Lake Bridgeport Sandflat News

2006-10-30T12:09:00.000-06:00

Ignorance breeds fear; fear breeds hate ...
And Intellectual snobbery breeds useful idiots

The phrase “useful idiots” refers to naieve communist and leftist sympathizers in the United States who zealously advance a leftist agenda without understanding that often they are being used by subersive forces intent on destroying the US. The phrase is attributed to Lenin who is thought to have said in reference to Western capatalists, “They will sell us the rope with which to hang them."

One of the best descriptions of useful idiots comes from Bagder Blog Alliance.

“ . . .The useful idiot never sees the big picture and typically are driven by blind hate and ignorance. They are led by and feel they belong to, an arrogant and self proclaimed leftist intelegensia, who think you are too stupid to know the truth of any subject matter.”http://badgerblogalliance.blogspot.com/2006/10/useful-idiots.html

Yesterday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram op ed piece, “Ignorance breeds fear; fear breeds hate . . .”, by David J. Keeling, is a prime example of an arrogant, high-brow, useful idiot lecture – the kind most of our children receive in major universities around the country. Keeling is a professor of geography at Western Kentucky University, so expecting independent thought from the left-leaning university intelegensia is pretty hopeless.

His article begins, “During the past five years, America's "war" on terrorism and increasing global instability have become intimately connected to fundamental changes in this country's cultural geographies -- changes that could well lead to increased extremism and terrorism in the homeland.”

The kind of “terrorism in the homeland” that Keeling is writing about, however, addresses only one kind of terrorism - extremist fundamentalism and home-grown terrorism in the "land of the free.” He conveniently avoids questions of border security, illegal immigration, and the fact that Mid Eastern terrorists have already breached our southern borders.

(See: The just released report by the House Committee on Homeland Security entitled, "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border")
http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=1142&rid=11013911

Keeling wants us all to “to see ourselves in a broader, more enlightened context” and, as one of the self-proclaimed enlightened, his lecture is pretty one-sided. Oh yes, he’s cleaver enough to briefly address extremism on both the left and the right “the politics of fear and hatred,” but the body of his article belies a heavily nuanced left-tilt attack against the right.

“The government is fueling the fires of radicalism by pushing culturally sensitive issues such as abortion, gay rights, flag burning, gun ownership, censorship and religiously driven fundamentalist views on many aspects of private American life. These culture wars are diverting attention from the real global challenges facing the U.S. and creating an environment of hate, fear and ideological extremism. . . .”

Least we misunderstand where Keeling’s loyalties actually lie; we are treated to a skillfully manipulated leftist spin. Note that “personal destruction and hate” epitomizes the right but the left, at their worst, are merely “extremists” such as William Rivers Pitt.

“From the politics of personal destruction and hate epitomized by rightists such as Ann Coulter to the extremist views of leftists such as William Rivers Pitt, mainstream American society is under assault.”

The further along Keeling goes into his article, the more radicalized and cynical his lecture becomes, but isn’t it cute how he disavows his own cynicism???

“After all, global ignorance is most certainly in a government's best interests, as uninformed voters provide no curb at all on government excess. More cynical commentators might argue that creating the conditions for extremism and terrorism at home provides the government with ample ammunition to exert further control over the populace and to weaken individual privacy rights.

What better way to mobilize the government and the military against the general population than to argue that they are now fighting a "war" against terrorism on home soil?”

Wait a minute . . . Haven’t I already seen the movie??? Now where have I seen this not so thinly veiled attack on the War on Terror before? Oh Yes, it’s "V for Vendetta, " a neo-Marxist piece of blatant leftist propaganda. Well, that’s how it is with useful idiots, they are more heavily informed by Hollywood than by exercising anything that passes for historical perspective or critical thought.

“Based on the graphic novel series of the same name, "V" comes complete with all the bogeymen the far left loves to hate: NSA spying and wiretaps; government torture complete with Abu Ghraib hood fashions; lecherous, elderly Christian clerics in collars raping young girls; Islam, gay rights, and free speech under attack; and even a Bill O'Reilly-esque evil cable talk show host/wicked pharmaceutical billionaire/heinous military officer combo rolled into one character.” Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1592100/posts

Like most of the left, Keeling’s prescription against fear is as simplistic as any pre 9/11 leftist mantra; overcome global ignorance and we will love the world, and the world will love us. In the mean time, let’s let Keeling’s true motives be perfectly clear. He really wants to instill fear against the “ignorant” fools who see through his leftist agenda.

“While they carry on about Bush being behind the 9/11 attacks and using the war on terrorism to advance his totalitarian plans, much of Hollywood has the warm and fuzzies for the most corrupt and brutal tyrannies on earth. . .”
Source: http://www.donfeder.com/filecabinet//03232006.doc

Here’s just a little reminder. Healthy rational fear is necessary for survival!

"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain."
Aeschylus

A Line in the Sand

See: The just released report by the House Committee on Homeland Security entitled, "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border"

This chilling report that confirms:
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations have revealed that aliens were smuggled from the Middle East to staging areas in Central and South America, before being smuggled illegally into the United States.
- Members of Hezbollah have already entered the United States across the Southwest border.
-U.S. military and intelligence officials believe that Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. The Venezuelan government is issuing identity documents that could subsequently be used to obtain a U.S. visa and enter the country.

To access the report click here: http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=1142&rid=11013911

2006-10-16T16:46:00.000-05:00

Bud Kennedy’s Race-baiting Agenda?
Wise County Under Attack - Again

In case you haven’t read Bud Kennedy’s latest assault on the Wise County Republicans, “Wise County GOP likes letter-perfect candidates”, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Friday, October 13th, let me point out to Bud and to the rest of our readers that there’s far, far more to this little story!!! So stick with me as this story unfolds . . .

According to Kennedy,
. . .“The local party Web site lists not only the candidates on the Nov. 7 ballot but also their race.
Surprise.
Every Republican candidate in Wise County is listed carefully as “Ethnicity: AE.”
A code at the bottom explains that “AE” stands for “American European.” . . .

Source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15755574.htm

According to the county 2000 census, Wise County is 91.01% White, and there are no other local Republican candidates but Anglos. Still, there is no excuse for including the race or ethnicity of a candidate on a party web site. So why did the Republican Party Chair, D.A. Sharpe, include race and ethnicity?

Unlike Bud Kennedy, who was probably afraid to thoroughly vet his story, I decided to ask the Democratic Party Chair, Brenda Rankin, her take on this puzzling question.

Today Mrs. Rankin explained to me that she has known Mr. Sharpe for years and that she has great respect for him and for his integrity. As a matter of fact, she said that everyone who has ever worked with him has respect for him and that he is very kind and gracious and there is nothing racist about him or his intentions. According to Rankin, D.A. Sharpe, an older man, has a great interest in genealogy and it probably never occurred to him that what he was doing was not politically correct. He probably thought he was doing everyone a favor by listing the candidate’s genealogical backgrounds. Mrs. Rankin went on to say that Mr. Sharp has worked long and hard to get minorities in as election judges.

So how did this story get so blown up and where did Bud Kennedy get his information? A little Googling will quickly show that Kennedy has been continuously fed defamatory information about the Wise County Republicans, which he simply regurgitates without any real vetting, for quite some time.

This latest story evolved from postings by a woman who goes by TXSharon on the local Wise County Messenger Forum and on her own multiple “progressive” blogs. After being accused of constant and continuously blatant race-baiting on the WCM forum by several posters, TXSharon went out in search of anything she could use to once-again defame the Wise Republican Party. Then she started posting defamatory statements about everybody from the Christian right to Kinky and the Wise Republicans on her own blog at the well-known leftist Daily Kos site http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/14/155821/25

Interestingly, TXsharon always ends her post comments with this little ditty “The Christian Right is neither Witness Every Day”

Here’s a reader’s comment on Barry Green’s blog “Liberally Lean from the Land of Dairy Queen” that tells “the rest of the story.” Hint to Bud - Links are included so readers can vet this story because you failed to vet by simply following your buddy TXSharon’s links.

“With regard to your link to TXSharon’s blog subject “Update: Republicans busted for blatant racism. Worse than Allen!”

“Where’s the rest of the story?
What made TXSharon go looking for anything she could find on the Wise Republicans this time?

Here’s the real scoop. TXsharon was rebuffed by two Independents and one Democrat for constantly race-baiting. All of those posters had publicly stated that they were going to vote for several Democratic candidates. Because TXsharon had announced on several subject postings that she was working in the David Van O’s campaign they thought that her race-baiting would harm his and other Democratic chances.

TXSharon actually provided the answer when she offered a link to the local “racists” . .

“I realize now that I have been slightly beaten down and suppressed by the local racists who accuse me of "race baiting" when I call them out.”

Since TXSharon was kind enough to supply the link, I hope someone out there will actually read the entire Wise County Messenger forum discussion that started this latest outburst. It can be found at http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=756&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Instead of backing off from the race-baiting, TXsharon reiterated:
“I implied that Republicans have a base full of racist and haters and that the Republicans use the issue to excite that base just as they did before the 2004 election with their religious base.”

Concerned about how her race-baiting would affect Democratic candidates, one poster, Breezy, asked:

Speaking of your display of “political acumen”. . . You have openly announced on this forum on more than one occasion that you support David Van O’s for Attorney General, and that you are working in his campaign. So, more than what I say, what you say here and on your blog is a direct reflection on him. I like everything I’ve heard concerning Van O’s and I plan on voting for him. So I have to wonder what kind of reflection your constant race-baiting has on his campaign. What would he think about your statements? Would he support your race-card playing, or would he tell you to kindly “shut up” or disassociate yourself from his campaign? I’d really like to know, because that will effect my final decision. . . .”

At that point TXsharon appeared to call in her loyal troops for assistance.

Again TXsharon and her race-baiting minions were rebuffed by Breezy:

“That’s exactly true. I know that we are all for varying notions of immigration reform here. But to imply that those who are against massive illegal immigration must be racists, who are “demonizing Mexicans”, is race-baiting. To call the Republican base, the majority of the party, “racists and haters,” is race-baiting. To attempt to link those majority of Americans who are against massive illegal immigration to the religious right and/or Identity Christianity, to the militia movement, to the Klan or Arian Nation Brotherhoods, or to xenophobes, is race-baiting.

It is legitimate, however, to question if this is a wedge issue “that is being driven by the Republicans to create fear and excite the racists and xenophobic and to get out and vote.” (I just quoted TXsharon on that.) In the same way, it is legitimate to question the use of race-baiting as an attempt to create fear of Republicans among those minorities and marginalized peoples and groups in order to keep them in the Democratic fold. As an independent, I see fear-mongering tactics employed by both the Republicans and Democrats. This clouds the issue by keeping us focused on the underhanded tactics rather than being able to find viable solutions.”

Still more protests to Txsharon and her group of race-baiters. This was from Sierra’s Mom

THAT was uncalled for!! Whether you agree or disagree with someone on the issues, stooping to “name calling” is…excuse me for saying this, but…childish!! This is most likely why so many people will NOT post on the board! We can agree on issues…we can disagree on issues and debate them…great!! That’s what this country is all about!!

And a loyal Democrat, named 7117, protested to TXSharon

“You like to " put a spin" on anyone's post that disagrees with you. You've been called on this practice more than once on this board. Now as far as I'm concerned ...post what you think is in your best interest. It's your right to do so. However... I'll remind you that we are in a crucial election in this state and just a few weeks away. It would be in the best interest of the Democrat candidates that you claim to be in constant touch with...if you not drive any voters away or get them to questioning the candidates stand on the issues important to them...just because they are not important to you. Because of your repeated responses and lack of courtesy in answering my concerns regarding securing our southern borders and the fact that you appear to be representing Chris Bell on this board, that I've began to look at the other candidates running for governor.” Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=756&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

So, Now you know the rest of the story!!!”
Source: http://skattershooting.blogspot.com/2006/10/theyre-all-white-up.html#comments

Note to Bud Kennedy. Your less than reputable source is now known. If you had bothered to do a little checking with local Democrats, as well as with local Republicans, you would have discovered that there is quite a lot of unity in what is thought about the notorious TXSharon. So instead of looking for something to spin left, why not try a little Vetting??? Until then, perhaps you belong with your buddies who are still spewing their race-card playing venom on the WCM at
http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=840

2006-09-30T14:20:00.000-05:00

North American Union Here Now
Twenty+ stories from conservative and liberal sources that will change your world-view

National Sovereignty. No other issue has managed to unite traditionalist conservatives, liberals, independents, and Libertarians in opposition to the secret formation of the North American Union by the Bush administration. Today we have the ongoing creation of a new country right under the shade of our collective nostrils- the North American Union!!! As improbable as it seems, the creation of this new country (by influential “open-border” elitists and multi-national corporate globalists), which will eventually make obsolete our constitution and irrelevant our national laws, is currently underway. CNN’s Lou Dobbs called it “beyond belief” but true.

Dobbs said, “You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is – I mean, this is beyond belief." . . .

Here are some excerpts from news items you probably missed because most of the main-stream media has refused to address the issue. Last night, however, CNN news started to raise questions. Now if you don’t have the time to read these excerpts, just scan the headlines and the bold print. If you manage to connect the dots, then you are miles ahead of the majority of folks who are asleep at the wheel because they are reliant on the major networks.

“Newly Uncovered Commerce Department Documents Detail “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

U.S. Government Working Groups & Business Leaders Seek to “Harmonize” Regulations with Canada and Mexico (Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest organization that promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law, today released records obtained under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce concerning the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.”

On March 23, 2005, heads of government Vincente Fox, George W. Bush, and Paul Martin launched the North American partnership at a meeting in Waco, Texas, with the expressed goal of “a safer, more prosperous North America.” According to the documents, the partnership’s “working groups” include government and business leaders from the United States, Mexico and Canada, who are addressing a variety of topics, including movement of goods between countries, traveler security, energy, environment and health. Proponents of the partnership claim its purpose is to increase security and prosperity for all three nations through enhanced cooperation. Critics maintain the partnership will sacrifice U.S. sovereignty by establishing a “North American Union,” with open borders and a common currency. . .”
Source: http://www.judicialwatch.org/5979.shtml

“Ok here’s the primer for those who don’t want to download the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce document “Final Recommendations from the U.S. Section of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC)”. . .

Open Borders . . .Basically the final recommendations are pushing the development of a non-discretionary, low-cost, easily obtainable, federally issued document, “such as an enhanced driver’s license or identity card” for all travelers as an alternative to the passport.

(Note: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State (DOS) now have new requirements. American citizens-entering or re-entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean will have to present “documents denoting both identity and citizenship by January 1, 2008”).

The final recommendations would also have the US work with the Canadian and the Mexican governments to certify their ID’s so that eventually just licenses could be used for travel into the US.

In the mean time, however, the recommendations are for the DHS to set up a “limited short-term pass program” to facilitate people who come to the border without documents!!! The final recommendations are that “A reasonable grace period should be established at border crossings, during which time people lacking documents are educated about their options and allowed to pass.!!!”
Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=724

“ACLU and Allies Oppose Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Say Plan Undermines Privacy, Provides Little Security WASHINGTON -

The American Civil Liberties Union today joined with Citizen Against Government Waste and the Cato Institute to oppose the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). The WHTI will require all travelers, including American citizens, to have a passport or other "appropriate security document" to enter or re-enter the United States from countries within the Western Hemisphere, including Canada and Mexico. . .

The WHTI was mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, and is slated to roll out in 2008. CAGW today issued a report outlining the shortcomings of the WHTI program. . .

"At its core, the WHTI only gives the illusion of security," Sparapani added.

"Terrorists, smugglers and undocumented immigrants could still find ways to enter the country or obtain false documents. The privacy of Americans should not be compromised under a failed program." Source: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/26681prs20060907.html

“Toll road contract at issue in governor's race to be made public

KELLEY SHANNON September 28, 2006 Associated Press AUSTIN -

Previously secret parts of a contract to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor that have been a contentious issue in the governor's race are going to be made public right away, state officials said Thursday. . .”
Source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/15630758.htm

“North American merger topic of secret confab

Meeting on integration of U.S., Mexico, Canada brings together top officials World Net Daily September 20 2006 WASHINGTON – Raising more suspicions about plans for the future integration of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, a high-level, top-secret meeting of the North American Forum took place this month in Banff – with topics ranging from "A Vision for North America," "Opportunities for Security Cooperation" and "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration. . ."
Source: http://www.prisonplanet.tv/subscribe.html

The "Soft" Revolution
The following is from a bog written this week by Kevin Craig, running for Congress - Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, 7th District, Missouri,

“SPP Destroying Evidence?
. . ."soft law" -- unsigned and even unwritten laws that advance the agenda of hemispheric integration without allowing Congress to exercise congressional oversight. . .

As you are reading this, a new government is being created which will overrule all laws and constitutions in the United States. The progress being made in this "soft revolution" will continue unabated regardless of whether or not anything was signed on March 23, 2005. We need representatives in Congress who will work to stop it.

Unfortunately, this issue is not on the political radar of most voters in 2006, and many important milestones in the creation of the North American Union are scheduled for completion in 2007, which will create political and legal inertia that will make it even more difficult to stop in 2008. . .”
Source: http://kevinforcongress.blogspot.com/2006/09/spp-destroying-evidence.html

“SOLD! America III

Bonnie Alba September 26, 2006

Perhaps the most important story of the 21th century is happening away from the public eye. The first-step plan implementation is the Trans-Texas Corridor(TTC), a super highway slated to begin construction in 2007. On September 30, in a kickoff protest across 70-77 counties, many Texans will step into the sunlight, make their way to their county seats and lay a "cupful of soil" from their land on the courthouse steps. "Hands Across the Corridor" is their cry. (indytexans.org) . . .

This isn't just about the TTC, but also about other planned toll road projects which will affect many more Texans and their livelihoods. It appears that Gov. Rick Perry has fallen for the future vision of a three-nation union with no borders, no security, and the pluralism-multiculturalism which threatens all of us. . .

Robert Pastor, Director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, has written extensively on and pushed for his vision of a North American Union based on the European Union model. He also served as a co-chair of the 2005 Council of Foreign Relations task force promoting "Building a North American Community." (www.cfr.org/publication/8102/.) . . .

Are we too soft and complacent? Do we really understand what we will lose?

The Texans may be the first to face this gigantic, strategic plan to destroy our sovereignty. They will know, firsthand, the loss of their property rights and be left with the knowledge that their state and federal governments no longer secure citizens in their property. But they won't be the last. . .
Source: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/alba/060926

Please review an article in this blog from January 2006:

“The Trans Texas Corridor: Tollway to One World Government It Isn’t Just Fringe Fanatics Who Are Worrying Now

Here’s what the Council on Foreign Relations wants to dictate to us . . . We are being told that we must consolidate the economic communities of Mexico, the US, and Canada. We are being told that National Sovereignty is an “outdated concept.” We are being told that in order to protect the American public from terrorists we must create a new community - the North American Union!!! All these things are coming together to build this “new relationship”: the North American Security Cooperative Act, the passage of NAFTA, CAFTA, the forthcoming FTAA (Free Trade Areas of the Americas), and the route to get us there is the Bush/Perry Trans Texas Corridor!!! . .”
Source: http://sandflat.blogspot.com/2006/01/trans-texas-corridor-tollway-to-one.html

To read the chilling excerpts from Dr. Robert A. Pastor's testimony go to The Council on Foreign Relations

Source: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:8Rjcb86XX58J:www.cfr.org/publication/8173/north_american_community_approach_to_security.html+%22North+American+Cooperative+Security+Act%22&hl=en

Our " Favorite Store " Is Ready for the TTC...

"The " world's largest retailer" Wal Mart Corporation, evidently has some insight on all of this. Check out the link below and see what's been happening in Mexico and Central America. "

Go to: http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=14

“North American Union
The "plan to create" a North American Union in 2010 as a regional government—comprising a collective government for the United States, Canada, and Mexico—is "directly stated only" in the May 2005 task force report Building a North American Community

See:(http://www.cfr.org/publication/8102/building_a_north_american_community.html) published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Jerome Corsi wrote (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15763) June 26, 2006. . . .

A North American Union is being created "through a process of governmental regulations" and without ever "having to bring the issue before the American people for a clear referendum or vote," Corsi wrote (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15059) May 24, 2006. "
Source: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=North_American_Union#NAFTA_Super-Highways

“NAFTA Super-Highways
What is objectionable is the plan to form a European Union-style North American Super-Highway system whose primary goal is to establish trilateral links for the open passage of freight transportation and the virtually unrestrained 'migration' of people among the three countries. Building NAFTA Super-Highways that effectively erase the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada is a concern, especially if the NAFTA Super-Highways contribute to accomplishing in a de facto manner the integration of the United States into a North American Union, thereby threatening the currently established sovereignty of the United States," Corsi wrote (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15839) June 30, 2006. . .

Lamb wrote. "NASCO claims that 'There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway - it exists today as I-35.' This, however, is at odds with reality," Lamb wrote. "The goal is to build and operate a privately funded toll-corridor that includes up to 10 lanes of car and truck traffic, rail lines, pipelines and utilities, including communications systems. The current agreement is limited to Texas, but fits nicely into the master plan being advanced by NASCO.

"It also fits nicely into the vision of the Council on Foreign Relations' [May 2005] report: Building a North American Community (http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/NorthAmerica_TF_final.pdf), which advocates 'unlimited access to each other's territory' (page 47), including allowing Mexican or Canadian companies to freely enter the U.S. to compete with U.S. trucking companies, hauling freight between U.S. cities." . . .

Source: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=North_America%27s_SuperCorridor_Coalition%2C_Inc.

“The superhighway no one is funding

By Admin, Section National News Posted on Sat Sep 02, 2006 at 07:59:44 AM EST

by Joseph Farah,

Between the Lines Another key congressman - Rep. Roy Blunt, majority whip in the House of Representatives - is telling his constituents the federal government has nothing to do with the idea of building the "NAFTA superhighway."

This is at least the third Republican member of Congress either playing dumb or deliberately deceiving American taxpayers by claiming no federal dollars have flowed into the project. . . .”
Source: http://www.missourileadership.com/story/2006/9/2/65944/48934

"NAFTA highway or new silk road?

By William Hawkins The Washington Post September 24, 2006

On Sept. 7, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), a government office established in March to increase cooperation between the United States, Canada and Mexico, released a progress report. Among its achievements was creation of an American Competitiveness Council to enhance North America's posture in the struggle for hotly contested global markets.

Unfortunately, major events are already unfolding that will undermine this belated attempt to respond to ambitious rivals who have been piling up ever-higher trade surpluses at the expense of American-based enterprises.

A flurry of articles over the summer painted the SPP as a step toward a North American Union that would submerge national sovereignty and open the U.S. to mass migration and political corruption. Human Events launched the story from the right, but it spread across the spectrum to the Daily Kos on the left. . . .

One focus of the articles was a planned corridor of highways and railroads from Mexico into the American Midwest dubbed the "NAFTA Highway." Some of the stories sought to revisit the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, but what is really behind this transportation network heralds the collapse of NAFTA and its dream of a stronger continental economy. NAFTA was supposed to combine cheap Mexican labor with U.S. capital and technology to improve competition with Asian rivals . . .

The Chinese firm Hutchison Whampoa has partnered with Wal-Mart in a $300 million expansion of Lazaro Cardenas to handle perhaps 2 million containers annually by the end of the decade. The American Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong, China, has held seminars promoting this Mexican port. . . .

While American-based manufacturers will continue to suffer under the barrage of Chinese goods, Mexican industry will be smashed flat by what should be called a new Silk Road rather than a NAFTA highway. The economic development goals of NAFTA are being abandoned. More than 600 of the maquiladoras assembly plants along the U.S.-Mexican border have relocated to China, leaving their Mexican workers behind. There is little chance for Mexican wages to rise if at $1.50 an hour they can be undercut by Chinese labor at 50 cents an hour. . . .”

Source: http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060923-084008-4624r.htm

Trans Texas Corridor Master Plan Released

Drivers willing to pay to leave Interstate 35 in the dust could have an alternative as early as the summer of 2013. . . .

Because passenger vehicles pay 15.2 cents per mile and truck drivers pay 58.5 cents per mile, the whole plan relies on travelers and freight companies being willing to pay the toll, said Dillard, the Texas Department of Transportation spokesman. . .

The company then will have the rights to the tolls for 50 years, and by then, the road could be generating billions of dollars each year . . .

“Texans didn’t get a chance to vote on this, it’s just getting rammed down our throats,” said Rick Wegwerth, leader of the Waco anti-corridor group, DERAIL. . . .

Source http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/09/29/09292006wacttc.html

Note: According to a January 25, 2005 article by Gordon Dickson, a staff writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, since Cintra began controlling tolls in Canada, “Tolls have gone up 200 percent!”

“Students train in 'model parliament' for new North American Union!

N. American students trained for 'merger' 10 universities participate in 'model Parliament' in Mexico to simulate 'integration' of 3 nations

WASHINGTON – In another example of the way the three nations of North America are being drawn into a federation, or "merger," students from 10 universities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada are participating annually in a simulated "model Parliament." Under the sponsorship of the Canadian based North American Forum on Integration, students met in the Mexican Senate for five days in May in an event dubbed "Triumvirate," with organizers declaring "A North American Parliament is born." . . .

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," explained Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S. . . .

Perhaps the most blistering criticism came earlier this summer from Lou Dobbs of CNN – a frequent critic of President Bush's immigration policies.

"A regional prosperity and security program?" he asked rhetorically in a recent cablecast. "This is absolute ignorance. And the fact that we are – we reported this, we should point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing progress, these working groups are continuing. They're intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about? You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is – I mean, this is beyond belief." . . .

The concerns about the direction such powerful men could lead Americans without their knowledge is only heightened when interlocking networks are discovered. For instance, one of the components envisioned for this future "North American Union" is a superhighway running from Mexico, through the U.S. and into Canada. It is being promoted by the North American SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America." . . .
Source: http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1536

Now Available: The Final Report 2006 (including the final resolutions) The Triumvirate in La Reforma :"The Only North American Model Parliament” (47 page pdf file)

http://www.fina-nafi.org/eng/triumvirat06/documents/Finalreport2006.pdf

“Model Parliament Organizers make clear their intent:

The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered,” explained Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S. . . .

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. and the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, “In Mortal Danger,” may be the only elected official to challenge openly the plans for the new superstate.

Responding to a WND report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress. . .”

