Ongoing TRWD Scandal Keeps Growing Over Dry Land

 

This morning's email included one from S-Man which was a comment from yesterday's blog post above Washington's melting snowpack, with the comment having zero to do with melting snow...

S-Man has left a new comment on your post "Washington's Mountains Are Melting":

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

Tarrant water district board members question law firm’s advice

__________________

It would seem S-Man used the blog comment method to point me to an article he thought I would find of interest. S-Man was correct in his thinking.

That is a screen cap from the article you see above. With a new look at one of Fort Worth's pitiful little bridges which have taken years and years to build over dry land. You also get a good look at those imaginarily iconic signature V-Piers, frequently touted by the Trinity River Vision's J.D. Granger as being something real special.

J.D. Granger shows up in this article in the Fort Worth Reporter. But the main thrust of the article is the fact that apparently the majority of the Tarrant Region Water District Board is fed up with the board's longtime general counsel, and the dubious legal advice said counsel has provided.

Such as okaying funneling $300K to departing General Manager, Jim Oliver, along with $60K to J.D. Granger. With that money being a bogus adding to their accounts of supposed un-paid leave time off.

These sham pay-offs were approved by former TRWD Board President, Jack Stevens, who received the fewest votes in the latest TRWD Board election, thus removing Stevens from the TRWD Board.

Stevens made these sham pay-offs without consulting the TRWD Board.

The TRWD Board has since rescinded the sham payoffs. And it looks like there may be some sort of criminal investigation into what appear to be improper shenanigans.

Read the entire Fort Worth Reporter Tarrant water district board members question law firm’s advice article for all the details...

Washington's Mountains Are Melting

This blogging falls into the category of things I read in west coast online news sources about something on the west coast which I would never read in a Texas online news source about something in Texas.

In this instance it was in the Seattle Times I saw that which you see here.

A volcano in full meltdown mode.

When I first read of the predicted super HOT heatwave heading to the Pacific Northwest I wondered if this would be causing rapid melting of the snow in the mountain zones.

I remember flying to Washington in late July of 2008 and being surprised at how odd Mount Rainier looked due to so much of that mountain's usual white covering being missing.

At that point in time the Pacific Northwest was in the midst of a drought, hence what was usually evergreen was brown instead. And the mountains had not received their usual allotment of snow.

However, Mount Rainier in 2008 still had way more white covering it than the current version of Mount Rainier. And there are still several months of HOT temperatures to come, with more of the snow pack and glaciers melting.

I have not seen a current photo of Mount Baker, which is Washington's other volcano easily seen from the lowlands of the Puget Sound.

I wonder how Mount Shasta in Northern California is doing, melt-wise. I recollect driving by Mount Shasta in the early 1990s and being surprised to see it almost totally with no snow. The Mount Shasta volcano, like Mounts Rainier and Baker, is easily seen as one drives by on Interstate 5.
 
Changing the subject slightly.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest one learns how to pronounce Mount Rainier. As in the Rainier part is pronounced Rain-near.

I wonder if someone not from the Pacific Northwest might think Rainier was pronounced Rainy-er. And might think the name meant that mountain was more rainy than other mountains. Just like many think Seattle is rainier than any other town.

One thing I know for sure, there is no mountain or volcano in Texas with any snow melt issues...

Have A Mighty Fine 4th Of July Grilling Filet Of Alligator

Yesterday, as in Saturday, the day before today, Sunday, the 4th of July, I was in Walmart collecting the vittles needed for my annual 4th of July Grilling.

I was in the seafood section looking for salmon, when I saw that which you see above, which I had my phone take a picture of for documentation purposes.

Filet of Alligator.

I have no idea how one cooks Alligator.

I need to consult the Southern Belle, Elsie Hotpepper, with whom I consult when I am dumbfounded trying to figure out some Southern cuisine confusion.

Elsie is a gourmet level chef specializing in the complicated cuisine of the South.

From the Hotpepper I learned how to make perfect grits, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes.

