Carlotta Crackpotta's Purloined Haltom City Park Plaque Investigation

Friday morning, on Facebook, I saw a post about a memorial plaque in a park in the Fort Worth suburb known as Haltom City. That memorial plaque memorializes Ally Collins, a four year old who drowned in a flash flood way back in 2007.

That flash flood, and its drowning of Ally Collins, caused to come about a lot of political activism regarding trying to fix the inept, incompetent urban planning in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, with demands that something be done to mitigate the chronic flash flooding caused by poorly planned developments.

This flash flood of political activism soon came to target what was earlier in this century known as the Trinity River Vision. An imaginary flood control project supposedly designed to address urgent flooding issues where there had been no flooding for well over a half a century.

As one decade flowed into the next the Trinity River Vision morphed into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, with three simple little bridges stuck in slow motion construction over dry land, trying to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

In the years since Ally Collins drowned, the Trinity River Vision, now known, by most, as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or more simply, as the Boondoggle, has spent millions upon millions of bucks, with no imaginary new flood control measures to be seen in the area which has not flooded for well over half a century.

While millions upon millions of bucks has not been spent addressing the issues which caused the flash flooding which drowned Ally Collins.

And now back to that plaque at that park in that Fort Worth suburb. I made a comment on that Facebook post, saying something like it is too bad that plaque is so small it is difficult to find, and to see, once one does find it. And that maybe someone could find a way to replace the Ally Collins memorial plaque with something larger and more memorable.

And then, beginning Friday afternoon, I started seeing incoming phone calls coming in from someone who for privacy's sake we shall refer to, this time, as Carlotta Crackpotta.

By late afternoon I was on a bike ride. On that bike ride I stopped in the shade of the MSU Mustang statues to sit on a bench and call Carlotta Crackpotta back.

Miss Crackpotta answered before the first ring finished. The first words Carlotta Crackpotta spoke to me were "Did you take that plaque?

What plaque you talking about, Carlotta, I thought and asked?

The Ally Collins plaque you were commenting on in a sinister way this morning on Facebook, Carlotta said back to me.

Oh, said I, yes, of course it was me. I drove all the way to DFW to purloin the Ally Collins plaque, what with that being just the sorta thing I do.

Well, after we got past those initial pleasantries I was able to figure out that someone had removed the Ally Collins plaque. Carlotta Crackpotta then was called by someone from the Haltom City city government to tell Carlotta about the purloined plaque. Carlotta then intuited from my Facebook comment regarding the plaque that I must have removed it so as to cause its replacement with something more substantial.

Not a bad idea, but I am innocent of the crime.

So, when I was finally able to get Carlotta Crackpotta off the phone by telling her it was past 5 and thus the cocktail float in the pool time of the day, I saw rising from ground near where I was sitting a memorial type plaque of the sort which should replace the missing Ally Collins plaque.

That is a photo of that plaque you see at the top.

More Fort Worth Drownings While Trinity River Vision Does Nothing To Help

The photo you see here was clipped from a video Elsie Hotpepper shared on Facebook showing the latest flooding in the West 7th Street zone of Fort Worth.

This area floods pretty much every time copious amounts of rain falls. The drainage system is antiquated, not updated when the area went into what counts as a boom in this sleepy town.

I was not going to bother commenting on this, what with a why bother feeling of ennui of late. And, really, what is the point of pointing out the obvious to the apparently oblivious?

This is a town which has elected the leader of the Granger Gang to Congress over and over again. And is likely about to do so again, unless some miracle of common sense takes over the town.

Years ago a little girl named Ally Collins drowned in a flash flood in Haltom City. The volume of water in the flash flooding creeks in Haltom City had been greatly exacerbated by huge areas of North Fort Worth which had been developed with homes and malls, with no mitigating done to slow down the water when the sky goes rogue in downpour mode.

Ally Collins drowned about the same time what was then known only as the Trinity River Vision was starting to become something some of the locals were aware of.

Kay Granger visited Haltom City after the deadly flood. She promised to look into the causes and do something about it.

Kay Granger has done nothing.

I do not remember if when Ally Collins died Kay Granger had already installed her unqualified son, J.D., as the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision.

After Ally Collins died, and after it was apparent Kay Granger was doing nothing to help with the flooding problems. And after it was realized that the Trinity River Vision was being purported to be a vitally needed flood control scheme, in an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded for well over a half century, due to massive levees keeping the river in check when it goes in to flood mode, several Tarrant County citizens suddenly found themselves turning into political activists.

It did not take much looking into it for those new political activists to clearly see there was something dire wrong with the Trinity River Vision. And thus the opposition to this now obviously ineptly implimented corrupt project, was born.