Source: http://www.disgrunt.com/2006/09/29/mexicans-have-better-claim-to-us-than-euro-americans/

“North American Union Would Trump U.S. Supreme Court

by Jerome R. Corsi Posted Jun 19, 2006

The Bush Administration is pushing to create a North American Union out of the work on-going in the Department of Commerce under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in the NAFTA office headed by Geri Word. A key part of the plan is to expand the NAFTA tribunals into a North American Union court system that would have supremacy over all U.S. law, even over the U.S. Supreme Court, in any matter related to the trilateral political and economic integration of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Right now, Chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement allows a private NAFTA foreign investor to sue the U.S. government if the investor believes a state or federal law damages the investor’s NAFTA business. . .

Like it or not, NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals already empower foreign NAFTA investors and corporations to challenge the sovereignty of U.S. law in the United States. . .

Under the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) plan expressed in May 2005 for building NAFTA into a North American Union, the stakes are about to get even higher. . .

The CFR plan clearly calls for the establishment of a “permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution” as part of the new regional North American Union (NAU) governmental structure that is proposed to go into place in 2010. As the CFR report details on page 22: . . .

The executive branch under the Bush Administration is quietly putting in place a behind-the-scenes trilateral regulatory scheme, . .

We will develop a trilateral Regulatory Cooperative Framework by 2007 to support and enhance existing, as well as encourage new cooperation among regulators, including at the outset of the regulatory process. We wonder if the Bush Administration intends to present the Trilateral Regulatory Cooperative Framework now being constructed by SPP.gov to Congress for review in 2007, or will the administration simply continue along the path of knitting together the new NAU regional governmental structure behind closed doors by executive fiat?

Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15623

Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15623

“Is our 2nd Civil War about to begin?

A couple of posters have hinted that we may be on the verge of another civil war. If so, who will fight this war??? More likely, we will be merged before the American public even learns the truth!!!

Since most Americans are pretty fat, happy, dumbed-down, and complacent, and are totally reliant on the mainstream media, we won't be fighting any civil wars. Let's just think of this merger as sort of a Big Box type of take over. Big Box moves into town and offers some real bargains and benefits. Next thing you know all the Mom and Pop stores are out of business, gone, and forgotten. Remember when Wal Mart used to advertise that all of the products that they carried were "Made in America"? Then remember what happened? So, too, will go the USA as we once knew it. That is unless we can wake up quite a few more folks. . .”

Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=732

2006-09-15T11:04:00.000-05:00

North Side Marina and Resort Gears Up For Fall

North Side Marina and Resort is gearing up for the upcoming Fall Season as cooler weather has arrived. North Side announces that lower fall cabin rental rates are now available.

In anticipation of lower water levels in the lake, the Marina dock has been permanently moved further out to ensure deeper water. For boaters and local residents who are dry docked, a few boat slips are still available on an annual or month-to-month basis. You can still launch boats at Wise County Park on one of the ramps .

North Side Marina and Resort is still offering combination cabin and boat rentals for those who want to get away from it all and experience Lake Bridgeport . Pontoon rentals will continue into the fall season. For those with their own boat, you may also keep your boat at the Marina during your cabin rental. North Side Marina is now offering previously owned boats for sale as well.

Located on the north end of Lake Bridgeport adjacent to the new Moonlight Bay development, the Marina features a brand new Ship’s Store and a 24 hour pay at the pump gas dock that is fully operational on deep water. The Ship’s Store provides area boaters with all the essentials needed for a day at the lake.

The North Side website has become very popular and includes photo albums of Lake Bridgeport and all of the cabins. There is also a Fishing page with pictures of big catches, fishing tips and other fishing information for Lake Bridgeport enthusiasts .

Cabin and boat rental requests can be made via the website or by calling the Marina directly.

Marina phone: 940-644-5475
Marina website: http://www.northsidemarina.net/

For further information or inquiries, contact Jeanne or Alan Kennedy at 940-644-5475.

2006-08-25T00:19:00.000-05:00

Water Going, Going . . .Angry Texas Cities, North Star Pointe Sales Event

Is Wise County Drying Up???

We’ve gotten used to our constantly receding Lake Bridgeport - down 16 feet and counting. Now, just try to drill a water well these days and see what might happen . . .

The talk on the Wise County Messenger forum comes from some folks in the know. And if what they are saying is true, the picture is very, very grim. Here’s the gist of some of the talk that should raise a few eyebrows.

According to the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council a oil/gas well is fracked an average of 17 times! About 1 to 6 Millions gallons of water are used to frac a well each time. Much of the water used is ground water. From June 2004 to November 2005 421 permits were issued “(not all permits resulted in a completed well)”

"Gallons of water used to frack 421 wells 17 times
1 Million 7,157,000,000
3 Million 21,471,000,000
5 Million 35,785,000,000

Gallons of water used to frack ONE well 17 times
1 Million 17,000,000
3 Million 51,000,000
5 Million 85,000,000"

Additionally, “oil and gas is exempted from ANY ground water regulations that are imposed on a private resident or other business, regarding ground water usage.”

But why should this bother us? “A very well known driller of private water wells in Wise County has recently stated that the major aquifer that supplies water to most of Wise County residents through private water wells, has dropped 100 feet in the past couple of years from where it used to be.”

According to one poster on the WCM forum . . .

“Recently, a nearby resident to me, here in NE Wise County, wanted to irrigate his small hay field in order to try and get a second cutting this year. As we all know, hay is about like gold around here right now. This resident had previously applied for, and obtained, the necessary permit to use ONLY a certain volume of water out of a nearby creek/stream for this irrigation. Unfortunately though, that large "WATER PIT" at the intersection of Hwy 51 and Hwy 455 was dug by oil and gas to use as a source of drilling and fracking water. The tank trucks continually come to that huge water pit, dumping water into it, one truck after another, and sometimes two trucks at a time. In the beginning, some of those trucks were allegedly permitted to take A CERTAIN AMOUNT of water out of the same creek/stream that my friend was also permitted to irrigate from. Low and behold, those tank trucks drained that creek/stream dry of all it's water so my friend wasn't able to irrigate his hay field and therefore wasn't able to produce anymore badly needed hay!”

Note: Want to guess where those tank trucks are getting most of their water???

Source: Wise County Messenger Forum, Local News & Events
http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630

Angry Texas Cities: Traffic Congestion or Pro Corridor Spin???

Men's Health Magazine has released it's list of the 100 angriest cities in America, and at least nine are in Texas. The magazine's survey considered blood pressure, violence and traffic congestion in its anger equation.

“Our search for evidence of urban anger began with the percentage of men with high blood pressure, from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (as calculated by Sperling's BestPlaces). We then factored in FBI rates of aggravated assaults and Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers on workplace deaths from assaults and other violence. And because rage and the road often go hand in hand, we also included traffic-congestion data from the Texas Transportation Institute, as well as speeding citations per state from the Governors Highway Safety Association.”

It looks like the angriest states are: California with twelve cities listed. Texas has nine cities on the list, and Florida has five cities that made the angriest list. But then again, we must ask ourselves “Just how valid is this list?” For one thing, it was awfully nice of the Texas Transportation Institute to share its data because no other state transportation lobby is mentioned. Could it be a bid to positively spin the Trans Texas Corridor as the solution for traffic congestion???

Here’s the list:

“ (From most to least angry cities)

1. Orlando, FL
2. St. Petersburg, FL
3. Detroit, MI
4. Baltimore, MD
5. Nashville, TN
6. Wilmington, DE
7. Miami, FL
8. Memphis, TN
9. Jacksonville, FL
10. St. Louis, MO
11. Chicago, IL
12. Tampa, FL
13. Jackson, MS
14. Albuquerque, NM
15. Charlotte, NC
16. Dallas, TX
17. Houston, TX
18. Tucson, AZ
19. Indianapolis, IN
20. Wichita, KS
21. Birmingham, AL
22. Providence, RI
23. Durham , NC
24. Altanta, GA
25. Washington, DC
26. Denver, CO
27. Philadelphia, PA
28. Baton Rouge, LA
29. Fort Worth, TX
30. Phoenix, AZ
31. Lubbock, TX
32. Cleveland, OH
33. Greensboro, NC
34. Cincinnati, OH
35. Arlington, TX
36. Los Angeles, CA
37. Buffalo, NY
38. Grand Rapids, MI
39. Boston, MA
40. Columbia, SC
41. Tulsa, OK
42. Aurora, CO
43. Seattle, WA
44. Sacramento, CA
45. San Diego, CA
46. Montgomery, AL
47. Raleigh, NC
48. Yonkers, NY
49. Oakland, CA
50. Fort Wayne, IN”
51. Newark, NJ
52. Las Vegas, NV
53. Columbus, OH
54. St. Paul, MN
55. Charleston, WV
56. Kansas City, MO
57. New York, NY
58. Oklahoma, OK
59. Toledo, OH
60. San Antonio, TX
61. Riverside, CA
62. Modesto, CA
63. Louisville, KY
64. Honolulu, HI
65. Richmond, VA
66. San Francisco, CA
67. Bakersfield, CA
68. Spokane, WA
69. Milwaukee, WI
70. Jersey City, NJ
71. Lexington, KY
72. Little Rock, AR
73. Lincoln, NE
74. Billings, MT
75. San Jose, CA
76. Hartford, CT
77. Minneapolis, MN
78. Boise, ID
79. Anaheim, CA
80. Norfolk, VA
81. Austin, TX
82. Fremont, CA
83. Fresno, CA
84. Anchorage, AK
85. Cheyenne, WY
86. Rochester, NY
87. Madison, WI
88. Salt Lake City, UT
89. Omaha, NE
90. Pittsburgh, PA
91. Colorado Springs, CO
92. El Paso, TX
93. Sioux Falls, SD
94. Des Moines, IA
95. Burlington, VT
96. Portland, OR
97. Corpus Christi, TX
98. Fargo, ND
99. Bangor, ME
100. Manchester, NH

Source: http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=health&category=metrogrades&conitem=9ca8a9f3340dc010VgnVCM10000013281eac____

North Star Pointe Sales Event This weekend

You might have noticed all the activity and truck traffic this week. North Star Pointe announced that on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, it will be holding a new inventory release sale on all of its gorgeous Lake Bridgeport home sites. They are working at a furious pace to finish up the new pool and ramp area. As a matter of fact, they’ve got the lovely new pool filled with water now and almost completely landscaped.

Please be extra cautious this weekend because we all know how horribly dangerous our narrow, twisting roads can be.

2006-08-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

Trans Texas Corridor Comments Deadline Today!!!

THE LAST DAY TO MAIL TTC-35 COMMENTS IS MONDAY AUG 21ST

Monday is the last day to submit your comments on TTC-35 during the Tier One DEIS period. Submissions must be postmarked on or before August 21, 2006.

MAIL TTC-35 DEIS TIER ONE COMMENTS TO:
Mr. Ed Pensock, Jr., PEDirector of Turnpike Corridor SystemsTxDOT Turnpike Authority DivisionPost Office Box 14707Austin, TX 78761-4707

Or Go to the comments page and send in the form via the web at KeepTexasMoving.orghttp://www.keeptexasmoving.org/comments_questions/ttc-35_comments.htm

2006-08-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

Wise and Parker Counties Suffering Rapid Loss of Ground Water

The following is today’s editorial in the Wise County Messenger. I’ve added some comments/quotes in red below the highlighted lines of this article.

“Commissioners want a conservation district
By Skip Nichols
Published Sunday, August 20, 2006

"Wise County commissioners – led primarily by Kevin Burns and Robert Rankin – want a groundwater conservation district. “It looks like it will become a reality and not one drought or injection well too soon."

" . . .There are more than 31,000 injections wells in Texas—the most of any state. " (Note: Wise County leads the state in abandoned wells slated for injection wells)” http://sandflat.blogspot.com/2006/05/hazardous-injection-wells-new-texas.html

“There are over 70 commercial injection wells in Wise County where outside waste is brought in from elsewhere to contaminate our water. . . According to the Rail Road Commission web site there are 19,000 “abandoned” wells in Wise County. If those wells aren’t properly capped, injected toxic waste water will enter those well holes into the Trinity Aquifer from below.” http://sandflat.blogspot.com/2006/02/wise-county-toxic-dumping-ground-for.html

“The demand on our most precious resource – water – is increasing at an unprecedented rate. There are more folks moving into the county, which is exceeded by only the number of gas wells being punched into the earth beneath our beautiful home.”

So let’s build the Trans Texas Corridor and run the hazardous cargo bypass loop through Wise County! That way we can increase our population of people and hazardous wastes.

"Meanwhile, rainfall has virtually ceased over the past two years.”

We’ve been in an extended drought for at least eleven years.

The result? Aquifers are dropping rapidly.

The problem is most apparent in our neighboring county – Parker.

And Wise County!

That has gotten the attention of state Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford), who represents Parker and Wise counties in the state House of Representatives.

In a late-night e-mail (he apologized for any spelling or grammatical errors) to John E. Cavenahone, one of his Parker County constituents, King addressed the issue.

Here’s part of his e-mail, which he said we could print:

“I’m on a well, too, and having problems that I’ve never experienced in the last 23 years. I’m trying to determine if it’s my well or the water table. I think it’s the water table.

“I am working very closely with the Water Development Board, the Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality trying to get the correct facts on what is occurring in Parker County.

“What I’ve been surprised to learn is that there is very little hard data readily available on the aquifer in Parker County (and Wise). No agency (local, county, state or fed.) regularly monitors our water table. A measurement is taken each December by the Water Conservation Board from various monitoring wells around the county. I believe they began annual readings in 1949.

(Interestingly, according to the board’s records, there have been years that the aquifer was lower than recent years. It is cyclical with our rainfall.)

“I’ve also been surprised to learn that no one, not the RRC, TCEQ, no city, county, or state entity, knows the precise impact of gas well activity on our local water table. For example, we need to know how much ground water is being used for gas production relative to the total residential and commercial ground water use in our county. In other words, how big of am impact is drilling having? (My rough estimates suggest that gas production may represent as much as 7 or 8 percent of county-wide ground water use but no one really knows for sure.)

“No question, a gas well frac requires a tremendous amount of water. The RRC estimates an average per well of 1.5 million gallons. I think that’s a low estimate. On the other hand, a significant number of drilling and frac operations do not use ground water at all. These purchase surface water either out of a nearby stock tank or from a city with a surface water supply such as Weatherford or Fort Worth.

“Nonetheless, many people in Parker County, myself included, are experiencing severe problems with their water wells. This is due to a combination of factors – rapid population growth, gas well production and the severe drought. It is not gas well production alone as some have suggested. Gas well activity is part of the problem, but it is not the lone culprit. (For example, many other communities around North Texas are rationing water where there is no Barnett Shale drilling activity at all. And Wise County has much more gas production than Parker, but they are not having similar water problems.)”

King has since revised this once he found out that Wise County has water problems too.

Editor’s note: A staff member in King’s office said that has changed. The representative has been made aware of well problems now in Wise County.

“Bottom line, the current situation should not come as a surprise to anyone. For at least the last 20 years we have been hearing that the ground water supply could not indefinitely keep up with the local population growth (16 percent since 2000) and that the county needed to shift to surface water. A number of us, citizens and local elected officials, tried in 1999 and 2001 to implement a regional water solution. Unfortunately, try as we did, we could not get the necessary community support. In fact, we could not get anywhere near a consensus. (There was particular disagreement between the various municipalities and county officials over the structure of a county-wide water district.)

“So what’s the solution? It’s the same today as it was in 1999 and in 2001. “As much as we all dislike additional government intervention into our affairs, we need regional water management At this stage, a Groundwater Conservation District is probably the best answer for most of Parker County. The Legislature can create the district when we go back into session in January, but it will take the solid support of our city councils, commissioners court, and the community at large. Local community leaders will have to work together.

“I have my entire Capitol staff working on this issue. We are exploring legal options, potential agency enforcement and legislative options. I am more than willing to run with a legislative fix, but I will have to have the support of our communities to pass the legislation.”

Do you have an opinon on the ground water situation in Wise County? Let us hear from you. Write a letter to the editor or you can post your comments on our discussion group at http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum"

Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/opinion/columns/Commissionerswantaconserva.shtml

2006-08-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

Lake Bridgeport Bullies? A Developing Story

Although this story is a true story that has been thoroughly vetted, names have been withheld – at least for now. My intention of publicizing this story is twofold. (1) Property owners on Lake Bridgeport need to be aware that this kind of thing can happen to them, and (2), Big-time developers need to be reminded that they gave their word to be “good neighbors” to the surrounding developments, and we intend to hold them to their promises.

Imagine, if you will, that you are the proud owner of a lovely lakeside cottage on Lake Bridgeport. You live in the DFW metroplex but you get up to the lake fairly often. This little spot is your haven – your retreat - your sanctuary. You like your lake neighbors and you count on them to keep an eye on your property.

A little over a year ago you had a rude awakening. You next door neighbor called you to inform you that your dock was being used by a neighboring Big-development sales person to load groups of prospective buyers into boats for a tour of the lake. You neighbor had confronted the sales person and that person claimed to have obtained your permission to use your dock. Of course, that was false.

You were incensed. “How dare they use my dock without my permission? We aren’t even part of that big development! What if one of those perspective buyers had fallen off of my dock? ”

You are a reasonable person. You know that if the big-time developer had only sought your permission to use your dock for loading purposes, you might have given it. But that didn’t happen.

You go out and you purchase a “No Trespassing Private Property” sign and you chain off your driveway. You thought you could rest easily. Wrong!

You come home last night after a hard day’s work. It’s sweltering with temperatures still soaring well above 100 degrees. You long to be up at your peaceful private little lake place. You check your phone messages. It’s a long distance call from one of your lake neighbors.

“Hi, I just wanted to let you know that the big development next to us is using your driveway to go down and dredge our cove between your and your neighbor’s houses. It’s probably a good thing, but I didn’t know if you had given them your permission to use your driveway.”

You immediately call your lake neighbor back.

“What??? No, I didn’t give any permission to use my driveway! What happened to my chain and my ‘No Trespassing Private Property’ sign? We’ve got water irrigation lines down there. What if they break our lines? Who do these guys think they are? Do they think they own the entire lake?”

Your neighbor replies. “Well it turns out that your next door neighbor gave them his permission to go down and dredge, but they are actually using your driveway to get down there. And you know, that little pathway next to the fence that the big-time developers put in because the developer promised us that they wouldn’t put in a road on to our development (because we informed him that it would be a violation of our restrictions) – well that little pathway has turned into a worn down path the size of a road. That’s the path they are using to come into your driveway with their big trucks and take out all that dirt. It’s probably because all those big trucks have already torn up the entrance road to that Big-time development. Oh, your chain and sign are lying on the side of your driveway.”

Well, as you can see, this little incident was probably an honest mistake made by the Big-time developer who simply failed to obtain permission of both neighbors. Or perhaps, the truck drivers didn’t understand that the driveway they were using was actually the wrong one. Or perhaps, the neighbor who gave his permission just assumed that his neighbors wouldn’t mind their driveway being used. Maybe he conveyed that assumed permission to the big-time developers? It doesn’t really matter how it happened, but that it did happen. And it will happen again. In the world of big-time land development it’s always a matter of do it now and ask questions later.

Here are three good neighbor tips:

1. If you are a Big-time developer, take extra caution not to step on and crush you little neighbors. Keep the promises that you have given. Be sure to first obtain permission of all property owners who will be directly affected by your actions. And then convey to your subcontractors exactly what that that permission entails.

2. If you are a property owner who plans to cut a deal with anyone that might directly affect your surrounding neighbors, please be sure to contact your neighbors first and let them know your plans. Don’t assume that your neighbors will be OK with your plans, and don’t ever give permission to anyone for your neighbors.

3. If you are a land owner and you see unusual or suspicious activity on your neighbor’s property, call that neighbor immediately. Don’t assume that everything is OK.

2006-08-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

A Republican Blog With a Liberal Political Agenda??? Keep Em Guessing . . .

Last week I received an e-mail lambasting me for spending too much time writing about horrors of the Trans Texas Corridor. The reader was sick to death of reading about the TTC, and told me to “Stop pushing your liberal political agenda . . ..”

(See Wise County Citizens Say “No” to Trans Texas Corridor!!! )

Today, while searching for published reports of the TTC hearings around the state, I noticed that someone else in Wise County had blogged about the public hearing held on July 12th in Decatur. Did that blogger come away with a similar impression? I had to find out, so I clicked on the link.

Well folks, that’s how I discovered that our Lake Bridgeport Sandflat News is a “Republican Blog”!!!

The following is from LiveJournal

Marc Parent mparent7777 wrote,@ 2006-07-16 08:11:00

“Prior to the hearing, a popular, Republican blog in Lake Bridgeport posted this message: The Trans-Texas Corridor: The Defining Issue in the Upcoming State Races . . .

The next day, the same Republican blog posted this message about David Van Os: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 Meet Our Next Attorney General"
Source: http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/10288509.html

Guess the jig is up and it’s confession time. So I just had to rush this into virtual print so all of our long-time readers could be set straight. I’m not sure what the give away was? Perhaps it was all the times I mentioned “Republicans” in my blog? Let’s see? I’ll just do a search on this blog. Gee, I only mentioned “Republicans” once in over 2.5 years on 7/1/06.

“Let’s hope that the Democrats and Republicans can do something positive to end this sickening stereotyping and polarization.”

How about my mentioning Democrats? Let me search that too? Guess I’m not too even-handed. I mentioned the Democrats once more, also on 7/1/06.

“Check out the new very user-friendly Wise County Democrats web site at ...”

Ohhh – now we see. That’s a dead give-away for an undercover Republican blog! Just put in a permanent link to the WiseDems.com but leave out the Republicans. What better way to undermine all liberals?

Now, because we are primarily a local news blog, I try to do our residents a favor by posting almost anything newsworthy sent in by our readers (if it’s in good taste). So when our local Democratic Chairwoman, Brenda Rankin, sent me information about the new WiseDems.com site (see permanent links), I posted it. As a matter of fact, we set up reciprocal links on our respective web pages.

I’d do the same for the Republicans if they asked me, but I haven’t been asked.

So when it comes to news blogs, the sincerest form of flattery has to come from maintaining a balanced political confusion. I suppose we’ll just have to keep em’ guessing!!!

2006-08-05T09:47:00.000-05:00

Trans Texas Hearings Nearing an End: Tracking Hearing Outcomes

TxDOT began holding 54 hearings last month and will finish next week. The hearings have been designed to allow residents across the state to voice their concerns and to offer suggestions regarding the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor- 35 project.

Before TXDOT can move ahead with the TTC-35, a preliminary report must be submitted for approval by the Federal Highway Administration. If, and when, the Federal Highway Administration approves the study area sometime next summer, separate 2 to 5 year studies will be required to determine the exact routing of specific projects.

The news reports coming in following most of the TTC hearings across the state have shown overwhelming opposition to the corridor project. Since its inception, this entire TTC project has been shrouded in secrecy. Is there going to be any public oversight concerning the “official” results of these hearings? Will the “official” results mirror the evidence gathered in news reports? Doubtful!!!

A number of grass roots groups have started to track the outcomes of these public hearings. An excellent site keeping tabs (and showing various hearing videos) is Somervell County Salon at http://salon.glenrose.net/somnewsttc.asp

Lake Bridgeport Sandflat News will be compiling a listing of all published reports of the public hearings on the Trans Texas Corridor-35. We are looking for impact statements from local residents during the hearings. If you have published or read a published report following a hearing anywhere in Texas, please send a link to that published report to lakebridgeportnews@yahoo.com

The federal government requires that TXDOT must address public comments made about the TTC. Please take the opportunity to make your public comments before August 21st.

Go to the comments page at KeepTexasMoving.org
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/comments_questions/ttc-35_comments.htm

Or Mail your comment to:Mr. Ed Pensock, Jr., PEDirector of Turnpike Corridor Systems, Texas Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 14707, Austin, TX 78761-4707

2006-08-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

GOOD BREAK FOR BRIDGEPORT LAKE

"Tarrant Regional Water District will begin reducing the amount of water released from Lake Bridgeport into Eagle Mountain Lake on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
TRWD said the action will ensure it is able to maintain an adequate water supply for customers in Wise, Parker and Jack counties in the coming months.

TRWD said that residents and recreational users of Eagle Mountain Lake should see the lake level begin falling the second week of August and continue until the area receives enough rainfall to refill the reservoirs.

Without significant rainfall, TRWD engineers estimate that both Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain could drop an additional four feet by the end of the year. Lake Bridgeport is almost 14 feet below conservation level and falling."

Read more... http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/

2006-08-01T10:44:00.000-05:00

Lake Bridgeport Levels Dangerously Low

Lake Bridgeport has dropped almost one foot in the last week from 822.79 to 821.80. Conservation Pool (that rare occasion when the lake is actually full) is 836. So today, the lake is down by 14.20 feet and it’s only August 1st.

The lake dropped almost 3 feet in the last month and the rate of drop will increase as summer progresses and as more water is taken out. As a matter of fact, the lake has dropped by .04 in the past 8 hours!

Boaters beware!!! Remember that the deepest part of this lake when full (on the main lake) is only 76.5 feet. Now subtract 14.20 feet from that. Keep your dept finder on at all times because several coves are already dangerously low. Many more docks are sitting on shore and many stumps are surfacing again. Some stumps are barely visible and are just skimming the surface. Many stumps are right in the middle of the river where you wouldn’t expect them. You won’t see them until it’s too late.

Now would be a good time to take your boat out of the water (if you still can), move your dock out, or extend your ramp.

Road Safety Tips

With all the new development out here, most of us have experienced our daily hair-raising encounters with many 18-wheelers, tankers, and every sort of oversized vehicle navigating our very narrow, twisting, and extremely dangerous county roads – especially here in Sandflat.

Remember to always hug the right side of the road at all times – especially when trying to see around a blind turn that’s been hidden by so much vegetation overgrowth. And when you are about to meet a large truck, and you know that there’s only inches of clearance between you, just slow down or stop, give a friendly wave, and let the monster truck pass.

By the way, I know that we have many new folks up here that can’t wait to get out their 4-wheelers and take to the country roads. Not!!! I’ve seen far too many children (unaccompanied by adults) driving full sized 4-wheelers on roads that are so dangerous that most adults are even scared to drive their pickups. Unless you live here full time, you have no idea just how often these monster trucks are barreling around a blind curve on some out of the way little lake neighborhood street!!!

The time is long past for 4-wheelers on our country roads! And it’s only a matter of time before we have a horrible tragedy, so just don’t do it.

