching "Cowtown Wakepark" on the signs seemed a bit of an obvious risk, with it seeming obvious to me that that enterprise would not be in business very long. Will The Boondoggle use whiteout to cover up Cowtown Wakepark and write over the whiteout with Republic Waterpark DFW?
Last summer after I discovered Cowtown Wakepark was closed and saw a sign saying it would open soon under new management, it only took a little Googling to find that Cowtown Wakepark had a Facebook page. On that page there were a lot of comments lamenting its closure and the misinformation as to when it would reopen. There were comments about financial malfeasance, funds being stolen. It wasn't pretty.
Did Fort Worth Weekly not consider it might be worthwhile to dig a little deeper into the Cowtown Wakepark debacle?
Early on, when Cowtown Wakepark opened, J.D. Granger very much touted this as an accomplishment of his Boondoggle, bragging about how The Boondoggle was bringing this wonderful sport to Fort Worth.
I have asked more than once how much The Boondoggle spent to build the wakeboard pond.
I remember back in October of 2010, biking along the Trinity Trail and suddenly coming upon a ridiculous amount of signage touting the "TRINITY RIVER VISION UNDERWAY'. In the area that became Cowtown Wakepark I was totally bum puzzled wondering why so much earth was being moved, why a big hole was being dug, why the Trinity Trail was being re-routed.
I took pictures and blogged about it, asking if anyone had a clue. Connie D then sent me a link to page on the Trinity River Vision's website, touting this new thing they were bringing to Fort Worth. It was only an artist's rendering, but I could tell the hole I saw being dug was what is now the wakeboard pond.
How much money did The Boondoggle spend on this ill-fated enterprise? Shouldn't that information be readily available?
Changing the subject slightly.
This week's Fort Worth Weekly is their annual Turkey Awards issue. The prime Turkey Award went to the current extremely embarrassing governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
I think Fort Worth Weekly should also have given itself a Turkey Award.
A Turkey Award is well deserved for firing Fort Worth Weekly Editor Gayle Reaves. Ever since Fort Worth Weekly lost Gayle Reaves the quality of Fort Worth Weekly has plummeted.
This article about the Cowtown Wakepark debacle is just one more example of that plummet.....
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