Friday, July 14, 2006

Isla Blanca Saved!

This just in: yesterday the Cameron County Commissioners voted to prohibit any development on Isla Blance Park. We're not out of the woods yet ... but thanks to all those who supported saving Isla Blanca.

5 comments:

~Melissa said...

Right On!!!!

Anonymous said...

I still do not understand how the County Court threw out the contract. I know they have already gotten " rent" payments from the developer. LARGE payments. I also didn't see the developer sue for breach of contract( yet).I haven't yet even seen screams of protest from the developer. Hmmm it is an election year. I wonder if a "broken-thrown out " contract before an election can be "fixed" after the election. I know the Judge is up for re-election,I am not sure how many of the rest of the court members are up for re-election. Everyone please think about voting the all out !! Don't trust any of them!! ( I wonder at Judge Gilbertos position....is it that the developer "tricked" the court into signing a bad agreement or that he didn't understand the language of the agreement or that he didn't understand that the people might not want him giving county property away to developers !!! Please help this confused-misled Judge find happiness in retirement.)

Sam said...

Right, this week the county commissioners go into executive session to discuss possible amendment or termination of the LMDG contract, but behind closed doors. I note that the existing contract allows the developer to start as late as 2008 or so. So they can wait out the elections and do their thing with Legislature starting this October - that's when people lobby to pre-file bills up in Austin.

There is an incredible push for gambling and that is the engine that is driving the whole thing. Mr. Keenon (sp) owns land in five cities and has the Isla Blanca lease in his pocket (remember him - he's the convicted dude!). But Keenon isn't the only game in town and he's pissed off a lot of people who do NOT want him to succeed. So, we might see video gambling at horse and dog races and T-shirt shops.

See, what happens is that with gambling somes a whole bunch of cash, both over and under the table. It is simply too hard to resist. The permits, the construction, the skim, the lobbying, and all that will fill their freezers with enough cash to last through retirement. Look what happened in Louisiana, where we have a former governor sitting in jail because he was milking the skim to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

It is obvious at least to me that the county commissioers don't care a flop about Isla Blanca, other than it could be a giant source of revenue to do pet projects elsewhere in the county. If they say anything else in public, they are talking out their butts. That is the part that is unforgivable...

Anonymous said...

I have heard that someone is running against Judge Gilberto. He was at a recent Chamber event. Does anyone know anything about him? I think he used to be on the County Commish Court???

Good, Bad, anything ? ?

Sam said...

Thamks to Jim for finding an incredibly large hunk of Spam in he comments. I'd also like to moderate my last comments as being a wee bit too strong. The two most active commissioners, the Judge and Pete Benavides, seemed actually open to discussion and said they were not aware of any opposition to the lease concession ... we'll give them of the doubt as to whether being up for re-election changed their minds. So let's be reasonable here.

I am not aware of who is running against who for county commissioner. Usually I catch that kind of thing ... checking the County voter stuff shows some stuff from 2004! Perhaps everyone is waiting until Labor Day, when the election season really gets fired up. /Sam