You reading this in Washington, and other locations not in the South, does your Walmart seafood section stock Alligator?

Speaking of Alligator, of late that particular reptile has been in the local news due to there being way above the norm number of Gator sightings in Fort Worth's Lake Worth.

Lake Worth is an impoundment of the Trinity River, a few miles upstream from the downtown Fort Worth location of the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River.

I have seen no coverage, this river floating season, of Rockin' the River. Has this been cancelled again, like last year, due to COVID?

Or is this increase in the Alligator population the new reason not to be Rockin' the River?

Maxwell Smart Linda Lou & Me Detective Agency

That is Maxwell Smart you see above, looking out one of the windows of his Mount Vernon abode.

Of late, Maxwell's primary human, Linda Lou, and myself, have been engaged in intense detective work, locating missing persons.

The phone conversations between myself and Linda Lou are in speaker phone mode, so Maxwell listens, and then misunderstands, thinking he must help in looking for something, so he goes to the window to do surveillance. 

So far, Maxwell, Linda Lou and I have located three missing persons. The first located was found in Montesano, Washington. A town, if I am remembering right, with a connection to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. 

The missing person found in Montesano provided a clue to finding the next missing person, by suggesting we look in Texas. That clue worked. We found our second missing person in Alpine, Texas.

The third missing person we found was an easy one. That person was on Facebook. 

We are now up against our most challenging case yet, finding a missing person who is a member of Washington's Swinomish tribe. This missing person lived on the same block I lived on whilst growing up in Burlington, Washington. Last seen, we think, in July or August of 1991 in La Conner, Washington.

La Conner is a tourist town in the Skagit Valley.

La Conner has an actual iconic, signature bridge, known as the Rainbow Bridge, by some, built high above the actual water of the Swinomish Channel.

Anyone reading this in Fort Worth, who has been conned by idiotic propaganda, who thinks a little freeway overpass-like bridge, built over dry land, has possible iconic signature status, click the La Conner link to see what a real iconic signature bridge over water looks like...

New Granger Grafting Grifting Revelations In Ongoing TRWD Scandal

I've been away from my computer for a few hours. But, I had my phone with me, which beeped a couple times, with the beeping letting me know a new wrinkle in the ongoing TRWD Grifting Slush Fund Scandal has been rendered.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, perhaps motivated by competition from the new kid in town known as the Fort Worth Reporter, seems to be finally looking in a clear headed, sort of, way at the mess that is the Tarrant Region Water District, and is spawn, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, better known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The image you see above is a screen cap from the Star-Telegram's article about this latest revelation, this time directly involving Kay Granger's son, J.D. who you see on the left in the photo.

In addition to the main disgusting revelation in this article, we also learn that J.D. is now being paid $242,000 a year. Maybe it is time an actual investigate journalist finds out what it is which warrants paying Kay Granger's son that much money.

And now, the aforementioned article in its entirety...

Former Tarrant water board president gave Panther Island boss extra $60K in paid time off

Days before leaving office, and two months after he directed a paid leave exception for the outgoing general manager, the Tarrant Regional Water District’s former board president made a similar arrangement for Panther Island executive J.D. Granger.

According to documents obtained through a public information request, former board president Jack Stevens wrote an internal memo on May 13 — more than a week and a half after he lost his reelection bid, and five days before he left office. In the memo, Stevens directed water district staff to make an exception to the paid leave policy for “the current Development Director of TRWD.”

In an email chain, staff members clarify that the title references Granger. The exception allows Granger to bank 1,560 hours of paid time off, 520 beyond the maximum outlined in the district’s policy.

At Granger’s hourly rate, that’s more than $60,000 worth of extra time.

The exception also removed the district’s restrictions on how paid leave can be cashed in or rolled over. Stevens’ memo allowed Granger “to be paid for unused Paid Leave hours in full upon request, in a lump sum, by deposit into the District’s [retirement plan], over time, or otherwise as requested, subject to the requirements of applicable law and the District’s [retirement plan].”