2006-07-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

Wise County Citizens Say “No” to Trans Texas Corridor!!!

The TXDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) public hearing on the TTC (Trans Texas Corridor) was held on Tuesday evening at the Decatur Civic Center. A crowd of around 300 citizens gathered to hear the presentation. It was a presentation loaded with maps and video slides but very short on definitive answers. Following the presentation, eighteen speakers came forward to express their opinions about the controversial TTC. Of the eighteen speakers, only four supported the TTC, and three of those four were elected officials from North Richland Hills who came to Wise County to support the NCTCOG (North Texas Council of Governments) proposal to put a controversial alternate bypass route through Wise County.

The overwhelming negative response to the Trans Texas Corridor was evident. Thunderous applause erupted during the opposition talks, but a dropping pin could be heard when those few supporting the TTC spoke. Widespread political opposition to the TTC is growing. Both the Texas Democratic and Texas Republican 2006 Party Platforms have denounced the TTC. Gubernatorial candidates Strayhorn, Friedman, and Bell have denounced the TTC. David Van Os, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, has come out against the TTC. The list of candidates (of every political affiliation) speaking out in opposition to the TTC is spreading faster than a grassfire.

It was obvious that the opposition speakers were well-informed and had come with plenty of ammunition. One speaker brought out the fact that there is more truck traffic in Wise County than in any other county in Texas and perhaps the entire country. A bypass route through Wise County would only increase already dangerous truck traffic, pollute the air with smog, and do nothing for the local economy because land taken by eminent domain for the TTC would be removed from the local tax rolls.

Speakers directly affected by having land in the TTC study area spoke of the prospect of losing their historic family land to eminent domain. One man spoke of not being able to sell his land near Eagle Mountain Lake due to the cloud of uncertainty that has depressed land values in the 10-mile wide study area.

Another citizen explained that building a massive tollway based on 54-year traffic pattern projections was ludicrous. He pointed out that in 1952 no one would have even dreamed of the internet or other modern innovations that have changed how we do business and move goods today. Few people today can even project how traffic patterns will be changed in five years by rising gas prices, alternative fuels, innovative hybrid cars, and other undreamed of inventions.

If the TTC goes through as planned, Texans will be paying ever rising tolls to the Cintra-Zachary consortium for the next 50 years. Much of the income will come from new toll taxes imposed on existing free roads that have already been paid for by our taxes. Cintra, a Spanish company, has a nasty reputation for aggressive toll collection and for raising tolls without public input. According to a January 25, 2005 article by Gordon Dickson, a staff writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, since Cintra began controlling tolls in Canada, “Tolls have gone up 200 percent!”

Hank Gilbert, Democratic Candidate for Secretary of Agriculture, believes that the Trans-Texas Corridor will be the defining issue in the upcoming state races. Gilbert spoke at the hearing about the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land to the TTC. According to Gilbert, toll roads will destroy the existing taxable land, driving up taxes for everyone whose land isn’t taken by the State for the TTC. The TTC will destroy Texas agriculture by making it impossible for Texas farmers and ranchers to obtain financing. Small business will be hurt when they can’t afford to relocate or pay massive concessions to Cintra. It has been projected that the TTC will remove as much as 584,000 acres of productive Texas agricultural land and will displace at least 1 million people from their homes!!!

Most of the opposition centered on the fact that the Trans Texas Corridor is part of the little publicized free-trade movement to integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a European -style Union. This North American Union, if it comes about, would severely hamper, if not completely end, U.S. sovereignty.

TXDOT has been selling the TTC to the public as a means to alleviate future traffic congestion and to increase commerce. But TXDOT was accused during the hearing of misleading the public about the true purpose of the TTC by not openly publicizing the NAFTA intent for the TTC . Few people have bothered to read the 4,000-page Environmental Impact Statement posted on the Trans-Texas Corridor website. On page 3 it reveals the NAFTA purpose of the TTC project.

TXDOT has been accused by many of cronyism, insider dealings, and conflicts of interest and TXDOT is fighting to keep contract agreements with the Cintra-Zachary consortium secret. Last year, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled that the contract must be made public. But the consortium and the transportation commission have filed suit to overturn that ruling on grounds that it contains sensitive proprietary information.

During the hearing it was pointed out by one speaker, that there will be no statewide or local vote on specific Trans Texas Corridor routes. Our county commissioners and county judge, however, will have input with TXDOT. Unless Texans can get some form of referendum or initiative process to roll back this horrible Corridor legislation, the Corridor will be built without full public disclosure and with no legislative oversight! This is why it is so very important for every Texan to vote this year for candidates who have pledged to fight the TTC, and who have a public record of fighting these insider corporate special interests.

Please Make Your Public Comments

The federal government requires that TXDOT must address public comments made about the TTC. Please take the opportunity to make your public comments before August 21st. Go to the comments page at KeepTexasMoving.org http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/comments_questions/ttc-35_comments.htm

Or Mail your comment to:
Mr. Ed Pensock, Jr., PE
Director of Turnpike Corridor Systems
Texas Department of Transportation
P.O. Box 14707
Austin, TX 78761-4707

For an eye-opening account of who stands to gain, read “Trans-Texas Corridor paved with campaign contributions?:San Antonio construction company, capital consortium from Spain stand to gain” at http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51023

2006-07-12T17:51:00.000-05:00

Meet Our Next Attorney General

Please join David Van Os at breakfast Thursday morning, July 13, at 8:00 am at the Courthouse Cafe before he makes his "Whistle Stop" speech on the courthouse steps.
Here's an excerpt from David's weekly campaign letter.

"Give 'em hell" Harry Truman is one of my American political heroes. The pundits said there was no way he could win. But he was determined to carry on his fight against the corporate special interests despite the naysayers and to beat all the odds in order to do it. So he took his case directly to the people by Whistlestop tour, and the people responded,
and handed him a stunning upset victory.

The pundits and naysayers, including some in my own party*, say there is no way I can win. But I'm determined like my hero Harry Truman was, so I decided to take my case for fighting the corporate robber barons and the power grabbers directly to the people. . ."

* David is running on the Democratic ticket.

Read David's "NO to Slick Rick's Tolling Plans" on his home page at
http://dvo4txag.blogspot.com/2006/01/no-to-slick-ricks-tolling-plans.html

2006-07-11T06:44:00.000-05:00

The Trans-Texas Corridor: The Defining Issue in the Upcoming State Races

"Hank Gilbert, Democratic Candidate for Secretary of Agriculture, will be present at the Trans-Texas Corridor hearing at Decatur tonight starting at 5:00 with discussion to begin at 6:30. Speaking with Hank on the phone yesterday, he believes the Trans-Texas Corridor will be the defining issue in the upcoming state races. He plans on attending ALL of the 50 plus hearings scheduled.

Please make every effort to be at the hearing. We need a big showing to Fight Back against the biggest land grab in the history of the State.

Please forward this email to all your friends and neighbors. Go online to http://www.wisedems.com/ for more information.

Come, meet and hear Hank Gilbert speak. This is his campaign issue."

Thank you.
Brenda Rankin
County Chair

Hearing to be held tonight, Tuesday, July 11th, 5:00 to 7:00 PM, at the Decatur Civic Center, 2010 W. US 380

Sixteen Reasons Why All Texans Should Oppose Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor

2006-07-07T08:02:00.000-05:00

Public Hearing on the Trans Texas Corridor
Tuesday, July 11th, 5:00 to 7:00 PM
Decatur Civic Center, 2010 W. US 380

This is one Public Hearing You Won't Want to Miss!!!

Here’s the process provided by Corridor Watch.com:

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE NEPA PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS.

These hearings seek comment on TTC impact to: farmland; Ag conversion; community travel patterns; community social disruption; emergency services; local retail; regional economy; property & sales tax revenue; disadvantaged populations; air quality; noise; water quality; wildlife; floodplains; threatened & endangered species; historical sites; cemeteries; archaeological sites; hazardous waste sites; and, visual quality.

Your opportunity has been created by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires TxDOT to follow a specific process in assessing the environmental impact of their activities. These hearings follow the issuance of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). That document is available for your review. You do not need to read or understand the DEIS to participate in this process, share your comments, or express your opinions.

Through these hearings TxDOT must learn about the concerns and the issues they should address in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Record of Decision (ROD). Your input will define the issues examined in their next round of environmental analysis.

This is a much more formal meeting than those held so far in the development of the TTC. As before there will be a period of open house visiting from 5:00pm to 6:30pm. Then at 6:30pm there will be a TxDOT presentation that should conclude by 7:00pm. Thereafter you and fellow Texans will be give the microphone to make your comments.

Attend one or more public hearing. You DO NOT have to attend the meeting in your area or county. You CAN comment at ANY of the public hearing locations. You do not even have to live, work, or own property in the path of TTC-35 to particiapte in the public hearing process. Yes, you can even drive from Houston, El Paso, or Lubbock and speak at these meetings.

BECOME INFORMED.

Learn more about the TTC. Sadly there is plenty of misinformation on both sides of the issue. Seek out differing opinions and draw your own conclusions. Recognize that TxDOT officials and contractors are working hard to convince you and others of the merits of their project.

Watch out for 'weasel words,' such as "probably, likely, should, shouldn't, most, think, believe, usually, promise, intend, expect, anticipate, faith, confident, feel, trust, view, assume, opinion, predict, thought, maybe, could, and future." Cut to the bottom line, always ask, "Does the law permit or prohibit TxDOT (or the concessionaire) to do that?"

Be cautious about the answers you get to your questions. Even the best-intentioned TxDOT representative (or CorridorWatch.org member) can only tell you what they know or believe. In some instances the information they share may be incorrect. We have witnessed erroneous and/or misleading answers to TTC questions at every level of Texas government. Most are uninformed; few are intentionally disingenuous.

MAKE YOUR COMMENTS.

Please stay and speak at the hearing!

Be civil, be firm, and be heard. You do not need to be an expert, environmentalist, or expert of any kind to put your opinion on the official record. One factor that NEPA requires that TxDOT consider is general public dissatisfaction with and objection to the project. If all you do is say I don't like it and I don't want it built, they must register your objection and take it into consideration.

Of course having specific objections is better. See some of ours at the end of this message. Write down your own notes and give your comments and objections quickly, your time will be limited. You do not need to give full and comprehensive reasons behind for your concern. Be brief. Better to raise several important issues than dwell too long on one or two. If you do get cut off write the rest of you comments down and submit them for the record.

This is a kind of voting. Just because the person before you said what you had planed to say doesn't mean that you don't need to say it again. You do! They are counting and if you want to be counted you MUST say it for yourself. Avoid saying, "I agree with the last speaker." When they write it down it doesn't tell anyone what you agreed with and your concern could get misunderstood or lost. I repeat that repeating is not a bad thing.

If you come to a hearing with a concern express it. Even if someone at that meeting has told you that your concern is unwarranted, don't take their word for that, get your concern on the official record. If you can't stay late enough to speak please write your comments on the form and leave them.

If you can't attend a hearing please send in your written comments.
You can send your comments in before or after the hearing by mail or via the Internet (keeptexasmoving.com). No matter which you prefer please make your comments by August 10, 2006. NOTE: TxDOT comment forms will ask which route selection you support. If you don't support any route don't leave it blank - check "I oppose" AND "No Action Alternative."

STAY ENGAGED.

This is an environmental process. The Governor and the Transportation Commission have already decided to build the TTC. That decision was reached without asking for your input. These environmental hearings will help decide where the TTC will be built. If you have concerns about building the TTC you must contact your elected state officials and let them know your opinions. Only the Governor and the State Legislature can change the future course of the TTC plan.Of course we would like a very strong record of objections to be built across the state during these public hearings. A record that will signal to our elected officials that this is indeed an unpopular project. That while we recognize that need roads, we do not need the TTC.

THE TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR IS AN ALL AROUND BAD IDEA FOR TEXAS.

Here are just a few reasons why:

It turns private land into State land. More than one-half million acres will become government property used not only for transportation but also as State owned rental property in direct competition with private development. It takes land well in excess of what is required to accomplish the goal of providing transportation and utilities. The width cannot be justified.

It's designed to generate revenue first and provide transportation second.

The Plan is based on uncertain assumptions. The plan is predicated on Texas population growth, not traffic projections. There is no demonstrated public demand for corridors that circumvent the metropolitian traffic generators.

It doesn't solve the urban congestion & traffic problem.

Adverse economic impact. It takes economic assets away from Texas communities by rerouting the flow of commercial trucks and limiting traveler access to local services, lodging and attractions.

Private Interests v. Public Interests. Puts private state partners revenue generation ahead of legitimate public interests.

The opportunity for informed public comment and full NEPA participation is seriously restricted by the state keeping project design details already outlined and defined by the concessionaire secret.

Loss of local property taxes. State owned TTC land will be removed from county and school district tax rolls. County and district taxpayers will shoulder the burden of making up the losses.

Local jurisditions, predominantly rural, will be burdened with the cost of providing infrastructure, governmental services and emergency services to a massive state owned project that may generate no local revenues while the state and their concessionaires reap the benefits of tolls, fees, and charges.

It creates a 'soft' terrorism target. This is not the time to put so many critical infrastructure elements in one place. A single act could impact transporation, communications, and utilities. As proposed the corridors are in the least equipted and prepared communities to respond to an act of terriorism or accidental incident. The threat to life, property and the environment are tremendous.

Dividing the State. Corridors will divide rural Texas making it more difficult to get from one place to another. The economic factors that impact the ability to provide crossings will limit access across the corridor. Longer travel distances will result in loss of community cohesion, increase travel cost (fuel), increased vehicle generated pollution, and increased emergency response and transport times.

Potential for tremendous liabilities created by secret Comprehensive Development Agreements. It is impossible to understand and explore the range of possible concerns and issues that such agreements may present when their content is secret.

High cost of tolls. Tolls are projected to equate to $3.85 per gallon of gasoline. At 15-cents per mile the increased cost to the travelling public is more than ten times that of the present gasoline tax.

Air pollution. Increased highway speeds (80 MPH) mean greater fuel consumption and more air pollution. Increased non-corridor travel distances also mean greater fuel consumption and more air pollution.

Source:===========================================CorridorWatch.org, Inc.Fayetteville, TX 78940-5468"Challenging the Wisdom of the Trans-Texas Corridor"

CorridorWatch.org, is an organization of concerned Texans and public officials who question the wisdom of the Trans-Texas Corridor. Our mission is to increase public awareness and understanding of the Trans-Texas Corridor and its impact on Texas and all Texans. For More Information Visit Us on the Internet: www.CorridorWatch.org

For comments on how the TTC will effect Wise County you can search this blog for the Trans Texas Corridor, and for additional local comments on the TTC, go to
Wise County Online Forum, General Discussions, subject: The Trans Texas Corridor . . .How Will it Effect You?
http://www.advancedbroadband.net/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=415

2006-07-01T06:58:00.000-05:00

Sanflat Fire Department Fund Raiser Today

At the fire hall. Be there from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Auction, food, fun, and buy tickets for this year’s beautiful handmade quilt.

Fireworks are Banned in Wise County except for officially approved displays

There will be the annual officially approved firework display at Montford’s place this evening on the lake at sundown.

Wise County Democrats

Check out the new very user-friendly Wise County Democrats web site at http://www.wisedems.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

While you are there, check out the Kool-O-Crat Blog and “What is a Kool-O-Crat?” By the way, I even found a link there for Democrats who just speak Spanish at
http://www.democrats.org/espanol.html

Kool-O-Crats bring to mind the issue of the polarization of our political parties. Did anyone watch ABC News 2020 last night? A Country Divided: Examining the State of Our Union. Read summary at
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2140483&page=1

“In interviews with political leaders, media analysts, and people in communities around the country, ABC News found what appears to be a new phenomenon: the polarization is feeding on itself. It's not just politicians, business or religious leaders, liberals or conservatives — or the media: It's each of us. And it's alarming.”

When a news organization openly admits that anger, violence, and polarization sells news, then you can expect that news media to focus on extremes. Are we to believe that most good liberals are overwhelmingly single and unchurched, or that most conservatives are only white members of evangelical churches???

Let’s hope that the Democrats and Republicans can do something positive to end this sickening stereotyping and polarization.

Talk Back, Get Help, or Share Your Opinions at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

Get Update Announce Only Alerts. Join to get notified of updates to this blog.
http://groups.google.com/group/Lake-Bridgeport-News

Contact Us
lakebridgeportnews@yahoo.com

2006-06-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

Wise County Under BURN BAN

Wise County Commissioners Monday approved a ban on fireworks and outdoor burning. The bans were necessitated by drought and adverse weather conditions. The fireworks ban is effect until further notice, and the burn ban is in effect for 90 days or until revoked by the commissioners or the Texas Forest Service. The fireworks ban does not include commercial operated shows, which must contact Cunningham a minimum of 48 hours in advance of the show.
Read more... http://www.wcmessenger.com/

2006-05-23T23:30:00.000-05:00

North Side Marina Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
May 17, 2006
For immediate release:

North Side Marina and Resort announces the opening of its new Ship’s Store, new lakefront log and cedar cabin rentals, expanded boat slips and boat rentals. Located on the north end of Lake Bridgeport in the Blockers Camp, the Marina also features a 24 hour pay at the pump gas dock.

North Side Marina and Resort is the only place on Lake Bridgeport offering combination cabin and boat rentals for people who want to get away from it all and experience Lake Bridgeport. For those with their own boat, you may also keep your boat at the Marina during your cabin rental.

The Marina gives visitors the opportunity to boat, fish, paddle boat, and relax all in one place. All of the cabins feature a particular theme: The Lonestar sports a Texas theme, the Lakeview is a lake theme with an all glass front overlooking the lake, the Angler has a fishing theme with a large wooden deck and the Captain’s Quarters sports a boating theme. All cabins have access to one of several deck and patio areas. It’s not uncommon to find a group enjoying the view while grilling one of the Colorado steaks now available from the Ship’s Store.

According to Marina owner, Jay Graver, “The response to the Marina has been overwhelming; we are expanding our boat rentals, boat slips and cabin availability to accommodate the large number of requests we are receiving.”

North Side has also become a dealer for the Park Model cabins which are also installed as rental cabins at North Side. The cabins are perfect for a weekend getaway, a hunting lease or a guest cottage at your ranch or lake house. There are several interior and lake front lots close to the Marina that are for sale by private owners. These cabins would be a perfect fit for some of the available lots.

The North Side website has become very popular and includes photo albums of Lake Bridgeport and all of the cabins.

Jay and co-owners/operators Jeanne and Alan Kennedy want to thank the community for their support over the last few months while the Ship’s store was being rebuilt. The original store was destroyed in a fire the early part of March. The fire was caused by workers who were expanding the original store. A temporary store has been in operation since the fire.

The Marina’s Ship’s Store is open for business Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays and Monday through Thursday. Cabin and boat rental requests can be made via the website or by calling the Marina directly.

Marina address: 180 Private Road 1735 Chico, TX
Marina phone: 940-644-5475
Marina website: http://www.northsidemarina.net/

For further information or inquiries, contact Jeanne Kennedy at 940-644-5475.

2006-05-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

Hazardous Injection Wells: New Texas Observer Article Focuses on Decatur and Chico

The article, which came out on Friday, is a must read for anyone living in Wise County – especially in Chico and here on Lake Bridgeport, where there are many wells.

Here are a few excerpts from "What Lies Beneath: The threat from oilfield waste injection wells" by Rusty Middleton, published May 19, 2006:

" . . .Their properties border a proposed injection well that could pump hundreds of thousands of gallons a day of oilfield waste into the ground. This waste, known in the industry as “production water,” is mostly oily saltwater used in drilling. But it also contains substances such as waste crude, sludge from storage pits and tank bottoms, used glycol, amine, and hydrogen sulfide scrubber liquid, to name only a few. There are at least 26 acknowledged chemicals in the waste, including such known carcinogens as benzene and one category unhelpfully listed as “other.”

. . .Suddenly Carson and her neighbors face property values cut by as much as half, according to the appraisers and local real estate agents they’ve checked with.

. . .But once the waste is underground, there are no barriers to prevent it from migrating into drinking wells, ground water, or in some cases, even bubbling back to the surface and killing vegetation."

" . . .There are more than 31,000 injections wells in Texas—the most of any state. " (Note: Wise County leads the state in abandoned wells slated for injection wells)

" . . .In 2005, near Chico, about 20 miles from Carson’s home, fluids from a commercial injection well came bubbling to the surface in other wells nearby.

“We were afraid something like this might happen,” says Chico Mayor James Robinson. Previously, city officials had written letters and gone to Railroad Commission meetings to plead for stronger regulations and monitoring to protect their water wells.

“You all need to be looking at this,” Chico Director of Public Works Ed Cowley told the Railroad Commission staff during one of the meetings. “They said it would never happen, and it happened twice.”Injection fluids came up from two abandoned wells and from one active oil well. All three were more than a quarter mile away from the source injection well.

. . .There are reports of people actually touching a match to their running faucet and lighting their water on fire.

. . .Texas is also one of the largest injectors in the nation of Class I hazardous waste. "

Source: The Texas Observer at http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2206

Anti-Injection Well Activism in Wise County

You can get quite an education from reading the anti-injection well postings on the Wise County Messenger forum under the category of News and Events at http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/

Leave Comments and/or Discuss (Anonymously if you like) on our Lake Bridgeport News group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

To be alerted to regular and urgent updates please subscribe to our announce only list at: Lake-Bridgeport-News@googlegroups.com

Missing Dog Story Gains New NSP Land Owner’s Ire

Apparently just the mention of NSP and my references to the urbanization that has come to the Sandflat area was too much for one new land-owner in NSP who still lives in California. We’ve been told by this absentee owner that “anti NSP
sentiments need to stop.” To read or respond to the comments go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

2006-05-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

More Missing Dogs

The Judd’s Black female Rotweiller and it’s smaller companion Liver and White Bird Dog went missing Wednesday. They were not known to wander very far from home but could be anywhere around the former Boy Scout ranch land (now North Star Pointe development). If you have seen them, please contact Nell Judd at 644-2637.

It’s a sad fact that more and more family dogs are going missing now that urbanization has come to the Sandflat area. I guess it’s just the price we all have to pay for increased property values and higher taxes. Please do keep a close eye on your dogs!

2006-04-03T06:26:00.000-05:00

Trans Texas Corridor

Is The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Shying from the Truth about the Trans Texas Corridor?

Tarrant County Drivers are being warned that five major road work projects will keep Tarrant County traffic snarled for years though 2012!!!

According to yesterday’s Fort Worth Star Telegram . . .
“The short-term headaches of road work are necessary to prepare the regional road system for an influx of new residents over the next two decades, leaders say. North Texas’ population, about 5 million today, is expected to swell to 9 million by 2025.”

Of course, when it comes to road construction most people understand that if you build it – THEY WILL COME!!! Make no mistake about it. Some business interests in Fort Worth are praying that the population figures will swell. That’s what they are counting on with the TTC.

Oddly enough, the article appears to be trying to convince uniformed readers that the Trans Texas Corridor is just another Texas road project from the Metroplex to San Antonio.

"Builders are accustomed to boom years in Texas, and they go where the jobs take them.

That includes the planned construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor toll road from the Metroplex to San Antonio. An environmental study is ongoing for the privately funded project, which is expected to cost about $6 billion. Work is tentatively scheduled from 2007 to 2015. "

Who are they really trying to kid??? The TTC is the planned NAFTA route which will link the entire Americans into one seamless, and borderless, trade route!!!

Perhaps recent concerns about foreign companies controlling our ports and infrastructure, concerns about our too porous borders, and the massive influx of illegal immigrants is making the Star-Telegram just a little too shy about explaining the realities of the Trans Texas Corridor???

Read the entire article:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/14242708.htm

2006-04-03T06:20:00.000-05:00

Saturday is Lake Clean-up Day

If you would like to participate contact the Sandflat Fire Department.

Fire Response Time Better Than Reported

Last month we ran stories about the North Side Marina burning. According to some witnesses the fire department response took “maybe 45 minutes to an hour”. Foy Mitchell said that this information is incorrect. Mitchell told me yesterday that some folks at the scene attempted to put out the fire before even calling the Sandflat Fire Department. The actual response time was 18 minutes!!! Not bad!!! As Mitchell said, “You can’t respond until someone calls in the fire!”

2006-03-24T23:04:00.000-06:00

Wise County Burn Ban Lifted

Population Figures Released
"Rural unincorporated areas and smaller towns were up 3.1 percent. Boyd, Chico and Runaway Bay showed no growth in the NCTCOG report."

Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/index.shtml

2006-03-13T10:41:00.000-06:00

Wise County Hazardous Cargo Route

If you missed yesterday’s Fort Worth Star Telegram’s infomercial for the Trans Texas Corridor, you missed seeing the maps of the proposed bypass route through Wise County. The proposed bypass route will “divert more freight trains around the Metroplex also could route potentially hazardous cargo outside heavily populated areas.” The two images above are: left (passenger route) and right: (cargo rail route).

The front page of the Weekly Review (section E) has a lovely graphic of the 1,200 feet wide corridor (not including the right of way). For some reason, the article failed to mention that the TTC will also take more than 9,000 square miles of right-of-way for the corridors from critical wetlands and vital rural lands.

Additionally, there are NTCOG maps of the freight rail, auto, and truck routes that will “bypass” the metroplex by taking “hazardous waste” on a wide loop right through Wise County. The maps show the routes trough counties (including Wise) that would be part of the bypass loop. http://www.nctcog.org/trans/goods/TTCmaps.pdf

According to the article, the RTC (North Texas COG's Regional Transportation Council), wants this huge “bypass” route as part of TTC-35 and has “suggested developing freight corridors -- for both truck and rail freight -- that could be part of the TTC-35 system and run in a general east-west direction south of Fort Worth and Dallas and then around the west edge of Tarrant County and east edge of Dallas County as they extended northward. These "bypass" corridors could become part of the huge outer loop that also would let passenger vehicles travel swiftly around Dallas, Fort Worth and other Metroplex cities.”

“The outer loop, as envisioned by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (COG), would run through the northern part of Denton and Collin counties, an eastern segment of Wise County, along the Tarrant County-Parker County border, through the northern half of Johnson and Ellis counties and around the eastern edge of Dallas County.”