And now, years later, the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is known as America's Biggest Boondoggle. An embarrassing pseudo public works project which has little to show for the millions of bucks spent except for things like an homage to an aluminum trash can, multiple V shaped forms in various stages, looking ridiculous in a mess of a construction zone, floating beer parties in the Trinity River, an ice rink, a failed wakeboard park and other bits of nonsense, like the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

In May Fort Worth's corrupt political leaders managed to dupe the apparently easily duped local voters to approve what was touted as a quarter billion buck flood control and drainage bond.

After the voters approved of this flood control and drainage bond those benefiting from the new funding arrogantly touted this vote as the voters approving of the Trinity River Vision, and that the money will go to the idiocy known as "Panther Island", not directly to flood control and drainage.

And yet, where is the outrage? Where are the demands for accountability? Where are the demands that something be done about this ballot fraud?

Burnout. Methinks a lot of people are just exhausted by nonsense overload and the feeling that truth, justice, common sense and what used to be known as the American Way, no longer are in play.

Corruption is in control. Or so it seems.

And now, this past week, more flash flood drownings in Fort Worth due to excessive water flow caused by poorly engineered, poorly planned development.

Does Fort Worth, as in the leaders in charge, even understand the concept of urban planning?

Methinks not, and I think this every time I return from what I refer to as modern America, to Texas, well, parts of Texas, such as Fort Worth, which I have come to think of as backwards, not modern.

In modern America, such as the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, infrastructure is built ahead of development. One sees this all over that area, roads, sidewalks, landscaping, drainage, all those things needed in order to add houses, apartment complexes, industry and retail, being built, as a result of sensible urban planning.

While Fort Worth allowed thousands of homes to be built in North Fort Worth without even upgrading the existing roads, let alone the drainage system. Hence that area can now be a nightmare to drive through, which I have learned to avoid on my monthly trips back to DFW.

Fort Worth really needs to grow up and start wearing Big City pants.

Lives depend on it....

Picnicking In Haltom City Without Elsie Hotpepper Or Amon Carter

I have long done my best to emulate my favorite Fort Worth historical figure.

Amon Carter.

When Amon Carter had the distasteful task of needing to venture all the way to Dallas he packed a lunch to take with him, so as not to leave any more money, than need be, in that evil town to the east of Fort Worth.

Now that I have exiled myself from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, on those rare occasions when I return, like today, I pack a lunch.

Today on my way out of the Metroplex mess I stopped at Whites Branch Park in Haltom City for a pseudo picnic.

Whites Branch Park should be named Ally Collins Park, but I digress.

I would never stop in a Fort Worth park for a pseudo picnic, due to most Fort Worth parks missing an essential picnic element that I deem necessary for a modern era picnic experience.

Can you spot what this little Haltom City park has which most Fort Worth parks lack?

If you spotted running water in the form of a fountain, you are very observant.

This little park in Haltom City also has modern restroom facilities with modern indoor plumbing. An amenity also lacking in most Fort Worth city parks.

Elsie Hotpepper texted me whilst I was picnicking in Haltom City, with geographic information.  I had harbored the delusion that Elsie Hotpepper was joining me on this picnic, but that was not to be, to my great  disappointment....

Successful Quest To Find Ally Collins Memorial Plaque In Haltom City's Whites Branch Park

A couple days ago I blogged about A Flooded Walk In Modern, Progressive, Liberal Haltom City's Whites Branch Park.

A few minutes after I hit the publish button on that blogging, Haltom City's modern, progressive, liberal known as Elsie Hotpepper text messaged me something along the line of "You loomed in on uni-sex restroom signs, but ignored the Ally plaque?"

I replied, in my defense, that I did not realize Whites Branch Park was the location of Ally's Playground and the plaque dedicated to Ally's memory.

I told Elsie I would return soon and find that plaque.

Shortly before noon I found myself in the Haltom City Library, where the aforementioned Elsie Hotpepper texted me asking "Are you OK? And have you found that Ally plaque yet?

I texted back that I was not OK, that I was in the Haltom City Library, but would soon journey north in search of the elusive Ally plaque.

So, I headed north on Haltom Road til Haltom Road intersected with Western Center Boulevard. I took a right on Western Center Boulevard, assuming that it eventually turned into Wautaga Boulevard before turning into Mid-Cities Boulevard.

I assumed correctly. A short distance after turning on to Western Center Boulevard I saw the entry to Whites Branch Park.

I walked all over the playground, looking for the Ally Collins Memorial Plaque, to no avail. I walked all over the Splash Park, again to no avail.

I texted Elsie Hotpepper asking where exactly this Ally plaque was located. Elsie Hotpepper did not get back to me before I found the Ally plaque on my own.

My search originally did not succeed because I was looking for a big vertical plaque.

Instead the Ally Collins Memorial Plaque is about the size of an i-Pad, installed flush to the ground, at the northern edge of Ally's Playground.

