I read the accompanying article and still could not figure out how Lake Wichita was in a report for Trump.
I have now been in Wichita Falls long enough to notice a thing or two which sort of vex me.
One of those vexations is the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, which I learned of within days of arriving in this burg.
This coming May I will have been in Wichita Falls a year. Lake Wichita is no closer to being revitalized than it was upon my arrival.
I have made note of multiple Lake Wichita Revitalization fund raising projects, such as car washes.
Trying to raise money for a big public works project via things like car washes seems goofy, and well, just a bit bizarre to me.
Revitalizing Lake Wichita seems like such a good idea to me I have no idea why funding such is not submitted to the public, asking voters to support a bond issue to raise the money to pay for it. The cost estimates I have seen are in the $30 million range. This does not seem that large a figure for a town of over 100,000 residents. But it does seem like a large figure to try and raise with car washes.
The Texas town I lived in before moving to Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, has a bizarre public works project which has been crawling along most of this century. With little to show for the effort, despite a lot of money having been spent, much of which has gone to pay for the large number of employees employed by what has become known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.
Currently America's Biggest Boondoggle has been stuck for a year trying to figure out what went wrong with the construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.
I hope the Wichita Falls Lake Wichita Revitalization Project is not of the same ilk as Fort Worth's badly designed, ineptly implemented project, ambling along with little to show year after year.
Last year at some point in time I read that the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project was ready to submit its plan to the Army Corps of Engineers. This submission sounded as if it was imminent. But a few months went by when I read again that the submission was about to be made.
On the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project website I learned the following regarding this project's projected timeline...
We expect to acquire a permit by the end of 2015 or early 2016. The project should take 1.5 to 3 years. With appropriate funding this project could be complete and ready for water by the middle of 2017.
Well, we are rapidly approaching the middle of 2017. I have seen nothing which indicates this project is underway.
One of the reasons Fort Worth's water project has turned into America's Biggest Boondoggle is the son of Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, was hired to be the Executive Director of the project, even though he had no experience overseeing a large engineering project. J.D. Granger was hired in order to motivate his mother to obtain federal pork barrel money for the project.
I am assuming that no Wichita Falls Congressperson's ne'er do well offspring has been hired to over see the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, or I would have heard reference made of such.
If not the hiring of the incompetent offspring of a local politician being the reason, what is the explanation why the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project seems stalled?
Everything about this project seems like a good idea to me, with the result likely proving to be a HUGE asset for Wichita Falls and its surrounding area. Go to the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project website and see for yourself all this project entails. Unlike Fort Worth's, this is a vision which makes sense and seems very doable.
In other words, it seems to me the sooner Lake Wichita gets revitalized the better life will be for the people of Wichita Falls and the people who visit this town....
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