The long article of almost 3,000 cheerleading words for the TTC briefly mentioned opposition twice. Skipping over the undefined “political opposition”, the article later stated that there might be “opposition by rural landowners or other factors”. Do Ya think? One of those “other factors” is, “the expense and difficulty of acquiring right of way”. But the article took a very wide bypass loop to avoid any mention of how that right of way will be obtained - by eminent domain and right of way takings.

Far, far from being unbiased reporting, this article is desperately trying to sell the TXDOT spin that the primary goal of TTC-35 is traffic congestion relief. “Its primary goal is to relieve congestion on packed Interstate 35 and in the big cities through which it passes (Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio).”

The primary goal of TTC-35 is not traffic congestion relief! The well-documented goal of the TTC is to (1) to generate revenue for private investors, and (2) to promote NAFTA trade routes from Mexico to Canada, which may eventually merge the economies of North and South America under a single governing body like the EU (European Union). But TXDOT and its cheerleaders don’t want folks to think about that.

Since the TTC-35 is intentionally designed to bypass every major city and many small towns, it’s hardly going to relieve traffic congestion in major cities. But the underlying intent of the TTC is evident in the notion that “If you build it, they will come.” TXDOT is pushing the notion that the metroplex is going to increase by 80% by 2030, while hedging its bets that it might not grow that fast. But heaven forbid if it doesn’t grow that fast, so TXDOT thinks, "Let’s build it and surely they will come!!!"

The article tries hard to obfuscate the facts. But an admission, separate from the cost of building TTC-35, is the fact that “Approximately $100 billion will be needed to effectively address Metroplex transportation needs and keep congestion from getting worse by 2025, the RTC has estimated.” Obviously, then, it isn’t the TTC-35 that’s going to take care of that problem, now is it?

For those in the outlying counties where the bypass will cut a wide swath, the notion of easy travel might not be that easy to swallow. It’s going to cost and cost big time. “Motorists can expect to pay sizable tolls on the new, less clogged, higher-speed route.”

The article did point out one reason why tolls are so attractive to those who don’t know how to do the math. “ . . . skittish state elected officials continue to believe that raising the modest state gasoline tax of 20 cents per gallon is political suicide.”

Later in the article it was pointed out that, “Many local elected officials would like a more reliable, ongoing funding source such as a dedicated sales tax to finance expanded regional rail transit. But some statewide elected officials and legislators have balked at supporting legislation to enable that.”

Note: There’s a good dialogue on the Wise County Messenger’s forum called More Gasoline Taxes or Tolls? You Do the Math.
http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=137

According to the S-T article, there will be a new report that will narrow the “path to a 10-mile-wide "study corridor" that would be discussed beginning in May in more than 50 public hearings in North Central Texas and other areas along the suggested corridor route.” Let’s hope that Wise County Officials will become educated on all sides of this issue and that they will participate.

In the mean time you can write letters to the editor of our local newspapers.

You can write to your legislators. Find your representatives at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm

You can make your public comments to TXDOT by going to Go to: http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/comments_questions/ttc35_comments.aspx

To read the entire Star-Telegram article go to: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/14074927.htm

2006-03-06T08:28:00.000-06:00

Vote in the Primaries Tomorrow, Tuesday March 7, 2006

A Message from Vic Czerniak...Democratic Candidate for Precinct 2

As I stated last year my basic issues are:
1. Establish a salary review board to stop all of the unnecessary salary increases and "auto allowances".
2. Establish a unity system to help the county get our roads and bridges fixed.
3. Long Range Planning Committee to get REAL serious about alternate water sources.
4. Get the oil and gas industries to start working WITH us instead of us working FOR them
5. Work to have the TRRC to review, delete and/or update rules, regulations and laws governing toxic waste disposal.
6. Do everything possible in my power to fight the Trans Texas Corridor.
7. Try and stimulate county growth....THE RIGHT WAY
8. Help to establish an IMPARTIAL Tax Appraisal Board
9. Controlling the budget. Reducing county offices unbelievable waste.
10. Adjusting the budget to give the EMS, VFD's and the Sheriff's Dept. real operating funds and equipment.

Some of these issues are issues I can and will work to implement for the good of the county. Some of these issues are going to take continued efforts from ALL of WiseCo, i.e. oil/gas issues, pressure on the TRRC, etc. One voice cannot change these. BUT, we can be the focal point if need be. I will be the spoksperson when and as needed for these issues.

Everybody that knows me knows I am accessable. I won't duck and dodge an issue. If you ask me a question, expect an answer. You may not like the answer, but I'd rather hurt your feeling telling you the truth than to hurt a friendship by lying to you. Anyone and everyone that knows me knows I won't say anything behind your back that I wouldn't say to your face.

Citizen involvement is a major asset to any issue. . .
Everyone knows that once we put the spur to some of these issues, we are going to be in for a couple of rough rides. There is no other way to accomplish some of these issues unless we "buck the system" to get it done. Win or lose, this has been an experience ...to say the least..and I do appreciate the support most of you have given me. No matter who your friends are, tomorrow is election day. When you vote, and I hope every single person who has raised an issue on these boards votes, ...vote for the issues and the candidate....not the candidate and his issues. Vote for what will help WiseCo first, issues and the candidate second and friendship last. Today is the 170th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. Give 10 seconds of your time to remember what they bought for us.

Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1164#1164

2006-03-04T23:52:00.000-06:00

Some Comments on the Fire from the Marina Owners:

The fire was started from contractors working at the Marina installing
a new deck on the front of the store. TRWD permits were approved and
in place for the installation of the deck. We cannot comment on
specifics surrounding the fire as we were not there at the time but we
have talked to the Fire Chief, the contractors and others who were
helping look after the Marina during our absence.

We would like to thank everyone including neighbors, our contractors
and the local fire departments who worked heroicly to contain the fire
and put it out. Noone was injured and the fire was completely
contained to the store for which we are all grateful.

We will have the gas pumps up and operational again early this week in
a manual mode, the credit card service will take a few weeks to become
operational again. (We will take credit cards but will have to run them
manually). We will have a temporary store operational out of the
owners cottage (closest to the Marina) by the end of this week and it
will be open until the new store is built. We plan to offer bait,
basic tackle, ice and other essentials in the temporary store.

We hope to begin cleanup and construction of a new store within the
next few weeks and plan to have it open and running by Memorial
Weekend. Our new cabins are in place and we have heavy bookings for
both March and April.

We are looking forward to seeing you all this spring and summer.

North Side Marina and Resort

2006-03-04T01:10:00.000-06:00

North Side Marina Store Burns

Location: Near North Star Pointe. Apparently the store burned on Wednesday afternoon due to a welding accident. Questions surround the incident due to the Burn Ban and welding restrictions in Wise County. According to the chatter on Wise County Online forum, one poster who spoke with witnesses said, “I asked about the response time of the VFD...what with the excitement of the fire and trying to deal with it...the neighbor that I talked with said...he thought that they didn't take too long...maybe 45 minutes to an hour.”

For more details on the fire go to Wise County Online at http://www.advancedbroadband.net/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=426

Here are the Wise Dounty Welding Restrictions:

- a 50-foot radius clear of any combustible material for outdoor welding;
- if a covered enclosure is constructed around a welding job, a 25-foot radius clear of any combustible material is required;
- For any work performed above 20 feet, the radius will increase two feet for every elevated foot;- maximum wind speeds must be under 15 miles per hour;
- relative humidity must be above 30 percent;
- two fire guards must watch the welding and have appropriate fire extinguishing equipment;
- the company or person welding must have $300,000-worth of liability insurance; and
- welders must report with the sheriff’s office before beginning work.

Source: Wise County Messenger, “Fighting the Fires”, published 1/5/06 at http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/FightingtheFires.shtml

2006-02-13T11:51:00.000-06:00

Wise County: The Toxic Dumping Ground for the Oil and Gas Industry?

Get the latest toxic info at the new Wise County Messenger Discussion Forum

Fouled water wells, hydraulic fracturing, salt (and toxic waste) injection wells, toxic waste surface dumping, poor air quality, and local election races are the hot topics on Wise County’s latest addition – the Wise County Messenger Discussion Forum.

Once you get on the forum click on Local News and Events, and then click on Polluted or Fouled Water Wells.

You can learn way too much about the real and present dangers of the many toxins that threaten us - even right here on the North West side of Lake Bridgeport !!! What about stories concerning illegal toxic surface dumping under the cover of night by purple trucks right here in Sandflat??? Supposedly someone got fined a whopping $500. by the Texas Rail Road Commission. Could it be true??? (Note the Texas Rail Road Commission calls legal toxic surface dumping “Land Farming” – isn’t that cute???)

What about the story about a resident's water well that was flowing methane from the sink faucet in sufficient quantities to allow it to be ignited? Check it out on the forum.

Did you know that the EPA states that many chemicals in hydraulic fracturing fluids are linked to cancer; liver, kidney, brain respiratory and skin disorders; birth defects; and other health problems?

There are over 70 commercial injection wells in Wise County where outside waste is brought in from elsewhere to contaminate our water. I was told today that a map showing the location of the 70+ commercial injection wells in Wise County will soon be available on the Concerned Citizens of Wise County Web site. Also check out their link on our links listing.

According to the Rail Road Commission web site there are 19,000 “abandoned” wells in Wise County. If those wells aren’t properly capped, injected toxic waste water will enter those well holes into the Trinity Aquifer from below. It’s too bad that the Texas Rail Road Commission doesn’t even know where most of those abandoned wells are even located!!!

Not too long ago the state shut down a Chico injection well located near County Road 1450 east of Chico. You could locate the well by the line of dead trees north and northeast of the injection well. The trees died shortly after they started injecting the salt and other toxins that threatened resident’s drinking water. Read the entire story at http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Stateshutsdownwell.shtml

Just yesterday the WCM ran a story that the Texas Rail Road Commission approved an application for yet another injection well near the intersection of County Roads 2625 and 2735. A group called Texas Citizens for a Safe Future and Clean Water has been formed to fight the proliferation of injection wells in Wise County. They told me that they will have a web site up and going ASAP. So look for the link here soon. To read the WCM story go to
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/StateOKswastewell.shtml

Get involved and keep an eye out for 18-wheeler transport trucks dumping anything under the cover of darkness. Then get on the forum and report it ASAP!

2006-01-24T07:34:00.000-06:00

Van Os for Texas Attorney General :: In David's Own Words: NO to Slick Rick's Tolling Plans

2006-01-23T11:02:00.000-06:00

America As We Knew It - Almost Gone!!!

A must read is “INTERNATIONALIZING U.S. ROADS”

“Imagine this: your state government puts a transportation corridor in your neighborhood. It’s nearly a quarter-mile wide. It will serve vehicles and trains and incorporate oil, gas, electric and water lines. Try to fight it and you’ll not only face the combined might of your local, state, and federal governments, but foreign interests as well. The internationalization of U.S. roads has begun. . .”

Continue Reading this excellent article at
http://www.newswithviews.com/Spivey/phyllis3.htm

The Creation of a Unified North American Community is 5 Years Away

“Currently there is a joint task force composed of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Inernacionales tasked with the creation of a new North American Community. The plan the task force has outlined will take 5 years or until 2010 to complete. Once complete the new border will encompass Canada, Mexico and the United States. The new country will be called the North American Community and will allow the free passage of people and goods between the three countries. . .”

SourceL http://www.atsnn.com/story/149468.html

Join Our Lake Bridgeport Discussion Group
If you would like to join our discussion of issues concerning Lake Bridgeport, join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

Subscribe to Our Lake Bridgeport News Update Announcements and Alerts
You will receive updates of breaking news concerning Lake Bridgeport about once or twice monthly.
http://groups.google.com/group/Lake-Bridgeport-News

2006-01-23T10:32:00.000-06:00

The Trans Texas Corridor: Tollway to One World Government

It Isn’t Just Fringe Fanatics Who Are Worrying Now

Here’s what the Council on Foreign Relations wants to dictate to us . . .

We are being told that we must consolidate the economic communities of Mexico, the US, and Canada. We are being told that National Sovereignty is an “outdated concept.” We are being told that in order to protect the American public from terrorists we must create a new community - the North American Union!!! All these things are coming together to build this “new relationship”: the North American Security Cooperative Act, the passage of NAFTA, CAFTA, the forthcoming FTAA (Free Trade Areas of the Americas), and the route to get us there is the Bush/Perry Trans Texas Corridor!!!

Read the June 9, 2005 testimony, or more correctly, the undoing of America propaganda, of Dr. Robert A. Pastor, vice president of international affairs, professor, and director of the Center for North American Studies, American University before a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Notice the key phases in red bold added

“There was a moment early in the Fox and Bush administrations when North American leaders appeared to grasp the essence of such a vision. In February 2001, Fox and Bush jointly endorsed the Guanajuato Proposal, which read, “After consultation with our Canadian partners, we will strive to consolidate a North American economic community whose benefits reach the lesser-developed areas of the region and extend to the most vulnerable social groups in our countries. . . .”

Defining a North American Community
“North Americans are ready for a new relationship. Studies over the past 20 years have shown a convergence of values, on personal and family issues as well as on public policy. An October 2003 poll taken in all three countries by Ekos, a Canadian firm, found that a clear majority believes that a North American economic union will be established in the next ten years. The same survey found an overwhelming majority in favor of more integrated North American policies on the environment, transportation, and defense and a more modest majority in favor of common energy and banking policies. And 75 percent of people in the United States and Canada, and two-thirds of Mexicans, support the development of a North American security perimeter. The U.S., Mexican, and Canadian governments remain zealous defenders of an outdated conception of sovereignty even though their citizens are ready for a new approach. Each nation’s leadership has stressed differences rather than common interests. North America needs leaders who can articulate and pursue a broader vision.

I hope this Committee will pursue the North American agenda beyond the travel initiative considered here. On June 23rd, the three leaders promised to publish a report with specific recommendations on how to deepen North American integration. These should be reviewed together with Senator Richard Lugar’s far-sighted bill for a “North American Cooperative Security Act” and Senator Cornyn’s “North American Investment Fund.” The time has come for us to define a true North American Community. Our security and prosperity depend on it. . .”

To read the rest of the testimony, go to The Council on Foreign Relations
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:8Rjcb86XX58J:www.cfr.org/publication/8173/north_american_community_approach_to_security.html+%22North+American+Cooperative+Security+Act%22&hl=en

2006-01-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

The North American Security Cooperative Act: A Bill to End U.S. Sovereignty

“The North American Security Cooperative Act is touted as a bill to protect the American public from terrorists by creating the North American Union. The North American Union consists of three countries, U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with open borders, something that is proposed to be in effect by 2010. Thus, it would ensure the fulfillment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

See: http://www.spp.gov/spp/factsheet.asp?dName=fact_sheets

"This is sheep's clothing billed as for the good of security and the economies, but it truly means the end of America and U.S. sovereignty. Many things tie together - the passage of NAFTA, CAFTA, the forthcoming FTAA (Free Trade Areas of the Americas), which we must oppose, Task Force Report #53 (Building a North American Community), FDA - already making plans to harmonize with Canada and Mexico via the Trilateral Cooperation Charter. The completion of the Interstate 69 Corridor (Trans Texas Corridor), which the Texas State Legislature voted for and passed in June 2003, H.R. 3585. This huge highway project, with sections already completed, will run through the United States from its southern border of Mexico through to the northern border of Canada, and will be the icing on the cake for those who want to dissolve the American way of life. http://www.i69info.com/state.htmlWe must lobby Congress to prevent losing America as we know it and the rights for freedom that our forefathers struggled so hard to retain. . .”

Source: staff reports - Free-Market News Networkhttp://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=5920

2006-01-23T08:48:00.000-06:00

Independent Gubernatorial Candidate, Carol Strayhorn, Speaks Out Against the Trans Texas Corridor

According to Texas Comptroller and announced independent candidate for governor, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, “The people of Texas recognize Gov. Perry’s Trans Texas Catastrophe as the largest land grab in Texas history . . . Gov. Perry and his highway henchmen want to secretly cram toll roads down the people’s throats, which is why they don’t want these documents made public. Withholding the financial and development details of the largest land grab in history is unconscionable.”
Source: http://www.carolestrayhorn.com/

“Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Chris Bell joined the Texas Toll Party for a rally at Ancira Jeep Saturday morning. Strayhorn used the rally as a chance take shots at her Republican competitor, Governor Rick Perry. . .”

“They're saying no to Rick Perry and his highway henchmen,” says Strayhorn. “[Perry] says you have a choice: slow roads, no roads, or toll roads. Well, hogwash to that! We can have an efficient transportation system.”
“Strayhorn says contracts on toll roads are being kept secret and should be made public.”

Source: http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=46B66410-8A25-424E-80B1-2AC849D933F7

Read “Sixteen Reasons Why All Texans Should Oppose Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor”
http://sandflat.blogspot.com/2006/01/sixteen-reasons-why-all-texans-should.html

2006-01-23T08:46:00.000-06:00

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Chris Bell Speaks Out
Against the Trans Texas Corridor

“As a former Agriculture Commissioner and a rancher himself, you'd think that Rick Perry could be counted on to protect the interests of rural Texas. But when the big-money lobbyists and corporate insiders asked Perry to line up against ranchers and farmers in support of the biggest land-grab in recent history, Perry didn't hesitate.

Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor would force farmers and ranchers to give up huge chunks of land to the state to support a toll road system that has been a case study in cronyism, insider dealings, and conflicts of interest. It's no surprise that the Texas Farm Bureau has voiced loud opposition to Perry’s plan, but they are hardly alone. Citizen groups are springing up all around the state to stop Rick Perry, helping to give a voice to the New Mainstream Texans who don't want to give up their farms or ranches to support a multi-billion dollar Austin boondoggle. . .”

Read the rest of the article for Chris Bell’s site at
http://www.chrisbell.com/issues

2006-01-23T08:36:00.000-06:00

Gubernatorial Race: In the Running

Political pundits are saying that the governor's race may be the most important vote we Texans will cast in any election in recent history. Check out the issues on their web sites.

(D)Chris Bell http://www.chrisbell.com/issues
(D)Bob Gammage http://www.gammageforgovernor.com/node
(D) Rashad Jafer http://rashadforgovernor.com/
(I) Kinky Friedman http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/
(I)Carole Strayhorn http://www.carolestrayhorn.com/
(R)Rick Perry http://www.rickperry.org/

2006-01-23T08:29:00.000-06:00

Register to Vote Now!!!

March 7 Party Primaries, General Election in November

Download this voter registration application in Adobe
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/vr17.pdf

Or request that an application be sent to you at
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml

Mail application to:
Wise County Tax Assessor-Collector
Monte S. Shaw
404 W. Walnut St.
Decatur, TX 76234

Tel: (940) 627-3523Fax: (940) 627-7237

2006-01-23T08:21:00.000-06:00

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher!!!

According to the Austin Chronicle, “the stakes couldn't be higher” in this year’s elections. Here are the main issues: “There is widely held frustration over school finance, dissension in the GOP ranks, the toll road debate, ongoing efforts to blur church and state, and the prospect of a thoroughly entertaining governor's race.”
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2006-01-20/pols_feature3.html

At Stake in Our County Commissioner’s Race

I have to agree with Vic Czerniak, a candidate for County Commissioner, Precinct 2 . We have to start voting for the candidate and the issues and not just vote a straight party ticket!

Last Saturday I had an opportunity to meet Vic and to discuss some of our concerns. Here we are, the precinct with the most roads in the county, and all we have to show for it is a massive failure to maintain our roads. Imagine what it will be like when North Star Pointe is built out and we have several hundred more folks driving our dangerous roads???

We need to clean up the Commissioner’s Court, control spending and waste, find some management direction, and see that the Commissioner’s Court does not continue to violate the Open Meetings Act.

2006-01-23T07:40:00.000-06:00

Another Opportunity to Meet the Candidate

Vic Czerniak is running for County Commissioner, Precinct 2. If you didn’t get a chance to meet Vic last Saturday at the Sandflat Fire Hall, you can have another opportunity to chat with him this coming Saturday the 28th at Ma and Pa’s, 100 W. Franklin, Alvord, Tx. (Ma and Pa's is on Business 287 at the caution light in Alvord). Meet Vic there from noon to 2:00PM.

Here are the programs Vic would like to implement:

Establish a Salary Review Board to control and stop outrageous salary and “auto allowances” increases.

Unify County Road and Bridge Assets

SERIOUS

Oil and Gas drilling and environmental issues related to water issues

Planning and Zoning changes to stiulate county growth

Create a genuine Tax Appraisal Board with impartial and unbiased members

“FIRE RELIEF FUND DONATION DEADLINE – Monday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for donations to the Wise County Fire Relief Fund silent auction and raffle. The event, honoring all Wise County volunteer firefighters, is set for Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Decatur Civic Center. Items for the silent auction and raffle should be taken to the Decatur Chamber of Commerce office or the Wise County Extension office. Extension Agent Gary Clayton said that more than 500 persons are expected for the free barbecue dinner. Each fire department in the county has been invited to bring one truck for a display on the Civic Center east parking lot. As many as four helicopter ambulances are also expected to be on display at the event.”

Source: http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/index.shtml

2006-01-23T07:38:00.000-06:00

The Precinct 2 Race (That’s Us)

Democratic Ballot
County Commissioner, V.J. “Vic” Czerniak of Alvord
County Commissioner, Derek G. Wells of Chico
Justice of the Peace, Kam Swaim of Chico

Republican Ballot
County Commissioner, Kevin Burns of Decatur
Justice of the Peace, Terry Lynn Johnson

2006-01-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

Meet the Candidate

Victor Czerniak, Democratic candidate for County Commissioner Precinct 2, will be at the Sandflat Fire Department on Saturday, January 21st from noon until 2 PM. He will be there to meet us and to answer our questions.

2006-01-16T23:08:00.000-06:00

Deanna Petty Funeral Update

Chico–Mary Deanna Nolan Petty, age 69, passed away Saturday, January 14, 2006 at her home in Chico, Texas.

Visitation will be at the Hawkins Funeral Home, 1909 9th St., Bridgeport, Texas on Wednesday, January 18th between 6:00 and 8:00 PM.

Graveside services and Christian burial will be held at the Boyd Cemetery, Thursday, January 19th, at 2:00 PM.

Boyd Cemetery is located on southwest side of town. From Hwy 114 go south on Cemetery Road (at the school) about a half mile to the cemetery.

2006-01-07T05:37:00.000-06:00

“The Largest Land Grab in Texas History”:
TXDOT’s Eminent Domain Plans for Rural Texans

Note: Currently 1/3 of Wise County is under study for the eventual route of the Trans Texas Corridor. See map of Wise County at http://sandflat.blogspot.com/2005/11/wise-county-and-trans-texas-corridor.html

The Trans Texas Corridor Debacle

In case you haven’t head about it, TXDOT plans to privatize our limited public infrastructure by handing our highways over to foreign corporations for 50 year monopolies! It’s called the Trans Texas Corridor.

According to TXDOT’s official pro-corridor mouthpiece, Keep Texas Moving.com, Texas needs the Trans Texas Corridor to address the state’s future transportation needs based on a 50 year plan.

“The current population of our state is about 22 million. By 2030, forecasters predict we’ll have as many as 36 million people who live, work and drive in Texas. The majority will move to our urban areas, where we simply cannot expand our existing highway system fast enough to accommodate transportation demands.”

In other words, the TTC won’t do much to help current or future urban congestion; it will just move trough traffic from Mexico to Canada across Texas rural farm and ranch land.

So the Trans Texas Corridor proponents want to use urban congestion as their primary selling point while they intend to intentionally bypass urban centers by acquiring inexpensive undeveloped rural land for the TTC. If you visit the Keep Texas Moving site, you will note that they don’t actually spell out the reality of how they are going to acquire all this rural land.

“We may enter into early acquisition agreements with willing property owners to preserve future transportation corridors. We may pay landowners a fee to forego additional development on the property, with an option to purchase the land for fair market value in the future.”

The reality is that if property owners are not willing to give up their land, TXDOT will use Eminent Domain to take the property – and we are talking about taking well over a million acres of rural farm and ranch land across Texas!

Although TXDOT states that “Public comment is required in the decision-making process,” it is also points out that Texans won’t get to vote on this boondoggle!

“There will be no statewide or local vote on specific Trans-Texas Corridor routes.”

The estimated cost for the TTC is now up to around $183.5 billion dollars!! So how will this monster be paid for? According to Keep Texas Moving (TXDOT’s mouthpiece), TxDOT is seeking new public-private financing methods with the emphasis primarily on collecting Tolls.

Part of the TTC plan will include the privatization of our already paid for public freeways. If TXDOT gets its way on the TTC, in our lifetime most of our paid for freeways will become toll ways. Basically that amounts to double taxation!

If you ask proponents if our gas taxes will increase as well, here’s their answer . . .

“We cannot speculate whether construction and operation of the TTC will lead to an increase in the state fuel tax.”

Want to take a guess as to the correct answer?

TTC proponents are very short on real answers. As a matter of fact, everything about the actual plans for the TTC has been shrouded in secrecy. What is the real reason for this monstrous project?

According to Texas Comptroller and announced independent candidate for governor, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, “The people of Texas recognize Gov. Perry’s Trans Texas Catastrophe as the largest land grab in Texas history . . . Gov. Perry and his highway henchmen want to secretly cram toll roads down the people’s throats, which is why they don’t want these documents made public. Withholding the financial and development details of the largest land grab in history is unconscionable.”

There are plenty of facts that TXDOT and its official mouthpiece don’t want Texans to know. If you want to know the real reason for the TTC, read the following article, “Sixteen Reasons Why All Texans Should Oppose Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor”

Sources:
http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/
http://www.carolestrayhorn.com/

2006-01-07T05:29:00.000-06:00

Sixteen Reasons Why All Texans Should Oppose
Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor

1. The Trans Texas Corridor is a network of multimodal toll corridors for transporting goods and people by car, truck, rail and utility lines to be built all over Texas during the next 50 years. The corridor will crisscross the state and will intentionally bypass every major city and many small towns.

2. The Trans Texas Corridor is the biggest transportation project in the United States since the creation of the US interstate highway system in 1956. When the TTC is completed, half of the nation’s toll roads will be in Texas!

3. The TTC will pave 8,000 miles of Texas highway and take away 1.6 million acres of valuable Texas land. Because the TTC will skirt every major city, it won’t alleviate traffic congestion in large metropolitan areas. And because the TTC will have few regular access ramps, nor will it have frontage roads, it will bypass many small towns and will hurt rural economies.

4. The TTC will pave over 580,000 rural Texas acres consuming 140 acres of prime farm- and ranchland per mile! This land will be confiscated through the use of Right of Way Takings and Eminent Domain. This could be the confiscation of your private land for economic development!

