J.D. Granger amped up the national joke status by coming across as a clueless buffoon during an NBC TV interview. So, buffoonish that the next day NBC TV had J.D. Granger back on air trying to walk back the clueless buffoonery he had uttered.
In the Star-Telegram's The Panther Island project is getting a deep look, but its CEO won’t be scrutinized article, which we slightly scrutinized in the previous blog post about J.D. becoming a national joke, the Boondoggle's Bypass Channel was referenced.
No, that is not a look at a model of the Bypass Channel you are looking at above. That is a real "Bypass Channel" or cement lined ditch, which exists in real time in Wichita Falls, Texas, channeling water from Sikes Lake to Holliday Creek, en route to the Wichita River. That is not a Wichita Falls version of a "Signature Bridge" you see crossing the ditch. That is a golf cart bridge which takes golfers to their next hole.
I have not read the Star-Telegram, in recent times, during this new period of that newspaper seeming to try to somewhat accurately report on what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, repeating the ridiculous nonsense that the Trinity River Vision's three imaginary signature bridges were being built over dry land so as to save time and money.
When there was never any other option than to try and build those simple little bridges over dry land, due to the fact the funds to dig the ditch had not yet appeared. And when the construction of those pitiful bridges had dawdled past the four year mark it must have finally seemed ridiculous to even the Star-Telegram to suggest they were being built over dry land to save time.
That, and as for that saving money aspect, no one knows, due to the absolute lack of transparency, how much has already been spent saving money building these bridges over dry land.
No, let's talk about that Bypass Channel cement lined ditch.
From that Star-Telegram article about J.D. Granger not being scrutinized...
Re-channeling the Trinity River north of downtown in an effort to control downstream flooding would create the 800-acre Panther Island. Cutting that channel is the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has devoted $61 million to the project to date.
Though the project has missed out on 2019 funding, federal projects have about $9 million held over from past years. Most of that work will be done away from the downtown bypass channel in Gateway Park. To stay on the “critical path,” the minimum work to keep the project on schedule, Washington will have to kick in at least $26 million in 2020.
About $322 million in local money has been spent since the project’s inception more than 10 years ago. Purchasing the land needed for the channel and relocation of displaced businesses has cost about $140 million.
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Where to start? The river is being re-channeled in an effort to control flooding downstream? Really? Don't the current Trinity River levees in the downtown Fort Worth zone already control downstream flooding? And have done so for well over half a century? Flood control already bought and paid for.
This Bypass Channel is the responsibility of the Army Corps or Engineers? Really? I thought the Corps was onboard with simply improving the existing levees at a cost of a few million bucks. The Bypass Channel and imaginary island was not an idea foisted on Fort Worth by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was an idea foisted on Fort Worth by locals, such as Kay Granger and her Gang, hoping to make some big bucks by enhancing the value of property they owned in the area of the proposed imaginary island.
The project missed out on 2019 funding, but to stay on its "critical" slow motion path Washington must deliver at least $26 million in 2020. Why must Washington do such a thing?
About $322 million of local money has been spent since this Boondoggle began? Really? Where did that money come from? Can we see an accounting of from whence the funds came and what the supposed $322 million was spent on? Including salaries, such as the $213,000 a year J.D. Granger is being paid to mis-manage this debacle.
About $140 million was spent to take land for the un-needed Bypass Channel? Some of that land was taken over ten years ago, with the victims of the abuse of eminent domain threat still not made whole from the financial damage done to their lives. Can you imagine being one of those victims of the Boondoggle, and ten years later driving by the location of your former home or business and seeing a Boondoggle mess which has gone on for years, with no fruition or end in sight?
More later. I got sidetracked on other Boondoggle issues from a point I wanted to make about that Bypass Channel ditch....
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