Ally's Playground is quite well done, along with the Splash Park. I should have thought to take a picture of it, showing the plaque. I shall return, but not today.....

Today Ally's Playground In Haltom City Was Dedicated To The Memory Of Ally Collins

Way back in June of 2007, day after day of rain fell on North Texas.

On June 19, 2007, Whites Branch Creek in Haltom City went into flash flood mode.

Four year old Alexandria "Ally" Collins was ripped from her mother's arms by the flood and drowned.

Today, over six years later, a memorial plaque was unveiled in Ally's Playground in Whites Branch Park in Haltom City.

In the years since Ally drowned her death has galvanized a lot of political action in the Fort Worth/Haltom City area, due to the fact that little has been done to mitigate the flash flooding problem of the creeks which run through Haltom City.

While little has been done to prevent future Haltom City flash flood drownings, millions of dollars have been spent elsewhere in Tarrant County on a project known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which is promoted primarily as a much needed flood control project, even though no one has drowned in a flood in the area of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle in over a half a century, where millions of dollars had already been spent, a half century ago, to build giant levees to prevent any flash flood of the sort which killed little Ally Collins.

Ally Collins Can Not Vote So I'm Voting Basham-Nold-Kelleher For The TRWD Board In Her Memory

In the past few days I have been annoyed a time or two when I've read shills for the TRWD Board dismiss the B-N-K sweep out the corruption slate as being made up of a bunch of Tea Party nutjobs.

A couple minutes ago I learned I was not the only one who finds these Tea Party dismissive jabs as being moronic low blows, when I read the following...

While the BNK candidates do have support from the Tea Party, they also have support from the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and the Libertarian Party.  They know water is nonpartisan.  You'd think a "news" paper writer would know that.

I believe the "news" paper writer being referred to is Bud Kennedy. I have read Bud Kennedy refer to the B-N-K group as Tea Partiers.

I think I am part of the B-N-K group. I am definitely not a Tea Partier. If anything I'm the opposite of that mindset. If had to politically label myself I think I would call myself a Progressive Liberal Democrat sort of person.

The TRWD Board shills seem to think that there is some sort of dark conspiracy of ulterior motives that is hitting them out of the blue. Allow me to disabuse that notion.

On June 18, 2007 four year old Ally Collins was snatched from her home by a rampaging, flash flooding Whites Branch Creek in Haltom City. The drowning of Ally Collins, along with the flash flood property damage from Whites Branch Creek and Big Fossil Creek and the follow up non-action by those whose responsibility it is to help mitigate flood dangers, galvanized the citizen reaction you are seeing in this TRWD Board election.

Back in 2010 Adrian Murray gave a speech which clearly articulates why so many voters are completely disgusted by the corrupt Tarrant Regional Water District. You can read Adrian Murray's speech in its entirety here, and a relevant excerpt below...

The Tarrant Regional Water District is responsible for flood control in the areas under its domain. It, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, had been studying the persistent flooding in the Big Fossil Creek watershed for decades. Yet nothing was ever done for, as the residents in the area were told, the money just wasn't there.

For all of Ally's short life, the focus of the TRWD had been on something not in its charter: commercial real estate development. Disguised as flood control, the project known as the Trinity River Vision was given birth by the Fort Worth City Council just days after Ally was born. The project consumed the energy, resources and time of the water district's management and board, funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a grand scheme to construct a town lake at the confluence of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River where Fort Worth itself had been born. The watershed to the north could wait.

A feasibility study for the watershed had been initiated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in February 2001. In a letter to Congresswoman Kay Granger in November 2009, Col. Richard Muraski of the Corps stated that, "Due to a variety of issues, including a lack of consistent funding, higher priority work and technical shortcomings, completion of the study has taken longer than normal." He went on to state that the Corp recognized the "history of destructive flooding" in the area and that approximately $100,000 would be provided to "continue the studies of the Big Fossil Creek watershed."

Meanwhile, $54 million has been spent to date by the TRWD on the Trinity River Vision and the Corps of Engineers has committed $110 million to this alleged flood control project, in an area that hasn't had a significant flood in over 60 years. The project has an estimated budget of $909 million, a figure which is sure to rise.

Ally Collins could have known none of this, of course. She was just a little girl, with little girl dreams. We will never know with certainty if Ally would still be with us today if the Corps of Engineers had not been shackled with a lack of consistent funding and higher priority work. We can say, however, with some certainty, that Ally's destiny was determined in the days just after she was born, when matters of priority and profit, prestige and power, influence and arrogance merged together in the great confluence of corruption and greed that would one day sweep her away in the great dark waters of fate.

In a few minutes Progressive Liberal Democratic me is taking off to do my early voting duty for Basham, Nold and Kelleher.

And now you know why I am voting to vote the rascals out, hoping to replace them with decent, caring humans who might help prevent any future Ally's from meeting a similar horrific fate.