5. The TTC will take more than 9,000 square miles of right-of-way for the corridors from critical wetlands and vital rural lands. Many farms and ranches will be divided by the corridor and the TTC will give no reasonable access to divided property. It is estimated that some farmers and ranchers will have to drive 20-30 miles out of their way to get to the other side of their property!!! The Texas Farm Bureau strongly opposes the TTC and is fighting to get assurances from TXDOT that landowners will be provided passage beneath the corridor.

6. The TTC will negatively impact wildlife and hunting in many of the areas of the state where hunting is a big part of farm income.

7. The Trans Texas Corridor will not increase adjacent property values because the TxDOT plan provides that business development along the Corridor be on State owned land leased to State concession businesses.

8. The TTC will promote the loss of ground water. There is nothing in the Transportation Code to prohibit private businesses from leasing the right to drill or operate a groundwater well in the corridor. If the well is large enough, it could devastate adjacent landowners.

9. The TTC will adversely affect small rural towns due to loss of local tax revenues. Because the TxDOT plan provides that business development along the Corridor be on State owned land leased to State concession businesses, the TTC will increased tax burdens by removing land from the local tax base. Rights-of-way will not be taxed, and any private business located on the right-of-way will also not pay taxes on their structures.

10. The Trans Texas Corridor will be built over the next 50 years at a cost of up to $185 billion, mostly with private money. A private foreign contractor, Cintra, will bankroll and build the highways and then charge tolls for up to 50 years. Much of the income will come from new toll taxes imposed on existing free roads that have already been paid for by our taxes.

11. Freeways all over Texas are now being converted to Toll Roads. Tolls placed on already paid for existing freeways amounts to double-taxation! A foreign company, Cintra, will control the TTC tolls and Cintra has a nasty reputation for aggressive toll collection and for raising tolls without public input. According to a January 25, 2005 article by Gordon Dickson, a staff writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, since Cintra began controlling tolls in Canada, “Tolls have gone up 200 percent!”

12. Cintra contributed heavily to lawmakers who voted to give the state expanded power to acquire land for the tollways and broad authority to privatize public roads and highways and convert them into toll roads. But the public and elected officials have been excluded from learning the details of the secret toll road agreements between TXDOT and Cintra.

13. The TTC is designed with two primary purposes. First, the TTC is designed to generate revenue for private investors and to benefit the politically connected, foreign special interest donors, and private road building interests. In addition, TTC is designed to further the aims of the FTAA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which may eventually merge the economies of North and South America under a single governing body like the EU (European Union).

14. The Trans Texas Corridor toll plan gives an unelected bureaucracy, The Texas Transportation Commission (five members appointed by Governor Rich Perry and his special interest friends), the authority to tax us without limit and with no accountability to the voters.

15. There will be no statewide or local vote on specific Trans-Texas Corridor routes. Unless Texans can get some form of referendum or initiative process to roll back this horrible Corridor legislation, the Corridor will be built without public disclosure, without public debate, with no legislative oversight, without any confirming transportation studies, and without input from professionals, urban planners, sociologists and environmentalists.

16. There is mounting bi-partisan opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor, but big money and special interests are determined to push it through. Already over 32 counties have passed formal resolutions opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor. To view these counties go to: http://salcostello.blogspot.com/2005/10/32-counties-formally-oppose-trans.html

2006-01-07T05:25:00.000-06:00

For additional reasons why the Trans Texas Corridor is a Texas disaster in the making, go to these sites:

Texas Toll Party
http://www.texastollparty.com/ttp_History.php

Texas Toll Party – San Antonio
http://www.satollparty.com/

The Muckracker
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/

Print your own Stop the TTC Bumper Sticker
http://www.wallercountycitizens.org/TTC/StopTTC.jpg

Corridor Watch
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/cw-mission.htm

2006-01-07T05:21:00.000-06:00

What Can I Do to Stop the Trans Texas Corridor???

If you oppose TXDOT’s “plans to privatize our limited public infrastructure handing our highways over to foreign corporations for 50 year monopolies using secret contracts that violate Open Government, create unbridled and excessive taxation due to administration costs and built-in profit, and overall work against the public good”. . . . Sign the petition at
http://www.satollparty.com/petition.php

Contact all of your elected officials, including those who are running for office in 2006, and tell them that you don’t support the TTC. Urge the repeal of legislation authorizing the Trans-Texas Corridor (HB 3588, 2003). In addition, urge the removal of all authorization and powers granted the Texas Transportation Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Be sure to contact your local elected officials – especially your road commissioners and your county judge.

To find your elected officials go to Who Represents Me?
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm

2006-01-07T05:19:00.000-06:00

Wise County is Considered a Disaster Area

“FIRE DANGER CONTINUES – Forecasts indicate the serious fire danger for Wise County will continue over the weekend with Saturday a particularly vulnerable day for firefighters with high winds and temperatures and low humidity.”
http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/

“The burn ban in Wise County will remain in effect indefinitely, and welders now have some new guidelines to follow. . .”

Read the burn ban guidelines at: http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/FightingtheFires.shtml

2005-12-24T05:17:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!

2005-12-07T08:14:00.000-06:00

Sprint High Speed Internet

Note: Message from one of our residents . . .

"There was a flyer in the Messenger from Sprint, announcing high speedinternet from Sprint/Earthlink for $34.99 a month for 12 months. The number to call is 1-866-514-7378

They will check to see if we are covered. Whether or not we are covered they will notify the appropriate group that we are interested. If youdon't have Sprint, call anyway and tell them to check because if highspeedis available you will change to Sprint. The more responses and calls themore Sprint will hear us!Thanks,Phyllis"

2005-12-04T15:08:00.000-06:00

Eminent Domain and Our Vanishing Property Rights

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

English philosopher Edmund Burke

Over the next 30 days, Grassfire.org Alliance, one of the fastest growing online activist organizations, is committed to seeing that the US Supreme Court reverses its Eminent Domain decision and restore the Fifth Amendment to its original intent.

Grassfire is calling on at least 100,000 citizens to sign a petition the petition calling for a reversal in the court’s decision.

“For more than 200 years the Fifth Amendment has protected the property rights of citizens by restricting the government's right of eminent domain. In fact, the exact language reads, "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

Since the founding of our nation, "public use" was interpreted to mean use for something like a school, roads, power stations, water treatment facilities, bridges--anything that was government owned and operated for the benefit of its citizens.

Now with this ruling, "public use" means anything that could increase tax revenue for a city. This jeopardizes anyone and everyone, and leaves the door open for widespread abuse!

Take Action and Take Back Your Rights!"

Please take a moment to add your name to the national petition by clicking below:
http://www.grassfire.org/65/petition.asp?PID=10236168&NID=1

2005-12-04T14:59:00.000-06:00

Lake Bridgeport Poll Results

Question: What concerns you most about the rapid changes coming to Lake Bridgeport?

Now that the poll is closed, here are the top four answers:

Tied for 1st place: Lake traffic and overdevelopment, and Lake levels and drought

Tied for 2nd place: Poor dangerous roads, road upkeep, and too much traffic, and Water availability and/or quality of wells

For a complete breakdown of the poll results join the Lake Bridgeport News discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

2005-12-04T14:56:00.000-06:00

Wise County Sheriff’s Department to Patrol Our Traffic

Wise County Sheriff, David Walker, has alerted us that because of the large number of complaints to the Sheriff’s department concerning fast traffic due to construction in the new North Star Pointe area, traffic units will patrol the area for the next few days.

2005-11-21T08:06:00.000-06:00

Lake Bridgeport Texas FAQs:

Lake Bridgeport is suffering yet another drought year. The normal lake level when full is 836 feet. Today, we are currently almost 10 feet down at 826.25 feet. (See links: Lake Levels). Many “floating” docks are now beginning to rest on dry land. Those of us who have lived on this lake for at least 20 years or more know that DOWN is the norm around here. The average variance (how much the lake drops) is 12 feet annually. That’s pretty much par for the course three years out of every four. Often the lake drops far more than that. If the lake does happen to reach full capacity at 836 feet, it will only be a matter of days before that water is let out of the dam and sent downstream to Eagle Mountain Lake.

What about the reported distance of Lake Bridgeport to the DFW Metroplex? According to government records, the distance to Fort Worth is 45 miles, to Dallas is 70 miles, and to DFW Airport is 50 miles. But those distances are “as the crow flies” measurements taken from the point of the lake nearest to the destinations.

If you live on the NW side of Lake Bridgeport it will take a lot longer to reach the D/FW metroplex. On a good traffic day and exceeding the speed limit by at least 5 mph, you can reach the northern boundary of Tarrant County in an hour, or you can get to Dallas in another 20 minutes, or you can get to DFW airport in about 1.5 hours. I make a weekly trip to Arlington and have never been able to reach Arlington in less than 1 hour and 20 minutes. As yearly traffic congestion continues to mount on I-35 and Loop 820 in Fort Worth, we can count on even longer commute times.

See links for additional Lake Bridgeport and Wise County information.

2005-11-18T07:40:00.000-06:00

North Star Pointe Grand Opening Sales Event

Oscar Rohne, president of North Star Pointe, asked me to let our readers know that this coming Saturday and Sunday, November 19 & 20, will be a heavy traffic day as many people come in to visit NSP. Please be very careful and courteous on the roads. Let’s show our potential new neighbors just how warm and friendly we all are here in Wise County.

2005-11-18T07:34:00.000-06:00

North Star Pointe Changes Plans for Cozy Cove Estates

When the property owners of Cozy Cove Estates learned of North Star Pointe plans to put in an exit road from NSP on to Cozy Cove Ct., they sent a letter to NSP protesting the plans. Cozy Cove Estates is a very small development with only one road ending in a Cul-de- Sac. Property owners were concerned that the construction of a road through Cozy Cove would significantly alter the characteristics of Cozy Cove Estates, which in turn would have a negative impact on Cozy Cove property values and on the quality of life of its residents.

This past Monday I received a call from Oscar Rohne of North Star Pointe. After having received the certified letter, and feedback from neighbors, he has decided to revise his plans. He said that he wants to be a good neighbor and does not want to cause problems for Cozy Cove Estates. He said that he has decided that there will be no road connecting NSP into Cozy Cove.

Cozy Cove residents are delighted with NSP’s positive response and look forward to a continued neighborly relationship with the new gated community.

2005-11-18T07:23:00.000-06:00

More Trans Texas Corridor Sites

One of our readers was kind enough to send me links to some additional Texas Corridor Web Sites:

Trans-Texas Corridor

Excerpt: "Porkus Maximus Tex: A giant, voracious subspecies of pork-barrel cronyism inhabiting the Lone Star State. Will thrive in a climate of apathy, or when given little or no attention by citizens, who are unwittingly consumed.”

On Eminent Domain
"Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, an El Paso native, laid it out: 'Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. '"

Source: http://transtexascorridor.blogspot.com/

TTC News Archives

This is a site that reprints several TTC news articles from around the state with primary focus on Collin County.

Source: http://corridornews.blogspot.com/

The Muckracker

Sal Costello’s site is described: “The founder of the Texas TollParty.com Shines a Light on the Dark Corners of Special Interest Boondoggles: Double Tax Tolls and Trans Texas Corridor Tax, Toll & Debt Schemes.” The site also has an excellent list of other TTC sites.

Source: http://salcostello.blogspot.com/

Texas Toll Party

You can easily send a message to your state representatives regarding the TTC.

Here’s an excerpt from the message:
“Taking one-half million acres of Texan's land, to exclusively generate revenue at the expense of open government, private property rights, and thousands of Texas communities will not stand.”

Sign a petition to stop TTC and view the growing list of petitioners.

Source: http://www.texastollparty.com/ttp_trans_texas.php

Trans Texas Corridor Research Committee

Excerpt: “The TTC is 4000 miles of ¼ mile wide toll roads, broken into 11 separate corridors and covering 584,000 acres of productive Texas farm and ranchland. It will consist of four truck lanes, six vehicle lanes, two high speed passenger rail lines, two commuter rail lines, two high speed freight rail lines and 200 feet of corridor designated to house underground pipelines for utilities such as water, natural gas, oil and fiber optics. This same 200 feet area will also accommodate overhead tower electric lines.This series of toll roads or “four priority corridors will parallel:1-35, I-37, I-69 (proposed) from Denison to Rio Grande Valley;I-69 (proposed) from Texarkana to Houston to Laredo.1-45 from Dallas-Ft. Worth to Houston. I-10 from El Paso to Orange.”

Source: http://transtexascorridorresearch.blogspot.com/

2005-11-11T16:28:00.000-06:00

Wise County and the Trans-Texas Corridor

One third of Wise County Under Study???

It’s interesting to note that there’s very little local information about the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). That’s the proposed 10-mile-wide transportation corridor generally paralleling I-35 and running south to the Rio Grande Valley. According to the proponents for the TTC, Keep Texas Moving, TTC is a “statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways and utility right-of-ways.”

Keep Texas Moving has nicely explained the strategy for gobbling up miles of rural land. “Developed land is far more expensive to purchase than undeveloped land, and relocation has a greater impact on local communities.” Their solution is to carve out the corridor from less expensive rural county farm and ranch land. They can pay fair market value for the land, or if the property owner refuses to sell, TxDOT will use Eminent Domain.

The opposition, Corridor Watch, points out that TTC-35 could consume an estimated 4,500 acres in Wise County. But not to worry – this is a project that will take more than 50 years to complete. Federal environmental studies began in 2004 and there’s no telling how long it will take before the studies are completed.

In the mean time, we can only imagine what will happen to the land values in the 1/3 of Wise County which falls within the study area (see map)? That’s almost all of south and southeastern Wise County! Let’s see if we can guess? What kind of development do you think is going to take hold when no one knows for sure the exact route TTC will eventually take? So if you are TXDOT, you keep an area under study for years, watch the land values fall, and then you can come in and offer fair market value??? Even the TTC proponents, who are currently running a poll on the Keep Texas Moving site, have to admit that 64% felt that acquisition of property is their primary concern.

Here’s some excerpts from some other sites discussing the TTC:

“Listen to proponents, and the Trans Texas Corridor sounds like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Talk to opponents, however—including many rural Texans—and that sliced bread has turned stale and moldy, way past the time it needs thrown out. . . Hogwash, say Texans who are among the mounting opposition finding flaws in these arguments. In some cases, they insist the exact opposite is true. Texas Farm Bureau's primary concern, however, is its impact on agriculture and landowners. . . . Texas Farm Bureau has registered its opposition in a number of forums. . . TFB would like to see the corridor concept scrapped and future highway planning put under the auspices of the state legislature.”
http://www.txfb.org/TexasAgriculture/2005/031805/031805TTCpart3.htm

“The Trans Texas Corridor is 4,000 miles of toll roads and rail that will cris-cross Texas. The proposal is a major concern for Texans. If passed, it means one million acres of Texan's land will be taken through eminent domain and turned over to private corporations to make higher profits.:"
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/5316005cp.shtml

“You would think that the Texas Farm Bureau would never abandon Rick Perry, the former Agriculture Commissioner and a rancher to boot, but they have split over his baby, the Trans-Texas Corridor. . . Rick Perry’s toll-road plan betrays a fundamental lack of accountability to the basic rules of fair play. Texans don’t want to give up their farms and ranches because of some Austin insider boondoggle. Texans don’t want to pay tolls to drive on roads they built with their taxes.”
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:_Nc0Q0lOu1AJ:www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/opinion/columns/Corridorcrosseslineoffairp.shtml++Wise+%22Trans+Texas+Corridor%22&hl=en

2005-11-03T00:23:00.000-06:00

Dangerous Traffic Situation!!!
Been Run Off the Road Yet???

You’ve probably noticed all the nice “polite” gravel trucks and other large equipment beating our roads into a series of pot holes this past week. They are hurriedly on their way in and out of North Star Pointe development. I’ll be taking pot hole progress photos to post on this web site.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being run off the road by a giant 18-wheeler which came flying around a blind corner on my side of the road at over 50 mph. I tried to turn around and follow the truck, but he was going so fast that he was long gone before I could make the turn. That’s when I decided it was time to visit the folks at North Star Pointe to see what they could do to help this us with this dangerous traffic situation.

As I topped the hill on Cozy Cove, I saw another big truck barreling out of the entrance to North Star Pointe. I decided to just stop and let the truck go by rather than meet him at the blind curve just before the gate.

On my way to the office, I stopped to talk to two surveyors who were doing work for NSP. I mentioned my traffic concerns and they told me that a little earlier they were almost run off the road by a truck. They had just told the folks at NSP about their experience. Given the fact that the surveyors and the wild truck drivers were the only other people I saw on the road since leaving Hwy 1810, that means that 100% of us were involved in playing this form of Russian Roulette. So folks – your odds of escaping a serious accident aren’t very good!

NSP told me that they had directed the trucks to enter and leave by the Judd’s gate, but that some truckers were still using the main gate. That wouldn’t have helped me any way. I met the 18-wheeler near the Y at the intersection of 1744 and 1736. NSP said that they didn’t have any control over the truckers since the truckers are independent contractors. I suggested that since they are giving these gravel companies a great deal of business, they certainly should speak to the truckers about SLOWING DOWN!!!

All I can do right now is beg you all to drive very, very defensively. Please be aware that some idiot trucker, on a very tight schedule, is driving like a maniac in your lane right around the next curve.

If you want to voice your concerns to North Star Pointe, you can contact their Project Manager, Mr. Oscar Rohne, of Southern Lakes & Leisure, at 817-563-2265. I’ll be calling him today too.

If the pot holes, the blind curves, the overgrowth of vegetation, and the general road deterioration is getting you down, try contacting our County Commissioner, Kevin Burns.

Commissioner, Precinct #2, Kevin D. Burns, P.O. Box 899, Decatur, Texas 76234. Or call 940-427-4881, Home (940) 627-7519, 940-427-2210 (Fax), e-mail comm2@co.wise.tx.us

North Star Pointe Plans Big Sales Event

North Star Pointe development will have a big sales event the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov. 18-20). According to NSP, quite a few folks will be coming in from the Metroplex. There will be a staging area in El Lago. Expect a great deal of traffic. So be very careful on all of our roads!!!

Early Voting Ends Friday at 5 p.m.

To vote early go to the Records Building, 201 N. Market St., in Decatur.

2005-10-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

Daylight Savings Time Ends 2:00 AM Sunday, October 30, 2005

Roll your clocks back one hour!!!

2005-10-29T09:26:00.000-05:00

Grand Harbor/North Star Pointe Replats and Expansion

See the Wise County Commissioners Court October 31, 2005 agenda items:

8. Consider Replat of Grand Harbor on Lake Bridgeport, Section One, Phase 1, Lots 162R, 162R1, 162,R3, 163R, 163R1, 163R2,165R, 166R AND 167R in Precinct #2. Take necessary action. (KB).
9. Consider North Star Pointe, Phase 2, Final Plat and Construction Plans in Precinct #2. Take necessary action.
10. Consider North Star Pointe, Phase 3 Final Plat and Construction Plans in Precinct #2. Take necessary action.

Link to Wise County Commissioner’s Court Agenda
http://www.co.wise.tx.us/agendas.htm

2005-10-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

Wise County Contract With Sandflat Volunteer Fire Department

Contract Effictive: October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006

To Read the contract, go to the Wise County Official Page. Click on Commissioner’s Court/Contracts/Volunteer Fire Departments.

http://www.co.wise.tx.us/

2005-10-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

Decatur City Council Tries to Force Residents to form HOA

Why this action concerns all Wise County Residents. . .

Apparently the developer of Rodden Estates failed to create an HOA as promised to the city. Landscaping of the median that Rodden put in has not been properly maintained. Several residents don’t want an HOA but they want city services. And several residents blame the city for not forcing Rodden to go ahead with the HOA plans.

According to the WCM, “The city offered two possible solutions to the problem: ask residents to form an HOA and take over the maintenance of the fountain and landscaping and irrigation of the median, or the city would remove the fountain and replace it with asphalt.”

“Several residents met and discussed the options, which they rejected. The city responded with two supplemental options: complete any necessary repairs to the entryway and pay any necessary legal fees associated with establishing an HOA. Once established, the HOA would take over maintenance of the area. . .”

“But the city staff and residents could not reach a compromise. Among other issues, the city did not want to set precedent in which it would assume maintenance responsibilities for other developments.”

LBSN Note: Decatur and Wise County have already set a president by encouraging developers to create POAs/HOAs. Throughout the country local governments, with little foresight, saw HOA creation as a boon because they could still collect taxes while providing far fewer services. The down side is that HOA residents eventually balk at this form of “double taxation” because they are not only paying taxes but are also paying hefty private assessments. HOA voting blocks have the power to force cities to their will eventually leaving local governments with far less resources. A new trend is emerging across the country as more and more local governments have begun to reevaluate the wisdom of providing incentives to developers to create POAs/HOAs.

See Entire article at WCM: http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/CityRoddenEstatesresidents.shtml

For More Information of HOAs/POAs . . .

Scroll down to our September 26th entry . . .
Why Don’t Realtors and Developers talk about POAs and HOAs???

See Link to Communtiy Association Facts at
http://cafacts.blogspot.com/

2005-10-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

What concerns you most about the rapid changes coming to Lake Bridgeport?

Take Our New Poll. Set up a Yahoo identity and join our Lake Bridgeport News discussion group just started last week on Yahoo. Here you can air your concerns freely because we don’t even know who you are.

Here’s the poll question: What concerns you most about the rapid changes coming to Lake Bridgeport?

The poll will close on November 25th and you can change your vote until then. The results will be published here and on the Discussion Page.

Enter your vote today! To vote, please visit the following web page:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

2005-10-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hi Barbara,

Here's an update on the North Side Marina and Resort.

North Side Marina has changed its name to North Side Marina and Resort. The cottage rentals have been very popular and have been rented every weekend since we opened in July. They have also been popular during the week. We have had many guests from Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Lewisville, Bridgeport, Southlake, Decatur, Denton, Chico and other surrounding areas.

We have completed renovations on "The Northside" cottage and will complete renovations on the "Angler" in the next few weeks including a new roof, siding and a re-constructed deck. We have added new stone walkways and many other upgrades. We will be adding new landscaping in the spring.

The Ship's Store will shut down the first of November for the winter, but the Gas Pump will stay open. The cottages will be available for rent during the winter as well. Both are equipped with fireplaces.

We are adding a new 1 Bedroom log cabin which we have named "The Lakeview". The Lakeview will be on a beautiful site overlooking the Marina cove starting in January 2006 and will sleep up to 4 people. We will also be offering Park Model Log Cabins for sale and installation on a North Side site or it can be installed on your own site. Thenew Log Cabins that are for sale will sleep up to 10 people and are built to order. We have a limited number of sites available on the Marina property with full access to the Marina and an optional boat slip. Visit our website or call 644-5475 for more information www.northsidemarina.net

We have a large booth rented at the Arlington Fishing and Outdoor Show and the Fort Worth boat show. We will be bringing one of the model cabins to the show which should be a big hit and create lots of interest. Feel free to stop by and see us at the shows!

Thanks to everyone for supporting us during our first partial season. Next spring we will be continuing to enhance the Marina and Resort and continuing to provide you expanded services on beautiful Lake Bridgeport.

Thanks!
North Side Marina and Resort

2005-10-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

The Wise County ban on outside burning remains in effect.

“EARLY VOTING — Early voting begins on nine constitutional amendments today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the basement of the Records Building, 201 N. Market St., in Decatur. Voting continues each weekday for the next two weeks.”
http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/index.shtml

See List of Proposed constitutional amendments
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/opinion/columns/Proposedconstitutionalamme.shtml

More Gated Community Woes
Excerpt from: Do homeowners’ associations lower property values?: Accountability
and Private Governments

What are RCA’s?

“RCSs are private organizations that display many characteristics
of typical local governments. They supply services that are
often provided by municipalities, including maintenance of
common areas, roads, utility systems (water and sewer), lighting,
refuse removal, and communication systems. They “tax”
their residents for services through regular and special assessments,
and each association holds periodic elections to choose
representatives who, as a board, will make decisions on behalf
of their neighborhood. Current estimates are that there are
more than 250,000 rcas in the United States and that one out
of every six Americans now lives in some form of homeowners’
association.” . . .

“In our sample of rcas, higher fees lead to a lower sales value of the
average unit . . .

Source: Do homeowners’ associations lower property values?: Accountability
and PrivateGovernments
by LAURA LANGBEIN AND KIM SPOTSWOOD-BRIGHT
American University

IESI Complaints?
Have you experienced the increase in service rates along with less courteous service? Holes in trash containers? Containers left in the middle of the road? Containers left overturned?

We have no other competitors to turn to for trash collection. So voice your complaints.

Complaints Call: 800-909-9061 or e-mail info@iesi.com

The IESI district manager is Bob Kneis

Web Page
http://www.iesi.com/index.shtml

Lake Bridgeport News Discussion Group

As promised last month, I finally got around to setting up our discussion group on Yahoo last week. You can set up your own Yahoo identity and join the group. You can talk about your concerns freely because I won’t even know who you are.

You can add pictures and links to your favorite sites. You can promote your community service news here and advertise your garage sales or items (but no personals, job postings, or get rich quick scams). All postings are moderated to insure that these simple rules are not violated. Profanity will not be tolerated.

Discussion Subscribe: lakebridgeportnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Or visit the Lake Bridgeport News Discussion web page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakebridgeportnews/

Updated Buy, Sell, Trade Links for Wise County, the Metroplex, and beyond . . .(Note: If you have a favorite local free classifieds link let us know. I've discovered that they actually work for you. Best of all - they are free!!!)

http://runawaybay.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php?http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wisecountysales/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ParkerOnlineGarageSale/
http://groups.google.com/group/dfw.forsale http://dallas.craigslist.org/
http://www.barrygreen.com/cgi-bin/Classifieds/Main/Main.asp
http://www.ntws.net/forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=10f5b869a6d774a8713cc5c519e22d6b
http://classifieds.yahoo.com/?intl=us

2005-09-29T15:36:00.000-05:00

Disappearing Night Skies in Wise County Texas

By Jim Trap

(Note: Jim asked me if I would post his excellent letter on the Lake Bridgeport Sandflat News. He also submitted it to the WCM and other news organizations.)

I moved to western Wise County in August 1997. I was taken by the rugged beauty of the landscape around Lake Bridgeport.