According to water district documents, Granger is paid about $242,000 a year for his role as the executive director of the Panther Island/Central City project. That project, which has a price tag of more than $1 billion, has been ongoing for more than 15 years and has been spearheaded federally by Granger’s mother, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger.

After issuing the exception memo, Stevens followed up with a staff member on May 17, one day before he left office, and asked them to “please implement the exceptions in my Memorandum dated May 13, 2021.”

The exception that Stevens wrote for Granger is strikingly similar to an exception he wrote two months earlier, for now-retired general manger Jim Oliver.

That exception, which the board of directors voted unanimously to revoke on Tuesday, added more than 2,000 extra hours of paid time off into Oliver’s account. At Oliver’s hourly rate as general manager, that exception would allow him to cash in on more than $300,000 in post-retirement compensation.

Board president Leah King on Tuesday described the exception to Oliver as “ill-advised” and potentially “unlawful.” However, Oliver’s lawyer told the Star-Telegram that the exception was made following district policy, which includes a clause that paid leave exceptions can be made.

King and the other board members have not made any public comments on Granger’s exception.

Lawyers for the Tarrant water district are conducting an “inquiry” into the exception made for Oliver. It’s unclear if the exception made for Granger is also included in that inquiry.

Granger and King could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

Former Tarrant water board president gave Panther Island boss extra $60K in paid time off.

Hoodoo-like Cairn With Wichita River Running High Along Wichita Bluff Nature Area Circle Trail

My motorized mechanical motion device took me and my bike to the west parking lot of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area today so we could do some HOT biking on the Circle Trail.

Above my bike has taken me way past the east entry to the WBNA, returning west after reaching the Circle Trail's east termination point. We stopped to take this photo of the Wichita River running high and reddish orange.

On the return to the aforementioned motorized mechanical motion device we stopped to pay homage to the latest incarnation of the Wichita Bluff Hoodoo-like Cairn.

Note the fine detail. The flying buttress arch on the right side of the structure. That is some high level engineering there.

I was fully sunscreened today. Made sure of that, because the section of the Circle Trail I rolled today has little shade.

Totally changing the subject. 

I have a strong aversion to hearing people say their thoughts and prayers are going out to this that or the other thing. This usually sounds so shallow to me. So trite. So cliché.

Well, I am not a praying type person, but I can say today my thoughts, or, well, more precisely, today I have been thinking about someone dear, up north in Washington, in the Skagit Valley, who is going through something today that has all of who know her thinking of her and hoping all goes well.

Why Wasn't The Golden Gate Built Over Dry Land To Save Time & Money?

I saw that which you see above on Facebook. A lady standing on the running board of an old car, in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge, under construction, behind her.

According to the caption the year was 1935, with the new bridge to be completed in two years. It took four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, in total.

Four years..

Over water.

Fast moving, deep water, subject to strong tidal currents.

I don't know why San Francisco did not employ the time and money saving Fort Worth method of bridge building by draining all that water and building the bridge over dry land.

Methinks if Fort Worth tried to build an actual feat of bridge building engineering, such as the Golden Gate, even if Fort Worth began building in 1933, the bridge would still not be completed by 2021.

Fort Worth can't even seem to manage to build simple little bridges over dry land in a reasonable time span.

We blogged about this recently in Another Opportunity To Drone On About Fort Worth's Visionary Bridges To Nowhere, comparing the two town's signature iconic bridges, with one town's bridge being actually iconic, called Golden Gate Bridge, as opposed to the other town's being imaginarily iconic, called Panther Island Bridge...

Hank Frank & Grandpa Jake

My little brother has been escaping the HEAT of Arizona by enjoying the HEAT of Washington, which is HOTTER than the HEAT he left behind in Arizona.

I knew my little brother had made his way from Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula to the Skagit Valley, on Monday, so I asked this morning, via text message, if he had been able to see Spencer Jack and Hank Frank yet.

