Spending spree
The day of this letter is April Fools Day but it now seems everyday is fools day. As we see not only our elected national leaders but also our local leaders spending tax dollars like the proverbial “drunken sailors.” I have no official standing or documents to make these charges but I know one thing for sure,
1. You cannot borrow yourself out of debt or
2. Spend your way to prosperity!
You can make a bad situation a lot worse, losing friendships and leaving debts to future payers. As we speak,the national economy is in near meltdown over this virus pandemic. Some say it was caused by China. Some say it is divine punishment for past behaviors. If the latter is true, no amount of masks or social distance will prevail.
Looking at the latest action by our local bodies of spending $1.5 million dollars of taxes for raw and undeveloped land for an industrial park seems to be very foolish. The reason being it is adjoining an existing industrial park (TexAmericas) with thousands of acres and hundreds of existing buildings. The first logical question is this: “Will this new endeavor compete or cooperate with the BRAC park (TexAmericas)?” One can only hope it will not become an immediate “clear cut” eyesore akin to a war zone like the original operation of this BRAC site.
Not to be skeptical or crass, but the public has justification to ask and expect answers on these endeavors. The present BRAC park (TexAmericas) and others nationwide was created to provide jobs to replace the ones lost by base closures. The question we now have is “how many of the present jobs are non-defense related?” We see news releases of companies locating here with premium pay jobs but never seem to materialize, such as R-2 Oil near Hooks and Frozen Food Distribution. I am very sure the operators of this site are very aggressive and very professional but they face some huge obstacles. The EPA cleanup of sites operated as ammunition production and storage facilities; the buildings are 80 years old and hard to accommodate the modern industrial needs.
I personally spend nearly 40 years working at this site and have worked on or been in the vast majority. When I see news of millions of dollars spent on retrofitting one thing comes to mind, “shoeing a dead horse.” I hope I am wrong! And I apologize if I am.
Chester Pinkham New Boston, Texas