Something else I immediately came to love, other than our terrain, was the awesome beauty of our “night sky.” On a moonless clear night the clarity of the atmosphere above and the incredible abundance of stars is truly awe-inspiring.

I can remember on numerous occasions having guests visiting from the Metroplex and having them question me about the clouds visible in our night sky. They always thought I was pulling their leg when I explained to them that what they were viewing was not clouds at all. They were looking at the millions of stars situated in our part of the galaxy we commonly call the Milky Way.

Now to my point. Wise County is booming. Just look around you, new fresh soil is being turned over everywhere. Sadly, along with this growth comes the increasing loss of our “night sky.”

The Metroplex is galloping up U.S. 81/287 towards those of us who have chosen to live in Wise County. With this rush of business and people comes more and more light pollution that will serve to obliterate the view of our night sky – more vehicle traffic, more homes and businesses, more street lights and security lighting, etc.

We can’t stop this “progress.” What we can do is choose the type of outdoor lighting we employ at night with the best interest of our beautiful night sky in mind. For new construction and replacement needs, please consider using lighting that is directed downward and not wastefully spilled overhead.

The limestone quarries in Wise County are very good neighbors for the most part, providing many jobs and millions of tons of construction materials. However, they are a 24-hour operation and their lighting not only illuminates their work area, it absolutely floods the night sky around the cities of Chico and Bridgeport. I would hope as replacement lights become necessary our good neighbors there will choose lighting that serves their needs adequately and safely without all the over spill into the skies above them. Lighting like this is most certainly available now.

Individually, please do what you can to preserve our night sky. It’s simply common sense.

I want to encourage all of you to step out into your yard on an upcoming cool, clear autumn evening and behold the wonderful gift given us to simply enjoy.

Jim Trapp
Chico

North Star Pointe (formerly Grand Harbor)
Phone # is 1-800-710-0977 Ext 12

More Buy, Sell, Trade Links for Wise County and the Metroplex

(Note: If you have a favorite local free classifieds link let us know. I've discovered that they actually work for you. Best of all - they are free!!!)

http://runawaybay.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php?
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wisecountysales/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ParkerOnlineGarageSale/
http://groups.google.com/group/dfw.forsale
http://dallas.craigslist.org/

Response to Anonymous Comments:

Thanks for the info. Corrections have been made!!! By the way, anyone can send in a comment anonymously. We're still trying to get the bugs out of our comments so that they will show up under the article on the web page.

2005-09-26T10:20:00.000-05:00

Wise County Texas Real Estate

Why Don’t Realtors and Developers talk about POAs and HOAs???

Short Answer: It’s not profitable to point out problems!!!

Read the following excerpt from Community Associations Network

“People who buy a home in an HOA really think they are simply moving into a neighborhood that happens to have a group of people who try and get other people to attend social functions. They really think that their home is their castle and immediately get their back's up if someone has the gall to challenge them on something they've done or haven't done. Look at the American flag cases that have hit the news in recent years. Almost all of them were in HOA's. "How dare you tell me what I can or can't do in my front yard!" It rarely has anything to do with patriotism, but is more a reaction to this "entity" that thinks they can stop me from doing something that I want to do. Patriotism is what pop's up when the media gets involved. . .

I really believe that most of the litigation that will occur between owners and boards in the upcoming years, will be largely in the HOA arena. Until all of the states require some sort of forced recognition on the part of a home buyer, that they are purchasing a home in an association that has rules, governance of HOA's will swing violently between full enforcement and no enforcement, depending on the who is sitting on the board. Condo's seem to have leveled that swing off by forcing board's to be active on a continual basis, even if only for maintenance items.

As usual, the developers and real estate agents play a major role in all of this by playing down the "assocation" role in their developments. The only time it gets mentioned is if there are some amenities involved that can be seen as an attraction. At closing, the association documents are quickly shuffled off to the side to make sure they don't interfere with the transfer of ownership.”

Source: “The Difference Between Condos and HOA's,” from Community Associations Network at http://www.communityassociations.net/weblog/archives/2005/08/the_difference.html

The Best of Our Archives on POAs, HOAs, and Gated Communities

Lake Living at Its Finest???
Before You Buy That Home
The HOA can easily FORECLOSE on your home
Is a Gated Community for You?
Star-Telegram Purges Archive Search on Sale of the Boy Scout Land

From Today's Wise County Messenger Update

“BE READY – The Texas Department of Transportation will switch traffic on U.S. 380 between Decatur and Bridgeport tomorrow. The switch will be from west of County Road 1110 to Rose Avenue in Decatur. Crews will switch traffic from the south side of the roadway to the northside starting at 9 a.m. The entire $31.4 million project to make U.S. 380 a four-lane divided highway between Wise County’s two largest cities is expected to be completed a year in the fall of 2006.”
http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/index.shtml

Subscribe Lake-Bridgeport-News@googlegroups.com to get notices of urgent alerts and news updates.

2005-09-25T18:59:00.000-05:00

Grand Harbor to Change Names

The copper Grand Harbor name plate, which just went up a couple of months ago, has just been taken down off the new rock sign at the main gate. The new name will be North Star Pointe – an Inland Management Corp.property. I’m not sure how they came up with the name, but most of the lake lots and lake view lots will be facing south or south east. According to press reports, everything else will remain the same including their overly repressive restrictions. For more history of the evolution of this new gated community see our archives. For those interested in the restrictions, please read the archives dated May 17, 2005. For detailed information on gated communities, in general, check out Community Association Facts at http://cafacts.blogspot.com/

The rumor mill has been on positive spin ever since Mr. John Femrite bought the land from the Boy Scouts last year in a deal that raised quite a few eyebrows. For unknown reasons, Femrite recently sold GH in early August. For months and months GH/NSP employees have been dutifully dropping hints that more and more lots have been sold. I heard last week that all of Phase 1 had been sold out. This week I heard that they sold over 400 lots. That’s interesting when you consider that Phase 1 only has194 lots. The rest of the phases haven’t been developed yet. As a matter of fact, no one is living in North Star Pointe yet. What’s even more interesting is that if you paid close to $100K (or more) on a lot, wouldn’t you drop by to see the development’s progress from time to time? Where are all these new lot owners? Where are the lookers?

On a positive note, our own neighbors in El Lago and Cozy Cove, builders (Mr. Jeff Wilkes and Mr. Stacey Allred), have contracted to complete the two spec homes started by GH. Wilkes and Allred have built beautiful quality homes in Aurora.

North Star Pointe is located on the gorgeous, heavily wooded, rocky, rolling hills of the North West side of Lake Bridgeport – actually up the Trinity River. To find North Star Pointe, take Hwy 1810 west from Chico to CR 1745. Take a left on 1745, right on CR 1744, left on CR 1736, and right on CR 1734. Follow 1734 to the gates on the right. Yes, it’s out in the bad road boonies (wilderness) and you can estimate that it’s almost a 2 hour drive from the DFW metroplex (on a good traffic day). But once you get here you are going to be impressed with the remote beauty of this rugged land!!!

Today’s Subscriber’s Pump Reports

Fort Worth Lowest
$2.62 at Albertsons in Crowley Hwys 1187 and 911

Fort Worth Highest
$2.89 at Shell stations (I-20 and Trail Lake Dr. and Hwy 10 (Euless Blvd) & Simmons

Fort Worth Average today: $2.775

Subscribe Lake-Bridgeport-News@googlegroups.comto get notices of urgent alerts and news updates.

Archives and Links are back to the Bottom of This Page

2005-09-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

Tracking Rita's Path

Subscribe Lake-Bridgeport-News@googlegroups.com
to get notices of urgent alerts and news updates.

See permanent Links and Archives at end of this page.

Rita Track Map http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT18/refresh/AL1805W+gif/084857W_sm.gif

Enhanced Infrared Photo (real time)
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/maps-satellite.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&site=sc&type=ei

NOAA Rita Satellite Images
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/GMEX/VIS/20.jpg
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/GMEX/IR4/20.jpg
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/GMEX/IR2/20.jpg
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/NWATL/WV/20.jpg

Rita Evacuees in Wise County - Volunteers Needed
“Fire Marshal Paul Cunningham said that anyone wanting to volunteer to help with the shelter or any other shelters that could be opened in the county should call Caryn in the county judge’s office at (940) 627-5743. If you know of someone seeking shelter, call Cunningham at (940) 627-5870 or the Wise County Sheriff’s Office at (940) 627-5971. Anyone who wishes to donate items for evacuees is urged to call (940) 627-3235 or (940) 627-2200 at the local disaster relief donation center.”

WISE COUNTY REMAINS UNDER AN OUTDOOR BURN BAN

http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/index.shtml

Subscriber’s Pump Reports

“Look, if you have a half-a-tank full of gas, and that will last you a week, DO NOT TOP OFF YOUR GAS TANK unless you need it! BUY ONLY WHAT YOU NEED.......”
Davitte’ LanierPetroleum Industry Analyst
http://www.bettergasmileage.blogspot.com/

Call 1 (800) TELL-TDA (835-5832) to report faulty gas pumps.
Call (214) 969 7639, the Attorney General, to report price gouging.

Average Gas price in Fort Worth this morning was $2.71

Lowest price in Fort Worth this morning is $2.59 (Chevron corner of Hwy 1709 and Smithfield Rd., Keller)

Highest price reported in Fort Worth this morning is $2.89 (FinaServ Hwys 360 and 80, Arlington)

Buy, Sell, Trade Links for Wise County

http://runawaybay.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php?

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wisecountysales/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ParkerOnlineGarageSale/

http://groups.google.com/group/dfw.forsale

2005-09-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

Todays Subscriber’s Pump Reports
Gas Prices in last 24 hours

Falling trend today!

Highest reported in Wise County
2.99 Shell 200 N US HWY 81 and 287 – Decatur
2.97 Phillips 66 at Chico Mart - Chico
2.95 Allsup’s - Chico

Lowest reported in Wise County
2.76 Murphy USA in Decatur at Wal-Mart
2.79 Shell 2105 S. College – Decatur

Highest reported in Metroplex
3.29 Shell on 7414 Hwy 1187 in Rendon

Lowest reported in Metroplex
2.76 Murphy USA Matlock & Debbie Ln (with card) Mansfield

Average Gas Prices reported today in Fort Worth
2.984

Average Gas Prices reported Yesterday in Fort Worth
2.995

2005-09-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

Warning: Credit/Debit Card Authorization Holds When You Buy Gas

Due to the latest gas crisis, many more people are driving away without sufficient credit or funds to cover the purchase. And, to cover themselves, gas merchants are placing larger holds on credit/debit cards.

When you swipe a card (or present a card before a purchase), the merchant doesn’t know how much gas you are going to buy, so he puts an authorization hold for a certain amount ($5, $10, or even up to $100) on your card. Now, according to Snopes.com, “An authorization is only a hold on the funds for a possible future transfer. This hold is temporary, and if the transaction isn't settled it will expire without any action.”

Unfortunately, “Your credit card company may still show a temporary authorization hold on the funds after your transaction is completed. It can take several working days for them to process the void on the authorization. The time will vary from one company to the next.” Some merchants can hold the money up to 3 days, and that can really hurt you!!!

Advice from Snopes . . .

“Take your credit card inside and pay after you’ve pumped your gas.” Or, just pay cash.

2005-09-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

Todays Subscriber’s Pump Reports

(Prices taken 9/2/05 between 6:00-7:00 PM)

Again – many thanks to two subscribers for these reports

Sunset/Bowie

Phillips 66 Hwy 287 & Sunset 2.99
Murphy/Wal-Mart 287 & Bowie 2.79

Wise County/Decatur/Alvord

Shell at 287 & 114 2.93
Exxon at 287 & 114 2.95
Shamrock 287 just S. of Decatur 2.89
Shell 287 in S. Decatur 2.94
Fina/Allsups 287 in Decatur 2.95
Wal-Mart/Murphy in Decatur 2.76
Chevron 287 in Decatur 2.99
Shell 287 in Decatur 2.99
Texaco 287 in Decatur 2.99
Citgo 287 just N of Decatur 2.99
Mobile 287 & Alvord 2.92
Citgo 287 & Alvord 2.89

NW Fort Worth

Racetrac N. Beach just N. of 820 3.19
Chevron N. Beach & NE Loop 820 2.99
Conoco N. Beach & NE Loop 820 2.99
Dia. Shamrock N. Beach & NE Loop 820 3.09
7/11 Western Center & I35 3.19
Shell 287 & Avondale/Haslett 2.99
Citgo 287 & Avondale/Haslett 2.99

2005-09-02T19:24:00.000-05:00

Our Subscriber’s Pump Reports
(Prices taken 9/2/05 between 6:00-7:00 PM)

A Big Big thanks to one of our Lake Bridgeport News subscribers who bothered to take down these Metroplex prices this evening on the way to work!!!

These prices are all for unleaded regular (87)

3.199 Racetrac Rufe Snow.& Trinidad
2.999 Texaco at Chapman & Rufe Snow
2.999 Conoco at Rufe Snow & Lewis Dr.
3.059 and 3.099 (two signs) at Chevron at Rufe Snow & NW Loop 820
3.079 Shell at Pipeline & 121
3.099 Fina at 121 & Norwood
3.059 Texaco at 121 & Central Dr.(price fixing?)
3.059 Chevron at 121 & Central (price fixing?)
2.989 Chevron at 121 & Murphy
3.099 Fina at 121 & Harwood
3.059 Chevron at 121 (Just before Glade Rd.)
2.999 7/11 at 121 and Glade
3.099 Shell at 121 & Glade
3.099 Exxon at W.D. Tate & Mustang
3.099 Texaco at W.D. Tate & 114
3.059 Shell at W.D. Tate & Ball

NBC 5 Gas Calculator

According to the NBC 5 Gas Calculator, the average 160 mile trip uses about 19 gallons in a van/minivan. At $3.00 a gallon that’s $57.00 round trip. If you drive a van/minivan, that’s your minimum trip to the Metroplex and back, folks!!!

Your Gas Costs/Today’s AAA Survey

Even at just $3 a gallon, it costs $67.50 to fill the 22.5-gallon tank of a Ford Explorer, the nation's most popular SUV. Refilling the 18.5-gallon tank of a Toyota Camry, the bestselling car, means a $55.50 bill.

Experts also say that high retail prices will attract more gasoline from abroad. But they concede that the adequacy of supplies will depend greatly on whether consumers hoard gasoline by topping off tanks frequently. "If they just do their normal things there won't be any problems," said Mark Routt, an analyst for Energy Security Analysis Inc., a petroleum consulting company in Wakefield, Mass.

The latest AAA survey, reflecting prices Wednesday, showed averages for regular unleaded still below $3 a gallon on Long Island and in the city but events seemed to have outpaced it and prices over $3 a gallon for regular were the norm. The Web site gaspricewatch.com, which collects information informally from motorists, showed prices late yesterday afternoon for a 20-mile region around Melville ranging from $2.81 a gallon to $3.53 a gallon for regular. Another similar Web site, newyorkgasprices.com, showed prices in the region as high as $3.69 for regular unleaded -- that at a Shell station in the Bronx.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzgas0902,0,3437462.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Our Commissioners Get Hefty Pay Raise
— Wise County commissioners unanimously approved salaries for elected officials during a one-hour meeting yesterday morning. Excluding judicial office holders, commissioners will become the highest paid officials in the county with a salary of $53,048 plus a $12,000 a year vehicle allowance. . . .
9/1/05
http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/

2005-09-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

From Today’s NBC5 Pump Patrol Reports

7:00 PM – It was reported that the Shell at Holiday Lane/Mid-Cities Blvd. in North Richland Hills was selling at $5.22! (Definitely gouging!!!)

“Murphy USA on 66 in Rowlett is $2.94 . . .”

“Blum, Texas off hwy 174, Shamrock, $2.89 for unleaded. . . “

“EXXON-MOBIL on Collins & I-20 was over $3.00 dollars yesterday afternoon . . .”

“DON'T HESITATE TO CONTACT THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE IF YOU SEE A STATION THAT IS TRYING TO GOUGE PEOPLE. (an e-mailed pic of the price would really help.) I used this strategy after 9-11 on a local station and they stopped selling gas for about 5 months afterward.”

The average reported for Metroplex appears to be holding from yesterday around $2.89.9

2005-09-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

$6 Gasoline? No joke!
See Subscriber's Pump Reports (below) - prices already at $5.00 today!!!

“``If we don't get electricity back and don't get the pipelines back and don't get the refineries back for maybe a month, it could go up to $6'' a gallon, said Roger Anderson, senior energy scholar at Columbia University in New York. . .”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a30ae27372WU&refer=latin_america

Gas Prices This Morning . . .

Subscriber’s Pump Reports 6:27 AM

6:27 AM, Fort Worth –“ I checked the price of gas at Racetrack, 1005 N. Beach, this morning- $2.99 (unleaded regular) and $3.09 (unleaded plus) per gallon. WOW!!”
Fort Worth subscriber

9:00AM, Atlanta - "Price gouging. Atlanta. Up to 5$ a gallon. Sony Predue declares state of emergency due to excessive gouging. South Florida: 2.79 - 3.09$ a gallon. (Non gouging) Orlando Florida: 2.89 - 3.09 Gallon (non gouging) Florida has HEAVY laws restricing this kind of activity. And notice theyare not having the same issues." Atlanta subscriber

Gas Price Briefs in the News

“Gas prices were up everywhere in Texas Wednesday. Fort Worth was hit the hardest, with a gallon of regular unleaded selling for as much as $3.19. Dallas hit a close second at $3.09 a gallon; El Paso and Houston were each selling for $2.99. San Antonio logged in at $2.90 a gallon and Austin was in first place at $2.81. . . . if anyone can prove a retailer is raising prices artificially -- because others are charging more -- they are urged to call the Attorney General's office at 800-252-8011 to file complaint.”
http://www.newschannel5.tv/2005/8/31/4227/Price-gouging-not-likely--AG-says

“WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush warned against price-gouging of gasoline on Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and said looters should be treated with zero tolerance. . .”
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050901:MTFH33719_2005-09-01_11-46-03_N01434398:1

Report Price Gouging – That is if you can figure out what the gouging is when gas prices are rising hourly!!!

Attorney General's offices for both Texas and Arkansas say they will listen to any concerns about price gouging in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina.

Save your gas receipts!!! Then contact the Texas AG office by calling 1-800-252-8011, or 1-800-482-8982. You can also file an online report with the Texas AG office at:
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/consumer.shtml#ifyou

Get Involved
Send us your pump reports with time you purchased the gas (also need prices for unleaded regular, 87), date, gas station name, and address or exact location to lakebridgeportnews@yahoo.com.

Folks This is a crisis!!!

2005-08-31T23:18:00.000-05:00

Subscriber Pump Report 8:30 PM

Paid $2.749 just now (8:30pm) at the new station (Take a Break) on 407 4miles west of 287 towards Justin. Filled up the other car today at noonthere for $2.695.

2005-08-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Wise Gas Pump Patrol (See today’s prices below)

Well – somebody had better do it!!! And we all need to do it!!! Although America really does have a gas emergency in the Gulf after hurricane Katrina, the national news is reporting that there has been wide-spread price-gouging in the last two days.

Monday, we sent out an Alert to our subscribers that Sam’s was telling their employees that they were going to raise gas prices by $1.00 (from $2.59.9 to 3.59.) in one day (see article below). I received a phone call from the Dallas Morning News immediately after posting this alert. Well, Sam’s didn’t raise their prices that high. But, what is interesting is the Wal-Mart/Sams/Murphy gas ploy that I observed while driving into the Metroplex yesterday morning.

At 10:10 AM yesterday, I stopped by Wal-Mart in Decatur to check the prices for regular unleaded. I was shocked to see that they had raised the price to $2.74.9! Just before leaving I had check the prices at the NBC 5 Pump Patrol Price Board and found that $2.59 was the high in the Metroplex!!!

Upon my return this afternoon, I decided to do a little sleuthing in Decatur, Bridgeport, and Chico. I didn’t check out all of the gas stations - but several. Interestingly, Wal-Mart was up to $2.84.9 at 3:45PM. (Remember that with a Wal-Mart card there’s 3 cents off that price, so it would go for $2.81.9.) But most of the other stations in Decatur on or near Hwy 287 were selling for $2.86.9. Don’t you find the Wal-Mart/Sams/Murphy game interesting? Pop the prices way up beyond the metroplex high, force surrounding stations to follow suit, then drop just a bit below the surrounding station prices???

I noticed that the gas prices dropped dramatically NW of Decatur on Hwy 287 just before the HWY 1810 turn off. But I found the best gas bargain in Bridgeport!!!

Look, we’ve received a number of forwarded e-mails about boycotts against certain oil companies. Basically, those boycotts just don’t work. At any rate, that particular e-mail boycott against EXXON and MOBIL has been circulating on the internet ever since 1999. Not only that, but whom among us really knows who the gouging culprits really are? These international oil dealings are just too complex.

What does work is not brand loyalty but buying where it’s cheapest. Word gets around. You will notice that across the nation many broadcast networks have Pump Patrols. They provide this service to us because it works - - and has even “fueled” some price wars. Unfortunately, even our own NBC 5, doesn’t have much participation from the hinterlands – from places like Wise County.

That’s where you can come in. You can help yourself and our county by telling us what you paid, when you bought your gas, and the station name and location. Whenever you fill up, just send us an e-mail and tell us the price for regular unleaded. We will post the information here.
Just send us an e-mail at lakebridgeportnews@yahoo.com

Here’s today’s list of unleaded regular prices taken today between 2-4PM. Lowest price is in red!!!

Fort Worth/Tarrant Co.
Shell I-30 and Eastchase $2.81.9
Sams and Wal-Mart I-30 and Eastchase $2.81.9
Shell Hwy 287 and Avondale Hazlett Rd $2.79.9

Wise County

Decatur
Shell Hwys 287 and 730 $2.86.9
Phillips 66 Hwy 51 $2.86.9
Exxon Hwys 51 & 287 $2.86.9
Wal-Mart $2.84.9
Chevron Hwy 287 (before Hwy 1810) $2.79.9
Shell Hwy 287 (before Hwy 1810) $2.79.9

Bridgeport
Diamond Shamrock Hwys 380 & 101 $2.63.9 (940-683-2422)
Fina Hwys 380 & 101 $2.82

Chico
Allsups Fina $2.89.9
Phillips 66 Chico Mart $2.86.9

2005-08-29T17:41:00.000-05:00

Alert: Buy Your Gas Tonight!!!

Gas Prices to Rise Tomorrow Morning. . .An employee of Sams just contacted us this evening to say that it was just announced to Sams employees (Ft. Worth), that gas prices will rise by $1.00 tomorrow morning. Regular was $2.59.9 today at Sams, and tomorrow morning Regular will be $3.59.9

2005-08-27T10:18:00.000-05:00

Runaway Bay Community Bulletin Board is Up and Running

(See link left side bar)

News from North Side Marina

- We have completed renovation of the Dock and Boat Slips
- We have add a new gas dock at the end of the Marina
- A new "Pay at the Pump" fuel system is being installed next week prior to Labor Day. This will be available 24hrs - 7 days a week.
- We have completed renovation of the cottages and are now actively renting both cottages
- We now offer pontoon boat rentals
- We have acquired additional land and now offer boat trailer storage
- We have 3 remaining slips to rent and our $995 yearly special expires next week. We are also offering optional hydro-hoist boat lifts with a slip rental.
- The store is fully stocked now including a new stocked ice machine, minnow tank, Nestle's ice cream, sandwiches - even Lake Bridgeport Hats and T-Shirts!

You may visit our web site for information. (See the link left side bar)

2005-07-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

Massie Went Missing Tuesday July 19th

Just about everyone around El Lago and Cozy Cove knows Massie. Massie is a gentle, lovable Yellow Lab Mix. He's a neutered male who will be two in October.

Massie is just too friendly and still thinks he's a puppy that can just crawl into your lap - all 50+ pounds of him! Although he has never wandered off the cove, he makes his daily rounds visiting all of the neighbors - especially if they have a dog willing to play. His favorite activity is swimming in the cove.

We are concerned that Massie may have been stolen because other neighbors have lost Labs and other young dogs in the last year or so . . . Sadly, it appears to be true, that once a Gated Community comes in, crime increases in the surrounding neighborhoods.

If you saw Massie on Tuesday, or have seen him since, please call us at 940-644-2291. We need to know what has happened to him - no matter what. He was our grandsons' dog that we adopted when they moved into an apartment. I don't want to have to make that call.

2005-07-02T04:50:00.000-05:00

Montford's Firework Display

The latest word is that the display will be at sunset on Sunday, July 3, 2005.

Truth in Advertising

The Wise County Messenger's June 30, 2005, "Welcome to Wise" has numerous advertisements for real estate developments. So we thought we'd take a look.

Cherokee Hill on page 88 is very interesting and unique in what they actually disclose. . . . They admit right there in print that they do have a "Homeowners Association" and "Deed Restrictions Enforced by Architectural Control Committee"! Why is this unique? If you will notice, most ads for new developments usually fail to mention this important fact, yet most new developments do have Homeowners Associations and most, if not all, are controlled by the infamous Architectural Control Committee. Question? If HOA's are such a great advantage to homeowners, why do so many developers omit the information in their ads??? The answer can be found by going to the American Homeowner Resource Center.

Grand Harbor on Lake Bridgeport on page 99 has a little inset in the lower right corner with a map to the info center in Bridgeport. Below the inset is "All less than 60 minutes from Dalls and Fort Worth including DFW Airport". The word "All" leads you to believe that the actual development is less than 60minutes away . . . Well, you may be able to get to the Bridgeport info center from the far northern border of Tarrant/ Wise in 60 minutes - but if you plan on getting to remote Grand Harbor in that time, you must be flying in!!!

2005-06-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

Eminent Domain and Just Desserts
Would You Invest in a chain of Lost Liberty Hotels?

(Note:Reprinted with permission from the Texas Homeowner Association News)

On Monday, June 30, 2005, Private developer, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany, the code enforcement officer of the town of Weare, N.H., seeking to start the application process to build a hotel (to be named The Lost Liberty Hotel) on 34 Cilley Hill Road, the present location of Supreme Court Justice David Souter's home. Souter voted in favor of the controversial Eminent Domain decision allowing a city to take residents' homes for private development – or to be seized to make room for a new hotel.

According to the LA Times, Clements said in a press statement that his proposal “is not a prank” and that he planned to raise investment capital from "liberty advocates" around the country to build a "Lost Liberty Hotel," with a dining room called "Just Desserts Cafe." . . .

