Feces, Alligators and Zebra Mussels

Oh my!

The dreaded Zebra mussels have made their way to the Trinity River basin.

It's quoted as being a very bad thing for the environment and the economy.

What will they find in the river system next?

Hopefully they find it before the next Trinity River Vision Rocking on the River / Floating with Feces event.

Read more on NBC5, not about the feces float, you'llnever read about that in the local 'news'. 

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Daughter of Texas Fights For Her Land Against TransCanada

A daughter of Texas is standing up to a foreign corporation that has come to take her land by force.

Julia Trigg Crawford manages the farm her grandfather bought in 1948 near Direct, TX south of the Red River. Last year a Canadian pipeline company called TransCanada told Julia Trigg and her family that a portion of their land would be taken by eminent domain so that the Keystone XL pipeline could be built across it.

Join us at a hearing in Austin on Monday July 23rd and demand that Texas legislators protect private property. (For more details email contact@wetexans.com)

You have the power to stand with Julia Trigg and to tell elected officials that private foreign corporations should NOT be able to take private property from its rightful owner.

Julia Trigg will face off with TransCanada in court next month. But right now the Land & Resource Management Committee of the Texas House of Representatives is getting ready to meet and discuss what steps our legislature should take to protect landowners.

While this is a positive step, the pipeline industry will be working to convince members of the committee and other legislators they should be given broad powers to take land from private citizens.

Legislators need to hear from you – let them know that pipeline companies have been abusing eminent domain for far too long and Texans aren’t going to stand for it any longer.

Did you know that until last year pipeline companies in Texas could take private property without ANY oversight whatsoever? If a pipeline company claimed it had the right to use eminent domain there was nothing a landowner could do except wait for the land to be taken and then file a lawsuit. Very few property owners have the resources to fight a legal battle with major pipeline companies, so the pipelines almost always won out-of-court settlements that allowed them to take the land.

But in 2011 the Texas Supreme Court struck down this abusive practice in the landmark Texas Rice Land Partners v. Denbury Green Pipelines decision. The court seemed appalled that this was going on, saying “Private property cannot be imperiled with such nonchalance, via an irrefutable presumption created by checking a certain box on a one-page government form. Our Constitution demands far more.”

Join us in Austin, make your voices heard, and let’s give power back to property owners! (Again, for more details email contact@wetexans.com)

As always, thank you for your support!
Calvin Tillman
Former Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640

"Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it"

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Another Tarrant County Example

Or more Montgomery Plaza drama...

Not only could they not sell all the condos (as they stated they could), some were foreclosed on. 

Now, the tenants have found out how much the developers are making off the tax assessment alone.  They're pretty pissed.  Wonder how pissed they'll be when they figure out the rest of the story?

Montgomery Plaza has a long history with the Trinity River Vision. Someone should look into that. Especially if they live in the sights of Trinity River Vision.  Or in the heart of its TIF boundary. 

Wake up.  You're next.

Read about the TAD fiasco in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford to miss it. 

The fight erupted after condo owners learned a secret: Similar-size condos are getting much different tax appraisals.

In Tarrant County??!  You don't say. 

Condos owned by the project's developer, 2600 Montgomery Llc., are assessed at much lower values than homeowners' units -- sometimes half as much. It's a sweetheart deal, some condo owners say, and it means a hit of thousands of dollars in property taxes for those shut out of it.

There's those 3 letters again, "Llc".  The "developers" own almost half of the condos.  Some would say those boys should be taken behind the Woodshed.  In Tarrant County, that has a whole different meaning.

"How that comes across as equitable and fair or uniform is frankly a mystery to me," husband David Ekstrom said.

You'll see why this important line is buried down later in the story in the paper.

TAD not only had the values wrong, Ekstrom told the appraisal review board, but also had the sizes of some homes wrong. Some condo owners, for example, bought two condos but are being appraised for one, she said.

Another governmental agency had their "values" wrong?  And it took another average citizen taxpayer to point it out.  Kudos, ma'am.

Under state law, TAD is required to set assessed values that are fair, equitable and uniform.

See above statement from Mr. Citizen Taxpayer.

The tax dispute is another example of injustice, Slattery said. "It was grossly unfair," he said.

And don't miss this from the comment section, lookthisway knows what's up and WHO pays. 

You live in Texas the home of the big business give away. How do you think Ft. Worth can continue to give away tax money if they can't get it...not from business but from the middle class. Texas is in for a financial meltdown within the next 5 years. Too much borrowing and spending by the Republicans in Austin, Ft. Worth and Tarrant county. Someone is going to have to pay and it won't be the wealthy or business.

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Trust us...

We "protect" YOUR water.

We don't know which is worse, that Fort Worth said it, the paper quoted it, or that some people buy it.

Fort Worth says water might be stinky, but it's safe

"Customers should notice some improvement by Saturday, but taste and odor issues may persist for another couple of months," the department said.

Customers may improve their water's taste by refrigerating it in an open container and adding a slice of lemon or lime, the department said.

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Faux Flood Control in Fort Worth

It appears the latest Trinity River Vision Update has shown Durango a few new things, like the Trinity River Vision's Interior Water Feature.

Below is part of a long Durango post about the Trinity River Vision Update:

When the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was first hoisted on Fort Worth, about the biggest element touted, before the much needed flood control was added, was that there would be this big Town Lake, covering over 30 acres, giving downtown Fort Worth a water feature that would make other towns in America green with envy.

As the TRV Vision began its slow fade into Boondoggle land, the Town Lake started to shrink. Eventually it became a fraction of its original size, with the locals now referring to it as Pond Granger. Or the Kay Puddle.

Well, this graphic in this latest TRV Boondoggle Update does not refer to the former Town Lake, there is now no mention of a lake, pond or puddle.

The Town Lake Pond Puddle is now called the "Interior Water Feature."

George Orwell would be proud.

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Speaking of roads...

People come here every day looking for information on Texas Toll Roads.  If you want information and want to know WHO is behind the Texas Toll Road fiasco, look no further.

Texas Turf has it all.

Educate yourself.  Your children will thank you.

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Ain't all it's cracked up to be...

Not only does the drilling industry no longer own the 4th of July, they rolled through here and tore up the roads.

We think we heard that at a meeting (or a hundred), citizens asking WHO was going to pay for it, all the while knowing the answer.

Guess WHO rolled out of town?  Now what?

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

The Texas Department of Transportation told industry representatives and elected officials Monday that repairing roads damaged by drilling activity to bring them up to standard would "conservatively" cost $1 billion for farm-to-market roads and another $1 billion for local roads. And that doesn't include the costs of maintaining interstate and state highways.

The task force -- made up of county judges, state legislators, state highway and public safety officials, and industry representatives -- plans to forge legislative recommendations this fall to address what has become a statewide infrastructure problem caused by five big energy plays, he said.

Now that drilling activity has slowed significantly, the big operators are gone and small subcontractors are hauling salt water and drilling mud, often making it difficult to get anyone to cover road maintenance costs, said Rick Bailey, Johnson County Precinct 1 commissioner.

"We'd be better off if they hauled the legal limit," Bailey said of truckers who often carry 10 to 35 percent over their legal capacity.

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