Collect Call from District 4 - Fort Worth

After the post concerning Danny Scarth (credit belongs to the Fort Worth Weekly, we just share the word) we received an email from one of his constituents.

Seems the voters don't like being sold down the river.  Or to the gas drillers, whatever the case may be. 

They ask good questions too - WHY didn't anyone know before the election?  Welcome to the team, Mallard Cove Resident.

Another neighborhood needs help.  They probably thought it couldn't happen to them either.  WHO's next?  YOU?

Dear Editor,

I am so happy to read your website which uncovers what Danny Scarth has done and I am so regretted about not reading it before the election. He is now our District 4 councilman and he is very likely to vote yes on building a large scale gas compressor station right next to our Mallard Cove neighborhood at Randol Mill Road in Fort Worth. I feel so unfortunate that our district representative does not represent us.

Barnett Shale will hold a open house meeting on Sept 27 (Tue) from 6 to 7:30pm at Comfort Suites Hotel (643 Northeast Loop 820, Fort Worth, TX 76118).

Zoning Commission Hearing will be held on Oct 12 (Wed) at 10am at FW Council Chambers at City Hall.

City Council Meeting will be held on Nov 1 (Tue) at 7pm at City Hall.

I hope your team will cover this matter and stop greedy council men from destroying the Fort Worth.

Mallard Cove Resident

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Again?!

Fort Worth, City Council, taxes, Danny Scarth...

The same council member who's son was wrapped up in a conflict of interest/ethics last year. 

Read about the latest in the Fort Worth Weekly.  Don't miss the comments from the readers.  Seems Lone Star isn't the only one thinking the FBI should come visit Cowtown.

So boys, what's it going to take?

But afterward, Scarth wasn’t so eloquent — and not nearly as long-winded — when Weekly muckraker Jeff Prince asked him about the $2,632 in overdue property taxes that the elected official owes. The sum represents about $2,017 in unpaid taxes from 2010, plus $614 in late charges.

The conversation went like this:

Prince: Why do you owe unpaid taxes?

Scarth: Just do.

Prince: Do you plan on paying them?

Scarth: Yes.

Prince: Do you have a plan in mind?

Scarth: Sure do. Thank you.

Scarth then rolled away in his wheelchair before Prince could ask his last question: Should an elected city official be behind on his taxes?

So the reporter instead posed the question to Peter Fletcher, an Eastside resident who lives in Scarth’s district. Fletcher thinks it’s “a shame” that someone who’s helping balance the city budget can’t or won’t pay taxes (this isn’t the first time Scarth has let his tax bill go overdue).

“He seems to have done this sort of thing a good deal over the years,” Fletcher said. “This raises the question, how he can be expected to be involved in ‘leading the city’ in regard to the city budget and other fiscal matters? In just three months he has added 30.47 percent to the amount he owes. No wonder little gets done for District 4 if he can’t get his taxes paid.”

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Councils say the darndest things...

Critics have said for years, if it looks likes a tax, it's a tax.  Regardless if you call it a fee.

Now, some council members have caught up to saying the same thing. 

Some council members are asking how we got here.  We have been asking them the same thing for years, remember they have been driving the bus.

Critics have long said our infrastructure needs are being ignored.  Is the Fort Worth council finally waking up as it continues to crumble around them?

Critics have also said we shouldn't build things we couldn't pay for.  Sounds simple, right?  Council members have now pushed the Cultural District parking garage hike off till next year. 

Read about all of it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford not to.

Council members said officials clearly need to find a way to fund all of the city's growing infrastructure needs, but they can't consider any new fees until the city delivers on road projects that are years behind schedule.

Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks said the transportation fee, which would have added $5.90 to a single-family residence's monthly water bill, would be another form of taxation. "We're not calling it a tax, but it is," Hicks said.

Almost all the council members agreed on setting aside the fee, but Sal Espino said the council must have "a frank discussion on how we got here." He said the city cannot continue to ignore its projected 10-year transportation funding gap of $1 billion.

"We are in an infrastructure crisis in our city," Espino said.

Mayor Betsy Price said the fee can be shelved for now and reconsidered again if the city gets its expenses under control and finishes the delayed road projects that have been promised for years.

"It is time to stop the excuses and build the road," Councilman Jungus Jordan said.

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Saltwater Disposal Hell

Oops, Well.  The word is well.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on the city council meeting about extending the moratorium for Saltwater disposal wells in Fort Worth for gas drilling. 

Since 2002, urban gas drilling has seeped into almost every corner of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding counties to the north, south and west. But we still don't have a good way to deal with the 3.5 million gallons or so of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing at each of those wells or the "produced water" that comes up out of the hole afterward.

The standard way is to inject it back into another hole dug into a formation even deeper than the mile-deep, gas-rich Barnett Shale. But some people call that pollution -- gas well wastewater has a salt content about three times that of seawater. Some scientists have even blamed deep injection wells for minor earthquakes in North Texas.

Our favorite part of the report?  A comment from a citizen living near a drill site.  

I married a Texan, moved here a few years ago. I have a BS degree in zoology and a certificate in Environmental Engineering Technology. I come from Alberta, known for natural gas drilling as well as oil patch drilling. What I have seen here is a joke, an environmental disaster.

They put a well in right at the edge of our property, 5 1/2 acres south of Fort Worth. I have been watching the construction, drilling and operation. Of course we get money from the company, very little actually. It is not even worth the smell, noise and damage they have done to our land. After everyone from Mansfield ISD to Tarrant County take their cuts, we get pocket change. Now we have bottom feeding lawyers and ambulance chasers sending us collection notices on taxes from every Tom, Dick and Harry out there that wants a cut.

I watched the construction and they took about every big shortcut they could. There is NO Environmental oversight what so ever. During the injection, they built a large Tailing Pond at the edge of our property. They did not use a liner, not bentonite nor plastic, in it's construction. The water was dumped in there to soak into the soil and evaporate. Afterwards it has been filled in, to hide the evidence I would guess. We have lost over 25 old growth oak trees in the space of 1 1/2 years. They have poisoned our ground water.

The fracing does occur too deep to affect the trees, that part is true. But when you do not line a tailing pond you will taint the ground water available to the plant life.

It would cost thousands to prove it, so why worry for the companies.

They are not paying the $$ to the little guys when they disrupt your life, destroy your peace and quiet and kill your trees. Where is the money going? I would look in government. Crooked bunch do nothing reprobates. Oh wait here comes another tax notice.

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Keller Citizens Catching On

Due to KISD wanting to raise taxes, citizens have taken to the web.  Check out their site, lots of good info.  Watch their Youtube video and VOTE SATURDAY!!!

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