"I am taking it seriously," Meany said of Clements' letter. He said it had generated e-mail from across the country supporting the hotel initiative. "I have to afford him all the due process under the law."

Meanwhile, Clement’s fax and the resulting national media coverage have completely overwhelmed Clement’s FreeStar media, LLC., which received over 380,000 unique visitors on Tuesday following his fax.

Clements appears to be a social humorist. A new video, produced by Freestar Media, LLC, shows a monkey throwing darts at investments and getting a better rate of return than humans throwing darts at a board representing the rates of return of Social Security.

Although Clements claims his fax was not a joke, his web site says that he isn’t taking any more e-mails or calls unless you want to take out an ad. “We have received thousands of e-mails and hundreds of phone calls of people offering to invest in this project. We are overwhelmed. We urgently need cash to move to larger offices, hire staff and hire attorneys so we can legally accept these funds.”

The idea, however, has caught the imagination of thousands of Americans who are astounded by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Eminent Domain seizures for private development and not just for "public use."

We hope that Clements won’t abandon his novel idea. Imagine numerous LLC’s or CDC’s being created with the objective of developing Lost Liberty Hotels all over America – built on the confiscated land of corrupt officials and unjust justices!!! If nothing else, such an effort would force cities to afford “due process” to such requests and it would put every elected representative on notice that their homes are up for grabs too!

For more information and to read a copy of the now infamous fax, go to FreeStar media

2005-06-29T07:54:00.000-05:00

Burn Ban and Fireworks

“BURN BAN — Wise County commissioners unanimously approved a burn ban during Monday’s session. Fire marshal Paul Cunningham recommended the ban because of the lack of rain over the past several months. Cunningham warned residents against any outside burning and issued a special caution for anyone using fireworks. “Residents must understand that they are liable if a fire caused by fireworks gets off their property,” Cunningham said. “We will file charges for anyone who ignores the burn ban.” The county’s burn ban is in effect for the next 90 days. Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service also prohibited campfires in the LBJ National Grasslands until further notice, said Ranger Jim Crooks of the Decatur office.”

Source: Wise County Messenger Update, Wednesday, June 29, 2005
http://www.wcmessenger.com/

No definitive word yet on Montford’s annual fire work display, but the best bet is sundown in the usual place Saturday, July 2, 2005.

Don’t’ forget the Sandflat Fire Department Fundraiser, Saturday, July 2, 2005 at the Fire Hall from 4-6 PM.

North Side Marina Opens

North Side Marina, LLC announces the acquisition and opening of its new marina on Lake Bridgeport. Located on the north end of the lake in the Blockers Camp Development Area, the marina will feature gas, covered boat slip rentals, a ship’s store and furnished cabin rentals.

The Marina will be open for business beginning Saturday, July 2nd. Hours of operation are 10am-7pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays and 11am-6pm Monday through Thursday.

The ship’s store will offer snacks, drinks, fishing supplies, nautical decor, lake apparel, and much more.

The property will be undergoing renovation and refurbishing through out the remainder of the year. Full operation will begin spring ’06.

Marina address: 179 Private Road 1735 Chico, TX
Marina phone: 940-644-5475 (effective July 1, 2005)
Marina website: http://northsidemarina.net

For further information or inquiries, contact Jay Graver 972-679-6119.

Eminent Domain: No Home is Safe!

Will Texas Eminent Domain be added to the Current Texas Legislative Special Session?

Will Congress pass The Protection of Homes, Small Businesses, and Private Property Act of 2005, (just introduced in response to last week's 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London) by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.)?

For Details go to the Texas Homeowner Association News

THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND: Supreme Court justice faces boot from home?

Developer wants 'Lost Liberty Hotel' built upon property of David Souter
A private developer contacted the local government in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown in New Hampshire yesterday asking that the property of the judge – who voted in favor of a controversial decision allowing a city to take residents' homes for private development – be seized to make room for a new hotel. (Not a joke and maybe a great investment in serving justice to justices!!!)

For the rest of the article go to http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45029

National “Hands Off My Home” Campaign

“Tomorrow, we will announce a major national effort to combat eminent domain abuse at the local, state and national level. Through IJ’s (Institute for Justice) www.castlecoalition.org for ideas and insight on protecting your home, church and small business.”

To Keep Up with Breaking News concerning Eminent Domain Legislation and other Homeowner Property Rights Issues go to the Texas Homeowner Association News

2005-06-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

Archives and Links are still at the Bottom of This Page

Join Our Google groups for e-mail news updates. See button at the bottom of this page

Check Your Mineral Rights

“ROANOKE - When Ross Perot Jr. recently spoke to a civic group at Birdville High School, he advised his listeners to go home and check on the mineral rights on their land. . .

Economic studies peg the annual economic impact of drilling so far in Wise, Denton and Tarrant counties at $1 billion. . .

With their experience in energy, the Perots made sure they had the mineral rights when they put together the land package for the extensive Alliance development on the north edge of Fort Worth. . .”

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 7, 2005, “Down and Over” http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/11834021.htm

Use Those Orange Peels! (Organic insect repellant)

The oil extract from citrus peels contains two effective insecticidal compounds, d-limonene and linalool. D-Limonene destroys the wax coating of the insect's respiratory system.

Make citrus oil to keep aphids, white flies, fire ants and mosquitoes away! Soak the rinds of 2 orange peels in 1 gallon of water (closed) for about 10 days. Strain out the rinds/peels and store in mason jars until ready to use. If you will be applying to fire ant mounds, apply full strength. If spraying on plants, dilute 2 ounces of citrus oil with one gallon of water to avoid burning plants.

Alternate recipe: Chop up 3-4 orange peals and then put in a blender with a little water and liquify. Pour liquified orange peals into a large pan and fill 3/4 full with water. Bring water to a boil. Remove immediately and cover with a lid. Let cool for 24 hours. Stir mixture and add 2-3 cups of orange peal mixture to one gallon of water. Sprinkle this mixture around your beds and foundation.

Chop up orange peals and sprinkle around your flower beds or next to the foundation of your house. Ants and cats will go elsewhere.

To keep mosquitoes away rub the inside of an orange peel on face, arms and legs.

2005-05-28T00:42:00.000-05:00

Community Bulletin Board at Runaway Bay
Tops 100,000 Hits a Month Today!

Obviously, not just the folks at Runaway Bay are turning to the CBB for hot information!

The hot topic this week is the City of Runaway Bay Public Water System (PWS) sale of water to Grand Harbor. Seems like the folks at Runaway Bay are just discovering that they will be providing water to Grand Harbor and many are not sure it’s a good deal for their city.

Another issue brought up some time back on the CBB is the continuing issue of high levels of water contaminants brought about by the chlorination process that can lead to serious illnesses such as Primary Biliary Cirrhosis. According to the PBC Foundation, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) is a slow, chronic liver disease which can cause progressive destruction of the bile ducts in the liver and can lead to cirrhosis. In end-stage PBC, the person has severe liver failure, and transplantation will be considered.

New residents of Grand Harbor would do well to use a Reverse Osmosis filter on their drinking water to remove the contaminants.

See the permanent link to the Community Bulletin Board at Runaway Bay in the links at the bottom or this page.

Texas has highest foreclosure rate in Nation!!!

According to today’s Fort Worth Star Telegram, the “Dallas-Fort Worth area rate tops the nation's major metro areas. . . . In Texas, a home could legally be foreclosed in 21 days; in New York, a home might take more than a year to foreclose.”

Although the article does not address non-judicial foreclosures, (which take even less time), much of the statistics have to do with Texas HOAs and POAs ability to use non-judicial foreclosures when homeowners fail to pay their fines or assessments.

See this article and other important information for HOA/POA buyers in the Texas Homeowner Association News

2005-05-17T15:29:00.000-05:00

Lake Living at Its Finest???

So You Want to Live on Lake Bridgeport? But what if you can’t even go boating?

Buyer Beware: Read the CC&R’s before your buy!!!

Lake Bridgeport is 13,000 acres big. There’s plenty of room for many great, long boating excursions. So what’s the problem? The problem is that Lake Bridgeport is a very remote lake in the wilderness of rural Wise County, Texas. There is only one place to purchase gas on this lake, and its way down on the south side of the lake at Runaway Bay. The only other place to purchase gas was the marina on the NW side of the lake, which has been closed for some time and is currently up for sale. Oh well . . . gas purchased on this lake was never cheap!

Long-time residents of Lake Bridgeport know that the ability to keep and store a few cans of gas is essential if they want to enjoy any boating at all. So be very cautious about buying into highly restricted developments: HOAs, or POA’s. Some POA’s, such as Lake Bridgeport’s new upscale gated community Grand Harbor (way up river on the NW side of the lake), restrict resident’s right to store gas. One of the activities “especially prohibited” is the “Storage of flammable liquids in excess of five gallons.”

So how far do you think those five gallons will get your boat, not to mention your lawn mower and other maintenance equipment that you will need to maintain your 1-2 acre lot??? Of course, you could always boat the 20 minute trip completely across the lake to Runaway Bay for gas. Or you could drive the 40 minute round trip into Chico (the nearest gas station) for gas every hour or so. Not practical???

Now you might think that you can just ignore those restrictions, but think again. Violation of any restrictions results in fines and those are fines with interest. If you fail to pay your fine, your home and land is subject to non-judicial foreclosure.

But on the bright side, you can always decide to skip boating and just watch boats from your dock. Actually, you may not be watching many boats because you will probably be spending much of your time maintaining your dock. Some POA’s, such as Grand Harbor, will give you about 10 days before sending you a written notice of a maintenance violation. If the owner doesn’t fix the dock immediately, the POA has the right to come onto your dock and to get it repaired and charge the owner. Since the dock is secured by a Vendor’s Lien, failure to pay can result in having your home and land subject to non-judicial foreclosure.

Now anyone who has lived on wild and stormy Lake Bridgeport (in the heart of Tornado Alley) for any time knows that dock repair is a constant process and very hard to come by without a lengthy wait. After all, there are only one or two dock builders on this lake. Most long-time residents have learned how to make repairs themselves. But if you live in a POA, such as Grand Harbor, you won’t be able to do any kind of “homemade” type of dock. So if your POA has an approved list of contractors (a very, very short list no doubt), and most HOAs/POA’s do, that’s who you will have to wait for. In the mean time, just be prepared to eat all those fines! Or, if you can afford it, let your POA fix it for you.

Lessons learned:

Be cautious about buying into Resort Communities with boilerplate CC&R’s that were designed by urban developers for urban living when you live miles away from anything remotely URBAN!

Get a copy of the current CC&R’s long before you close!!! Go over them with a fine tooth comb and have your attorney go over them with you. You can also get a copy of the CC&R’s at the County Clerk’s office.

Evaluate just why you want to live on a lake. Your answers should direct you to the development that’s right for you.

Note to Long-time Residents: Please take pity on the “poor” fools who didn’t know what they were buying into. Most likely you are going to be towing many more stranded boaters!!!

2005-05-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

Before You Buy That Home . . .

Check out your Texas property rights, which are now in serious jeopardy. Visit the Texas Homeowner Association News

Houston Woman Loses $270,000 House Over $420 Bill
State Senator Wants To Outlaw Non-Judicial Foreclosures

Published by Click2Houston, May 4th, 2005

(She owned the house free and clear but the Briarhills Homeowner's Association sold it for only $1,600 after Bernhardt did not pay a $420. assessment fee! They say they mailed her the forclosure notices but she didn't even know about it until it was a done deal!)

Houston, TX -Excerpt from article

"Pamela Bernhardt owned a two-story, four-bedroom rental home with a swimming pool in the 14200 block of Swallowfield in southwest Houston. She just spent $48,000 renovating it." . . .

"The homeowner's association said it mailed several foreclosure notices to Bernhardt who owned the property clear of any liens." . . .

"The Briarhills Homeowners Association said it followed state property code, which did not require a judge or court action.

State Sen. Jon Lindsay wants to outlaw non-judicial foreclosures by homeowner associations. He wants to ensure all foreclosures go before a judge."

For the entire article go to click2houston

2005-05-02T16:42:00.000-05:00

Texas HOAs may soon have power to issue speeding tickets, sue and foreclose

Passage of HB 1770 will mean millions of dollars for Texas HOA lawyers and managers

On April 5, 2005. Texas House Representative Linda Harper Brown introduced a bill - HB 1770 , which if enacted, will mean millions of dollars for homeowner association foreclosure lawyers and other vendors.The bill gives Texas homeowner associations the power to issue speeding tickets , sue, foreclose on homes and ban homeowners from using the common areas..The bill is currently in the Texas House Business & Industry CommitteeTicketing for traffic rules brings in millions of dollars of steady revenue for local and state governments. The Newspaper.com , a website that tracks the politics and economics of driving, red lights and speed camera enforcement. reports that Washington, D.C. cameras have issued over 1.7 million tickets creating $105 million in revenue since 1999..
Texas Bill HB 1770 - A Bill To Fine , Sue, Foreclose and Ban Homeowners in Homeowner Associations for Speeding79R2822 KCR-DBy: Representative Linda Harper-Brown

To read the rest of this story and the bill go to http://texas.ahrc.com/

2005-04-29T17:07:00.000-05:00

Community Associations Institute Propaganda

Excerpt from article by Amy McCorkle entitled "Testimony on 4/26/05" concerning her testimony before the Texas House Business and Industry committee on 4/26/05

The CAI - Community Associations Institute propaganda would have you believe we are all deadbeats who would allow our property to fall apart and go to ruin if they weren't there to strong-arm and threaten us. I've never needed to be threatened to take care of my property before and I don't appreciate being threatened now. I pay a lot of money for my property, I'm sure not going to tear it up or let it run down. I don't need them to tell me when I need to mow the lawn, paint the house, repair the fence, etc... via threatening letter.

According to the CAI, all of our properties would have cars on blocks if they weren't there to tell us when we needed to mow our lawn, paint our house, repair the fence, etc... I don't know about you, but I have yet to see a car on blocks and I've lived in some pretty run down neighborhoods. Neighborhoods tend to run down because of low-income, people don't have the money to make the repairs. You'll notice the CAI is not in those neighborhoods. Nor do I see them pounding down the doors to get into the new low-income housing projects. They are entrenched in the new middle income communities where they can prey on people who are scared to lose their homes and pay up everytime they are told they have a 'violation'. Easy money. Extortion. The CAI's 'teeth', as Connie Heyer says. (Editor's Note: Connie Heyer is a paid lobbyist for the CAI)

I've been listening to the CAI during the legislative hearings. They keep claiming that 95% of people in HOA's are happy with the HOA's. If HOA's are so wonderful and people are so happy, then wouldn't you think they would be heavily advertised as wonderful places to live. Wouldn't you think they would be proud to disclose the fact you were moving into a HOA and all the wonderful benefits you get living there.

Then why is it I can't find any mention of HOA's in the real estate section of the newspaper? It's not advertised on TV. Why is it they slip the CCR's in at closing as part of the packet you didn't sign? If HOA's are so wonderful, why the deception? Why hide the information? If everyone truly wants to continue living in the HOA, then it should come up for a vote as soon as the developer turns the HOA over to the homeowners.

I can't find anyone in my HOA that is happy with it, in fact most people can't wait until it is dissolved. I don't hold out much hope of getting anything done with bills to help homeowners, so I will be concentrating most of my time and energy into getting rid of the HOA we were suckered into buying into.

Immediate compliance is expected, every violation received, regardless of the nature is allowed only 7 days for compliance. Perfection is expected at all times. Long vacations, illness, hospitalization, disability are not allowed.

APPEARANCE is EVERYTHING and most important.

The people approving the changes have no training or architectural background and yet these are the people making the decisions. Let's turn the 'management' of single family HOA's with no amenities or common areas back over to the cities and hire more people if needed.

Our property management company stands there watching the grass grow so they can fire off a violation letter the moment a weed pops up. The CCR's as written are so ambiguous, it's easy to make anything a violation.

The very least that should happen is that the full CCR's, every single page, should be disclosed BEFORE the contract is even signed. I would have run for the hills had I been presented with it before the contract was signed, instead of having the CCR's snuck into the paperwork handed to me at the title company as I was walking out the door, after all the paper work had been signed. How low and unethical.

Source: Texas Homeowner Association News

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2005-04-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

The HOA can easily FORECLOSE on your home

Excerpt from article by Amy McCorkle entitled "My First Annual HOA Meeting: What a Fiasco"

If the HOA becomes involved in a lawsuit EVERYONE in the HOA pays for that lawsuit. Lawsuits can build up to tens of thousands of dollars quickly. Do you really want to spend YOUR money on lawyers to sue someone over something as petty as a weed, or fence stain color, etc… Good luck trying to sell your house if the HOA is involved in a lawsuit.

Having a HOA is NO GUARANTEE that people will keep up their properties or not do anything outrageous. There are many HOA’s now that look worse than non-HOA communities. The city ordinances are there to keep the ‘cars off blocks and yards from becoming jungles’. The CITY will enforce those rules. Once again, do you really want to spend YOUR life savings to pay the HOA to sue someone to enforce the deed restrictions, when you can call the city and have them enforce the ordinances?

You have given up your property rights and have agreed to be governed by your neighbor in the form of a HOA. Do you really want your neighbors telling you what to do? What if you and your neighbors don’t agree on what color to stain a fence? Is it worth losing your home over, or your life savings?

Do you really want to spend the rest of your life paying $300 a year to landscape the front entrance and to force your neighbors to ‘comply’ through expensive lawsuits that YOU have to pay for?

Do you really want to have to ask permission of the HOA board when you want to do ANYTHING with your property? There is already selective enforcement going on and forcing someone to comply through expensive lawsuits will cause EVERYONE in the HOA to pay for that lawsuit. And who does the ‘board’ or ARC ask permission from when they want something done – no one! They can do what they want! And they get to dictate their personal tastes and opinions on you.

Do you want to continually live with the threat of having to pay for a lawsuit or face foreclosure? As long as we have the HOA, especially with an over-zealous board, this is a very real possibility.

Do you really want to pay extra for ‘deed restriction compliance’ when the city will do it for FREE? Your tax dollars are already paying for this service. We can turn over the ‘common areas’ for the city to maintain.

I don’t want to be micro-managed on my own property by my neighbors, do you?

Source: Texas Homeowner Association News

2005-04-18T16:45:00.000-05:00

Is a Gated Community for You?

Eight of ten new developments in the US are gated. Estimates indicate that as many as 7 million American households (or 6% of all US households) are in Gated Communities. This trend continues because far too many people fall in love with the dream without investigating the realities of life behind the gates. As more and more studies reveal the downside to fortress-mentality living, local governments are starting to take a new look and are enacting restrictions on these very restrictive communities.

Before you invest in life behind the gates, find out if it fits.

Is this you?

You like the sense of prestige a gated community provides.

You have several desires: (1) security (2) secure property values, (3) amenities, (4) low maintenance, (5) neighbors like yourself, and (6) a nice looking neighborhood.

You have a strong fear of crime and outsiders driving through your neighborhood are generally unwelcome. Safety and your need for a sense of security are much stronger than your need for freedom or individual self-expression.

When it comes to your neighborhood, you don’t like surprises. You like the idea of uniformity of rules and appearance in your neighborhood.

You have a reduced desire for social contact because you do not feel a larger identity with the region outside of your neighborhood.

You have a strong need for privacy.

You prefer to avoid conflict are not overly interested in getting too close to your immediate neighbors.

You prefer to live in a neighborhood of social and economic homogeneity – where everyone is at or near the same age, the same social-economic level, and there is little diversity.

You don’t mind that gated communities come with homeowners associations with strict covenants, contracts, and deed restrictions that regulate most aspects of your home and environment.

You are willing to be patient and are not too concerned about police, ambulance, or local fire departments response delays due to your remote location and/or gates.

You don’t mind that the homeowners’ association, in many cases, is responsible for services that the city or country would normally provide, such as streets, sidewalks and park maintenance.

You don‘t mind that the homeowners' association constitutes a private ''pseudo-government'' that often supplants many citizens’ homeowner rights and the services provided by surrounding local governments.

You don’t mind that, in most cases, there will be multiple liens attached to your home and land that come with duties and responsibilities to your gated community. If you default, you will be subject to fines (often with the highest interest rate the law allows) and, if you fail to pay, you can even have your home foreclosed.

You are financially prepared to pay ever escalating maintenance fees yearly in addition to your regular property taxes.

You are not concerned that children raised in gated communities may come to depend on walls and gates to feel safe.

You don’t mind that if you decide to sell your gated community home, some associations limit how a home may be marketed. (For example, 79% of home sales in upscale golf communities are sold by developers' in-house sales staff without using outside real estate agents.) In any case, agents will have difficulties marketing and showing the home or having an open house due to restrictions on signs and gate restrictions against open visitors.

Gated Community Facts

There is little evidence that gated communities are any safer than other communities. Gates only offer a perceived, or false, sense of safety. Some studies have found that gated communities actually increase fear. There’s also a side effect of gates. Gates present a concentration of wealth and actually create opportunities for crime. Because gated communities are no safer than other neighborhoods, residents of gated communities often become disillusioned with being overly insulated and restricted.

Are property values higher in gated communities? The jury is still out. When it comes to finding out about property values, most of the statistics gathered about community interest developments, including gated communities, have been compiled by self-interested trade groups that promote community interest associations, such as the Community Institute of America.

Residents of gated communities generally have a lower sense of community than residents in other communities and neighborhoods. Why? Gated communities usually generate a sense of exclusion and social segregation. Gated communities create an inward-focused community culture of self-interest which often generates tension between the community and surrounding neighborhoods and the larger community.

Problems and disputes with neighbors appeared in several studies of Gated Communities and general levels of neighborliness were perceived to be quite low.

There is the tendency of gated communities to act as predators of public resources to the exclusive use of the gated community residents.

Gated communities often incorporate as a city of their own (which acts as an extension of the Property Owners Association) in order to prevent a potential annexation by another and less affluent community looking for of an extended tax base.

As more and more gated communities withdraw from local services and vote to opt-out of local tax systems, state and local governments are now recognizing that these associations actually are “private local governments.” These private local governments are corporations where the Bill of Rights and other American public freedoms do not exist.

More and more cities and municipalities are now passing ordinances making it illegal to install a gate on any private road or on any private driveway. The most active opposition to gating comes from local fire departments worried about response delays. In addition, cities and municipalities are very concerned about street connectivity, the loss of open public space, and that gated communities, based on economic class, actually foster a sense of fear where crime is actually low. In Texas, SB 200 has been introduced this session to regulate vehicular or pedestrian gates.

Reading Resources:
· Behind the Gates: Life, Security and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America by Setha Low
· Privatopia : Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government by Evan McKenzie
· Building Suburbia : Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 by DOLORES HAYDEN
· Urban Enclaves : Identity and Place in America (Contemporary Social Issues) by Mark Abrahamson
· Edge City : Life on the New Frontier by JOEL GARREAU
· The Celebration Chronicles : Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town by ANDREW PHD ROSS

FYI: At least 50 million Americans now live in some kind of private government community interest association: a homeowners’ association, property owners’ association, condominium association, etc. As Samuel Adams put it, they “love wealth better than liberty” and the “tranquility of servitude.” But, what began as a way of ensuring property values has left little choice for those Americans who still place the highest value on our hard-won freedoms. The American dream of the property rights and privileges of homeownership is fast disappearing!

2005-04-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

New Update Notification System (trial)

Up until now, every update to the Lake Bridgeport Sandflat News came with an e-mail notification for our readers about once or twice a month. But lately, due to more and more spam and bulk mail filters, far too many notifications are bounced as undeliverable.

If you would like to be notified any time this page is updated, please scroll down to the end of this page and look for the Google Groups button to Subscribe to Lake Bridgeport News. You will also be able to browse the notification archives there as well. You can choose how to receive your notifications and you can always unsubscribe.

Wise County Flag???
Has anyone seen a picture of the official Wise County Flag? If you have seen it and can describe it, please contact Dave Pawson of County Flags of Texas
TexasCountyFlags@aol.com
http://hometown.aol.com/texascountyflags/texas.html

KCUB 98.3
“People to People” will remain on the air every Monday through Saturday, hosted by KBOC disc jockeys Miss Vicki on weekdays and Sally Lee on Saturday. Starting Monday the program will air from 9 to 11 a.m on KCUB 98.3 out of Stephenville.

Home For Sale
Copyright Ann Roth

HOME FOR SALE! A slice of the American dream. This one is a lovely single family detached home. No Homeowner Association (HOA). No gates. City amenities. Less liability. Your creativity welcome – so is your basketball hoop. This one is a Rare Gem!! Hurry - it won't last long!!The American Homeowner Resource Center in the late 90's was experiencing about 200-300 hits per month on their website. That figure has grown exponentially to upwards of 2.5 million hits per month. This is reflective of a public outcry over the abuses being inflicted upon homeowner association captives who were sold a bill of goods and unknowingly gave up their Constitutional protections in the process. When they thought they were buying a slice of the American Dream, they ended up in quite an Un-American nightmare, replete with little Commandos.

The traditional single family home without a homeowner association is a rare gem. Prospective homebuyers complain that in many cities like Irvine, California or Mesa, Arizona, it is increasingly difficult to find a No-HOA home. If they are available, they are usually located in older neighborhoods – which isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. Look at the older home as an artist's palette for your creativity.Prospective homebuyers need to begin thinking 'out of the box' and get away from the beige stucco boxes and red tile roofs marching in lock step conformity to an HOA Constitution. They are so conforming that people have pulled into the wrong driveway thinking it was their own. There is value in creativity and diversity - and that doesn't mean hanging blue mini-blinds in a window so you can tell which box belongs to you.In a homeowner association - gone are the days of deciding to pick up a pail of paint and repaint your trim or your fence on the spur of the moment, or planting a tree just because it's a beautiful day on your day off and you have time, or building a small fountain in your garden, or putting in a new basketball hoop or a swing set, or God forbid put in a new window or door, or start on that patio cover in the back yard.

