Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Timing is everything
Well, the Carpenter team has managed to score yet another chance to present their well-worn arguments in an unchallenged format. Their first opportunity was the infamous April 2009 presentation at the Bastrop County Commissioners Court. When the opposition asked to be heard, they were promised an opportunity in some nebulous future that never materialized. We are still waiting. Now we have requested equal time at the Advertiser. It looks like that’s not going to happen either.
Everything in Mr. Reid’s infomercial has been debunked repeatedly by well-informed citizens so no need to do that again.
In addition to the sheer size and intensity, the most obvious aspect of Mr. Reid’s spiel is the timing which makes it appear to be more an act of desperation than any thing else.
As readers of this blog are aware, on March 25, a permit application was submitted to the US Army Corps of Engineers for work on the proposed Central Texas Airport. Thanks to Tom Thompson’s vigilance, we all knew about it on the day it was posted.
However, the Bastrop County Planning Department kept it quietly tucked away and under wraps for nearly two weeks. We were also told the County had no plans to submit comments on the application. Outrageous!
Interestingly, neither the Commissioners nor the Judge had been informed that the permit application even existed until StopCTA let the cat out of the bag. Copies of the document were immediately distributed to all concerned.
At the Court session on April 11th, StopCTA challenged the Court to defend the public’s interest by submitting CRITICAL comments to both the USACE and the TCEQ. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.
At the next Court session on April 25th, The Commissioners agreed not only to submit comments but we were under the impression that those comments would include information that could make the approval process more troublesome for the proposed CTA.
In addition to the Court, StopCTA has been networking to get word out to all stakeholders in the County’s future none of whom were aware of the permit application. So now comments seriously challenging every aspect of the application are flowing in to the regulatory agencies.
The Carpenter crew and their friends in the Planning Department might have thought this was going to be a slam-dunk but watchful citizens and other entities aren’t going to let that happen.
Note that none of the above events were considered to be newsworthy by the Bastrop Advertiser.