Those being the two who turned my little brother into a grandpa.

The reply to my probing question came in the form of the picture you see above. 

I replied "Now that that is one cute pic!!!"

To which Hank Frank's grandpa replied "He is a cutie patootie. He calls me Poppa Jake. He is a happy little boy."

Well, now, this all just made my day...

Texas Exit To Oklahoma & Comanche Red River Casino

I mentioned earlier today that I read that the Red River was heading into being in flood mode, and that I thought I might drive myself north a few miles, to Oklahoma, to see the Red River flowing a lot of water.

The last time I saw the Red River it did not look like a river. It looked like a meandering creek, surrounded by massive sand bars, with a long bridge crossing over the little creek. 

That long bridge, which I saw today is named the G.W. Bush Bridge, today was not crossing over a creek. Instead it was crossing over a wild looking river.

In that first photo, a rare selfie, we are seeing the expression of joy and relief on my face, happy to be leaving Texas for the first time in well over a year.

That photo was taken just as I drove onto the G.W. Bush Bridge. I do not know at what point in the bridge crossing one leaves Texas and enters Oklahoma. There is a big Welcome to Oklahoma sign when you get to the north side of the river.

I snapped photos of the flooding Red River, both heading to Oklahoma, and when returning to Texas. Below is the looking east, heading to Oklahoma, view of the flooding Red River.

It certainly is not a bright Red River, more of a brownish shade of red Red River.

There are two casinos soon after crossing the border. I had previously been to the Apache Casino. I drove past it this time and stopped at Comanche Red River Casino instead, because I was in need of a restroom break.

The Comanche Red River Casino is bigger than the Apache Casino. I really do not like the modern style of gaming machines. Way too much sensory overload. Huge video screens, some curved, some towering above where one sits. I like a casino with a more sedate ambience than the current casino norm.

If the casino today had old style slots I likely would not have resisted the urge to gamble a nickel or two. Today I felt no such urge.

And above we are heading back to Texas, on the middle of the G.W. Bush Bridge, heading south, looking west at the flooding Red River.

I rather enjoyed freeway driving today. I do not remember the last time I went 70 mph. It's been a long long time.

I suspect I will be making my first return in a long long time to DFW soon. It has been well over a year since I have been to that location...

Seattle 108 Degrees HOTTER Than Ever In NYC, Washington, D.C. & Atlanta

The above screen cap from Twitter was in my email inbox this morning, sent by my Favorite Nephew Jason, currently in super sweltering Mount Vernon, Washington.

I would have to do some Googling to verify that these temperature statistics are accurate, but, I am fairly certain they are. 

This morning I read in the Seattle Times that cool marine air is going to flow in today from the Pacific, bringing relief to the over HEATED. 

I also read that yesterday's heat caused I-5 and other roads to buckle.

I do not know if a buckled road is temporarily not safe to drive on, or what, exactly, buckling necessitates. 

Meanwhile, at my Texas location this morning, the temperature is 73, heading to a high in the low 80s, with rain currently falling, going into downpour mode every once in awhile, along with thunder booms.

I read this morning, in the local Wichita Falls Times New Record, that the Red River is in flood mode. Maybe I will drive up to Oklahoma this morning and see the Red River in flood mode. The last time I drove the 20 miles north to Oklahoma the Red River was a mere trickle, but one could see, whilst driving over the long bridge across the river, that the river had potential to be much wider.

One comes to casinos a couple miles north of the Oklahoma border. Too bad I am not much of a slot machine fan or I might have myself some fun losing money.

To operate the newfangled slot machines I need my Arizona sister to guide me through the complicated process. I don't know why the nice simple slot machines of long ago are no longer an option.

I used to actually enjoy playing video poker on the slot machines of Reno and Vegas.

One time in the Debbie Reynolds Casino in Las Vegas I won a super jackpot on a nickel video poker machine. It filled two buckets with nickels. I think the grand total when I converted the nickels to paper was somewhere in the whopping 60 bucks range...