Such mundane maintenance items or small time improvements require 'approval'. Not approval from the city. Approval from the homeowner association board of directors because the work must conform to your "HOA Constitution". It requires everybody's approval but your own. This 'approval' must come from your neighbors, then from your board of director neighbors, who passes it on to the sub-committee, who passes it on to the management company, who passes it on to the association attorney, who may modify your plan and then bill the homeowner association for his time.You resubmit the association attorney's modified plan and start the approval waiting game all over again. Hopefully, your board of neighbors doesn't decide to amend your "HOA Constitution" in the interim. When you finally get your final approval and have completed your project - don't be at all shocked if they decide that you are a shade off on the paintcolor, or several inches off on the height of the fence. Go back to "GO" and start all over again. If you don't conform you may be facing a fine.When everybody else finally gets around to deciding what is best for you, it may not be at a convenient time. Perhaps you have scheduled a surgery, or have just had a baby, or have gone out of town for an extended trip, or simply can't afford to do it that month. Too bad. If this 'approval' expires, go back to "GO" and start all over again.

The stress of being at the mercy of neighbors you don't know, or who don't know you, or don't like you, but have the power to control you, is not a healthy lifestyle; nor do you ever feel at home - in your own home.In this day and age of so much government intrusion into our personal lives, Americans desire to fiercely guard even simple freedoms and to have some semblance of control over their destiny. Eking out an existence in any homeowner association type housing is not conducive to those desires. The opportunity to buy into a slice of the American Dream may only come once in a lifetime for some. Make it count. Leave nothing to chance. Giving up control over likely the largest investment you will ever make is a bad idea. Think about it.....would you let just any stranger have control of your entire investment portfolio with nary a background check? Then why would you let someone do that with your home?

Source:
http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/editorial/action/ShowMedia/id/2146

Visit the Texas Homeowner Association News (American Homeowner Resource Center)
at http://www.texas.ahrc.com/

No Tax Breaks for HOA/POA Assessments and Co-op Dues

“While homeowners are eligible for many tax breaks, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) reminds them that they must bear some of the expenses. These include general closing costs and commissions paid to mortgage brokers and real estate agents as well as homeowner’s insurance or private mortgage insurance when buying, building or improving a personal residence.

You may not deduct homeowner association and co-op dues or local assessments that increase the value of your neighborhood, such as new sidewalks. Keep in mind, too, that the amount of your adjusted gross income can affect your ability to claim certain deductions.

If you have questions, consultation with a tax professional is highly recommended.

Source: David S. Jones, News Release, The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, March 2005, http://recenter.tamu.edu/

What is a Common Interest Development (CID)?

“Common interest housing includes planned developments of single family homes,
townhouses, and condominiums. These developments involve a form of ownership in which
home buyers purchase both an individual interest in a particular unit and another interest,
consisting often of streets, recreation centers, golf courses, and other facilities, which they own in common with all residents in the development. They buy their property subject to voluminous sets of deed restrictions, rules, and regulations, under which all owners agree to make monthly payments to a homeowner association, a private government into which all residents are enlisted at the moment of purchase. The association is run by the residents, supported by cadres of lawyers and other professionals, and it enforces the deed restrictions against all residents and manages the use of property and other aspects of life in the development. Increasingly, CID housing involves homeowner association-administered security measures, which typically include walls and gates, and may involve hiring guards and even private police forces. . . . The homeowner association is not a passing fashion but an important institution reflecting the ideological shift toward privatism . . .Institutions insinuate themselves into people’s lives, shaping the way they think and the choices they make. Mandatory membership homeowner associations induce people to identify with a small neighborhood of people with similar social and economic characteristics, either by cooperating with the association or by opposing it.”

Source: Evan McKenzie, Political Science Department, University of Illinois at Chicago,
“Private Gated Communities in the American Urban Fabric:
Emerging Trends in their Production, Practices, and Regulation”, September 2003,
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/cnrpapersword/gated/mckenzie.pdf

Putting Up The Gates – The New Segregation
Review of Book by Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder

“In their book, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States, published in October 1997 by the Brookings Institution Press, we question the ability of this increasingly pervasive design tool to meet its security goals and strengthen the sense of community in America. . . . Gates – along with fences, private security forces, "residents only" restrictions on public parks, policies to control the homeless, land use policies, large-lot zoning, and other planning tools – are part of a trend throughout the country to restrict or limit access to residential, commercial, and public areas. These turf wars, representing a retreat from the public realm, are a troubling trend. Gated communities are a dramatic manifestation of the fortress mentality growing in America. . . What is the measure of nationhood when the divisions between neighborhoods require security patrols and fencing to keep out other citizens? When public services and even local government are privatized, when the community of responsibility stops at the gates, the function and the very idea of democracy is threatened. Gates and barricades that separate people from one another also reduce people's potential to understand one another and commit to any common or collective purpose. In short, gates reduce the opportunity for social contact, and without social contact, this nation becomes less likely to fulfill its social contract.

Source: National Housing Institute: http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/93/gates.html

Texas Population Could More Than Double by 2040!!!

“All scenarios point to a substantial Texas population boom. The state had 20.9 million residents in 2000; in 2040, it will be home to between 35.8 and 45.4 million. That is a jump of between 71.5 and 118 percent. Any way it's calculated, Texas faces a staggering population gain. . . . The Dallas metro area had roughly 5.2 million people living in it during 2000. State Data Center scenarios point to the area's population surging to between 10.1 and 15.9 million by 20 . . . Tarrant County is expected to grow from 1.4 million to between 2.4 and 3.8 million. Collin County will see its 2000 population of 592,000 swell to between 1.4 and 3.4 million.”

Source: Steve H. Murdock, Tierra Grande: The Journal of the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, October, 2004)
The Texas Real Estate Center
http://recenter.tamu.edu/

Starter homes’ fuel explosive growth

Wise County Messenger, Published Sunday, April 10, 2005
By Brian Knox

“If real estate agents who attended Thursday’s conference at Northwest had any doubts before about the residential and economic growth potential of the area, they shouldn’t be doubting anymore. A demographer and the president of Hillwood Properties explained the explosive growth the Northwest area has seen and how it should continue in the future. . .”

For the Rest of the Story go to http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Starterhomesfuelexplosiveg.shtml

Texas Real Estate Confidence Down

The latest Texas Real Estate Confidence Index (TRECI) is .54, or slightly better than neutral. It is down slightly (.01) from the fourth quarter survey but up a bit (.02) from the survey done one year ago.

Source: Texas Real Estate Confidence Index (March, 2005) http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_24122.shtml

Citizens begin crafting a vision for the future

Wise County Messenger, Published Sunday, April 10, 2005
By Skip Nichols

Excerpt:

“More than 50 residents began the difficult task of molding the future of Wise County in the historic courthouse Thursday night in Decatur.The residents – including old-timers and newcomers – were volunteers and commissioner appointees for the Wise County Citizens Planning Committee. Their first official act: election of three officers and two at-large board members. . .”

The group elected Jim Joling of Boyd as chairperson. Joling said he would serve one year. . . Other sub-committee chairs named at Thursday’s meetings included Jerry Frank of Aurora for infrastructure; Kim Tinkham of Boyd for youth services; Mike Georgia of Rhome for environment; J.K. Miller of Decatur for housing development; and Charles “Doc” Cocanougher of Decatur for industrial development. . . . Fletcher, an agribusinessman and Slidell school board president, said that most good plans are dreams. A native of Wise County, he said protection of ground water is vital. He also emphasized the importance of having a good cross-section of residents to take part in the planning.

“The most important thing we can do for the future of Wise County is to have a long-range plan,” he concluded.Joling said he would do everything possible to publicize meetings so that citizens can continue to participate.”"

For the entire story go to http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Citizensbegincraftingavisi.shtml

Fewer Condemnation Protections for Texas Homeowners

On July 2, 2004, the Texas Supreme Court decided Hubenak v. San Jacinto Gas Transmission Co. and removed several key restraints in the condemnation process that were favorable to landowners.

The Texas Supreme Court greatly diminished the protection afforded landowners in condemnation cases by eliminating the condemnors’ duty to make a bona fide attempt to purchase the property and to negotiate in good faith. Likewise, conferring jurisdictionon the courts when these two requirements are not satisfied leaves landowners with no option but to appear before the special commissioners to protest an
inadequate offer.

For more information on condemnation,
see “Understanding the Condemnation
Process in Texas,” at The Texas Real Estate Center
http://recenter.tamu.edu/

Texas Foreclosures Growing!

“NORTH TEXAS (DallasNews.com) – Of the almost 84,000 single-family homes and condominiums that were sold in North Texas in 2004, 13,049 later became foreclosures sold at auction, according to a study by Foreclosure Listing Service. In the four-county area, including Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties, foreclosed homes had an average debt nearing $146,000.

“There are so many of these houses on the market that we now have three or four agents who do nothing but foreclosure sales,” said Bill Sabino of Re/Max Premier Group Realtors.

About 1,000 of the 13,049 homes were sold directly to investors at auction, and the rest were listed for resale by lenders. Although fewer than 2,000 foreclosed homes in North Texas are posted in the Multiple Listing Service, area agents estimate the number of actual foreclosed homes to be many times higher.

Because foreclosed properties aren’t a rarity anymore, Connie Zetterlund of Coldwell Banker Residential says that getting these homes for a steal is out of the question. “People think they can offer whatever they want for a foreclosure and they will get it — that is not happening.””

Source:
http://ntreisnews.ntreis.net/DispArticle.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=8439

Mortgage Loan Applications Down

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (mbaa.org) — Mortgage loan application volume dropped 9.2 percent this week and is down more than 39 percent compared with the same week one year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey. The purchase index declined 3.5 percent and the refinance index declined 16.5 percent from one week earlier.
"The increase in mortgage rates has reduced application activity across the board, particularly for refinances. Refinance applications are down more than 60 percent relative to this time last year," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's senior director of single family research and economics."

Source:
http://ntreisnews.ntreis.net/DispArticle.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=8440

Predatory Loan Practices Include:

Balloon payments that require borrowers to pay off the entire balance of a loan by making a substantial payment after a period of time during which they have been making regular monthly payments;
Required single premium credit life insurance, where the borrower must pay the entire annual premium at the beginning of the policy period rather than in monthly or quarterly payments. (With this cost folded into the loan, the total costs, including interest payments, are higher throughout the life of the loan);
Homeowners insurance where the lender requires the borrower to pay for a policy selected by the lender;
High pre-payment penalties that trap borrowers in the loans;
Fees for services that may or may not actually be provided;
Loans based on the value of the property with no regard for the borrower’s ability to make payments;
Loan flipping, whereby lenders use deceptive and high-pressure tactics resulting in the frequent refinancing of loans with additional fees added each time;
Negatively amortized loans and loans for more than the value of the home, which result in the borrower owing more money at the end of the loan period than when they started making payments.

Source: Predatory Lending: Redlining in Reverse, By Gregory D. Squires
http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/139/redlining.html

2005-04-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

Grand Harbor PR

Copies of the extensive and very restrictive CC&R’s are now available. In addition GH is sending out an Aerial photo to perspective buyers, as well as an artist rendition of the gated entrance.

GH will have central water; underground utilities, a Community Park and private boat ramp.

Contact Grand Harbor at 940-683-8331

Gated Communities, HOAs and POAs

Before investing in any highly restricted community it’s important to learn about the rules - the CC&R’s (Codes, Conditions, and Restrictions) that will guide and dominate your life. Visit Texas Homeowner Association News
http://texas.ahrc.com/

Next Saturday (April 9th) Annual Lake Clean-Up Day

Crews will get together early in the morning around 8-8:30 AM. To sign up contact the water board at 683-2349. You can pick up tee shirts, pick-up bags, a vest, cloves, and reflectors at the Damn. There will be a dumpster at the Fire Hall.

Wise County Planning Committee

The Wise County Planning Committee will meet on April 7 at 7 p.m. in the district courtroom in Decatur. The meeting is open to the public, which is invited to participate. Jim Joling is serving as interim chairman of the group.

For more information on the meeting, residents can call Joling at (940) 433-3729. Joling can also be reached via e-mail at jim@brayerhill.com

KBOC Signs Off But “People to People” to Stay!

The new owners of the radio station have agreed to interrupt their all-Spanish format to broadcast People to People every Monday through Saturday from 8 until 10 a.m. The segment will be hosted on weekdays by Miss Vicki and on weekends by Sally Lee.

2005-03-14T12:21:00.000-06:00

Wise County to Resemble Plano!!!
Harvard’s 2nd Study of Wise County Revealed

Excerpt for the Wise County Messenger
Published Sunday, March 13, 2005

“Wise Growth – Embracing the Future Today” was summarized by Peiser before civic leaders participating in discussions on subdivision ordinances and drilling procedures; economic development; and the LBJ National Grasslands and a county-wide trail system.”

Peiser said that Wise County is now on the leading edge of development. He predicted that Wise County will be “developed out” in 50 years. The professor said Wise County will ultimately resemble Plano and other Metroplex suburbs in density.”

“He noted that Wise County faces a difficult task because of a lack of authority to control development.” The Wise Growth study noted in its executive summary that the county “must choose now to make open space conservation and habitat preservation a priority.” The county must also “take steps to encourage development that is dense enough to accommodate both future growth and the preservation of important lands,” it said.”

"The Wise Growth study noted in its executive summary that the county “must choose now to make open space conservation and habitat preservation a priority.” The county must also “take steps to encourage development that is dense enough to accommodate both future growth and the preservation of important lands,” it said.”

“Among the county’s goals should be the will to preserve valuable lands while leveraging them to create even more value in surrounding areas.”

To read the rest of the article go to
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/HarvardstudyEmbracethefutu.shtml

Speaking of Wise County’s lack of will, authority, or control . . .

Cruel Irony?

When some visitors recently went up to view Grand Harbor at Lake Bridgeport they met a sales person who showed them around the land and gave them a brochure. While talking about the advantages of buying in Grand Harbor the salesperson pointed out across the river and said, “A lot of people don’t know this but all that land across the way belongs to the Boy Scouts. It will always look like that. It will never be sold.”

A true account!!!

Cooperation is key for subdivisions and drilling

Excerpt from Wise County Messenger
Published Sunday, March 13, 2005

“Cooperation and predictability were the key words thrown out by industry, developers and lawyers during two one-hour sessions on subdivisions and drilling at Thursday’s Wise County Long-Term Planning Symposium at the Decatur Civic Center.”

“Frank said he had read through the Wise County subdivision regulations and “there is nothing – nothing – on oil and gas wells” in the two-inch thick document.”

The Skinny:
Get county commissioners to take authority and get developers and oil companies to cooperate and guess what? Land values will dramatically go up!

To read the rest of the article go to
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Cooperationiskeyforsubdivi.shtml

Sowell Named Editor of the Texas Homeowner Association News

The power of the homeowner voice received fresh confirmation in January when it was announced that the American Homeowners Resource Center website was named #1 by Google for homeowner associations. This singular honor is due in no small measure to the tireless efforts of countless homeowners around the country, and around the world, who refused to let their voices be squelched.

The primary driving force behind the American Homeowners Resource Center (AHRC) is a national and international grassroots network of homeowners working together to protect their homes. Homeowners can publish news and keep abreast of developments dealing with housing, personal finance, and products and services for home and family.

Here are some of the reasons that the AHRC has reached #1:

-Homeowners can track pending legislation that affects their homes.
-Homeowners can find yellow pages, recommendations, and claims about home products and their vendors.
-Ideas can be swapped in community discussion rooms.
-Before you buy, hire, or elect check out complaints and the Peoples Hall of Shame.
-The lawsuit industry is the fastest growing American industry.

In addition:

-You can tract significant court decisions that affect the American home – especially those that threaten the rights of American homeowners
-Explore a national network of advocacy sites

This month the AHRC launched the Texas Homeowners Association News web site at http://texas.ahrc.com/

I’m honored to be the editor of Texas AHRC and I’m delighted to join the AHRC team, worldwide, who have worked and networked endlessly to bring much needed freedom and reform to homeownership.

The Texas Homeowners Association News is an interactive, publishing and networking news and educational website by Texas homeowners for homeowners. Please visit our web page where you can access all the Texas Homeowner Association news. You can also create your own blog and publish news and articles as well. You can also join the Texas Homeowner Association News Forum and access it from the AHRC web site or from the Texas Homeowner Association News web page.

Barbara Sowell

Editor
Texas Homeowner Association News

AHRC Press Release
http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/pressrel/action/ShowMedia/id/2063

2005-03-13T08:21:00.000-06:00

Two Sport Ports For Sale

We have 2 Sport Ports drive on docks for sale. $1800.00 for the pair with most hardware. 1 year old.

Overton’s price is $1219.99 each plus 334.00 shipping for pair. Tax and hardware on top of that.

Price is firm.

Call Craig or Barbara Tuggle
940-644-2772

(Editor's Note: This is a free ad because we are all neighbors helping neighbors.)

2005-03-06T05:35:00.000-06:00

Se Habla Espanol? -KBOC Sold

KBOC was sold to Z-Spanish that will maintain the 98.3 mHz frequency. A new 2,00 foot tower will host the station’s antennae and other FM stations on these frequencies: 93.7, 96.7, 101.7, and 106.7

For the rest of the story you’ll have to pick up a copy of The Bridgeport Index Thursday, March 3, 2005.

Rumor Has It That . . .

Our County Commissioners are now on a 4 day work week. Could that be true?

Fish Safe

Before you bait up check out The Texas Department of Health Services Aquatic Life Map athttp://www.tdh.state.tx.us/bfds/ssd/map/default.htm

The Skinny: Lake Bridgeport looks fine so far. But here are plenty of advisories in Tarrant County. All of Lake Worth is under and advisory for PCBs. No fish is to be consumed. The Trinity River from downtown Fort Worth downstream to Kaufman and Ellis counties are Prohibited. That means PCB, Chlordane, and DDE contamination. Persons are prohibited from processing any fish from this area.

Land and Homeownership News. . .

Before Purchasing A Home

Over 90% of new homes built in the last ten years have been in Property Owner Association or Home Owner Association developments. POAs and HOAs have the built in lien capability to foreclose on your home without even having to go to court. It’s called non-judicial foreclosure.

According to the Texas Property Code

“You are obligated to pay assessments to the property owners' association. The amount of the assessments is subject to change. Your failure to pay the assessments could result in a lien on and the foreclosure of your property.”

"All sellers are required to disclose Homeowners' Association fees or assessments."

So, demand to see a copy of the Codes, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&Rs) before purchasing. (Some Texas POA CC&R’s can run on for over 100 pages.) Never-the less, read them very, very carefully. They will be your homeownership Bible. Copies of the restrictive covenants and dedicatory instrument may also be obtained from the county clerk.

Texas Property Code
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pr.toc.htm

Foreclosure Warnings from the Texas Attorney General

Foreclosure lists are easily accessible to unscrupulous people making claims to "save your home." Then desperate homeowners unwittingly sign over their deeds to these folks.

If you are facing a foreclosure, the attorney general recommends contacting a housing counseling agency approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Call (800) 569-4287, or visit

www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm

Septic Permit Woes

“What if you bought land in Wise County, built a house and then found out you couldn’t get a septic tank permit?”

The Skinny: Don’t buy a parcel of land and then build a house without first finding out if the seller has platted it according to state and county’s rules.

Full Article link:
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Homeownercatchesabreakwith.shtml

Outdoor Controlled Burning Rules

Excerpt from Wise County Messenger article “Restrictions limit controlled fires to daytime” Published Sunday, February 27, 2005

"You can’t burn until one hour after sunup and you can have no active flame one hour before sundown”
. . . it is OK for a fire to be smoldering after sunset, as long as someone is present.”

It is still legal to burn off fields, although certain guidelines must be followed. Among the general rules for outdoor burning are the following:

-begin or continue burning only in conditions that will not present a hazard to any public road, landing strip or navigable water or have an adverse effect on any home or business;

- keep fires downwind of or at least 300 feet away from any neighboring structures;- always have someone present when burning and;

- don’t burn any electrical insulation, treated lumber, plastics, potentially explosive materials, chemical wastes or items that contain natural or synthetic rubber

-if you do plan on doing a controlled burn, call the sheriff’s office, (940) 627-5971, to let them know before you start the fire."

"Other rules on outdoor burning can be found on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Web site, http://www.tceq.org/, on the Internet. You can also reach Cunningham on his cell phone, (940) 393-9807.”

Full Article Link:
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Timetoburn.shtml

More Local Info . . .

Longhorn Council Still Advertising “Our” 19 Miles of Shoreline

“BSA High Adventure at its finest! Chisholm Trail is Texas High Adventure - a unique and unforgettable high adventure for older youth and adults. It's a backpacking program with boats instead of boots. You get a pontoon boat for a week to travel to the high adventure outposts and watersports bases on our 19 miles of Lake Bridgeport shoreline!”

The Skinny: When the BSA sells off about 8.5 miles of shoreline because it’s too remote and “underused”, is it still high adventure?
http://www.longhorncouncil.org/high_adventure_programs/default.htm

Runaway Bay Community Bulletin Board and Chat is back online.

This is a great place to learn the skinny on Runaway Bay politics. Thanks, Mary Ann, for getting back online with this vital source for community feedback! It’s much more eye-friendly than the new blackened background of the NTWS Message board.
http://runawaybay.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/faq.php

Devon to Build New Local Office

“Devon Energy is reportedly still in the market for a site for its recently announced office complex to be built in Bridgeport.

The Skinny: It will be easier to get some answers concerning oil/gas wells if they have an office in Bridgeport.

Full Article link:
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbindata/news/news/Devonstilllookingatland.shtml

Grand Harbor Water

Runaway council approved this in February

“- approved a contract amendment with Tarrant Regional Water District to increase the lake volume and buy-in premium of $139,410 to be paid by Grand Harbor, the development on former Boy Scout property.”

The Skinny: How much will the POA water assessments cost GH homeowners?

Full Article Link
http://www.wcmessenger.com/newsbin/news/viewnews.cgi?id=EEplAAZFFEchYLuvfu

Interesting Local or Nearby Web Sites

Weird Wise County History
Aurora Texas UFO Crash of 1897
http://www.katmax.tv/Aurora%20TX%20file/aurora_files.htm

Lake Bridgeport Fossils
http://www.dallaspaleo.org/news/occ_vol6.htm

Granbury Lake Cam
http://www.lesdiefenbach.org/images/lakecam/

Note: Links and Archives are still at the bottom of this page. Just scroll all the way to the end.

2005-02-11T10:29:00.000-06:00

Where Have I Been? – I’ve Gone To The Dogs . . .

Many apologies for my laxity in keeping up this web page . . . My writing efforts have gone to two primary causes during the past two months. (1) Animals - specifically, my Mom’s dog, Lucky, who needs to find an adoptive home fast. (2) The American Homeowners Resource Center, where you can find some of my articles dealing with proposed Community Interest Development legislation (HOAs ,POAs, and all Community Interest Developments) in the current Texas Legislature. See the permanent link to AHRC on the left in the Links area.

Helping Homeless Animals

In my daily efforts to secure an adoptive home for my Mom’s companion dog, Lucky, I’ve contacted hundreds of shelters and rescue groups. This has been a frustrating yet heartwarming experience. I’ve received numerous responses and calls from many warm and selfless people. They have offered advice, additional resources, and have even cross-listed Lucky’ story on their own web pages. Read Lucky’s story at http://adoptlucky.blogspot.com/

One of the best, and most helpful, resources I’ve discovered is Best Friends Animal Society. They were kind enough to send out an e-mail alert about Lucky to all of their regional members. They have also put out a very informative guide, How to Find Homes For Homeless Pets. This is a pdf file so it takes a little time to open. You will find great info in this guide and even a sample adoption form. Go to http://www.bestfriends.org/nomorehomelesspets/pdf/howtofindhomesforpets.pdf

You can join the Best Friends Network and learn how to help homeless animals locally.
http://www.bestfriends.org/

No, Lucky hasn’t been adopted yet. One woman wanted to adopt him. She had a nice back yard, but her landlord said “No Dogs.” If you’d like to help Lucky find a home, just forward a link to his web page when you are sending out your e-mails. Go to http://adoptlucky.blogspot.com/

Media Catching On About Out of Control HOAs and POAs

Over the past few months more and more national and local news sources have begun to look into the issue of oppressive HOAs and POAs.

This is the latest from WFAA’s Gary Reaves. Here’s an excerpt from his article, “Homeowners fight HOA foreclosures”

“Every year, thousands of Texans buy homes in neighborhoods where they are required to join a homeowners’ association.

What many don’t know is some of those associations are so powerful, they can seize a home without so much as a single hearing in court. . .”

“Attorney Ben Chapelle is selling a house that’s being seized and sold by the homeowners’ association of a development called The Country Place, because the home’s owner owes $3,000 in dues and late fees.

Just like that, a $140,000 home sold for $10,000. The owner didn’t even know until News 8 told him. . .”

“He also didn’t understand that documents thousands of Texans sign at closing allow homeowners’ associations to take the house for unpaid dues. . .”

“Somebody told me the other day that homeowners’ associations have more power than God,” Bob said. “I believe them now.” . . . (Emphasis added)

This article can be read in its entirety at http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa050208_am_foreclosure.8bf26f4b.html

Note: POAs operate in much the same way as HOAs and can also foreclose without due process! It’s called Non-judicial foreclosure.

Texas Senator Introduces Bill To Outlaw Foreclosures in Certain Circumstances.

Read about this proposed legislation at
http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/legis/action/ShowMedia/id/1972

Not Concerned About Texas’ HOAs/POAs?

Ok, so most of us here in Sandflat don’t live in HOA developments. We can thank our lucky stars for that. As a matter of fact, I recently read an article that predicts that non-HOA housing will be in greater demand as more and more Americans realize the loss of property rights involved in living in HOAs or POAs.

Many of us have adult children who are now in the housing market. We can make the effort to help our own children learn about the pitfalls of Community Interest Development living.

Go to this article "Contact Your Texas Legislators Now" At the end are links to help you find your legislators. http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/article/action/ShowMedia/id/1917

Signs of the Times

The big red Grand Harbor signs have given me at least one advantage. I no longer have to go into long detained explanations listing every twist, turn, and county road when giving directions. I can say, “Just follow the big red signs.”

On my way out Wednesday morning, I encountered a long line of massive trucks on their way into Grand Harbor. Some of them were nice enough to keep to their side of the road.

Please remember to drive slowly and stay to your side of the road. You just never know what lies ahead on the many blind turns here.

2005-01-10T23:32:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

We're off to a great start with an almost full, but still muddy, lake. See the lake level graph below. Don't forget that you can check hourly lake levels on the Current Lake Level link to the left.

2005-01-10T11:31:00.000-06:00

Submitted by Dwight Huffman

2004-12-21T07:30:00.000-06:00

Graphic published in the WCM Sunday December 19th. WCM legend error. Please note that the orange area is the BSA land that was sold to Femrite.