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Letters to the Editor

Where Lies the Insanity

Insanity – sometimes defined as the “process of doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.”

I have sent several emails to the Mayor and city council members, spoken at several council meetings, and sent several Letters to the Editor. Each time I highlighted negative consequences that could occur by making a major WWTP project scope change by cancelling the Black Castle contract. Most of my statements have proven correct. To date, the Mayor and Council have ignored the numerous concerns expressed by myself and a significant majority of Wimberley citizens. Since the Mayor and Council chose to make this project scope change, is it Insanity on our part to think they now owe us transparency on the current status of the project?

I ask myself where does the insanity truly lie?

1. Is it insanity on our part to think that the council owes the citizens of Wimberley an explanation of what is going on? What is your plan if the TWDB funds are denied? The impact of loss of TWDB funding will be an additional cost for the City/AT option of $4 to $6 million dollars over 30 years.

2. Is the insanity, plowing forward on the City/AT plan no matter what the cost is now going to be? The project is now headed toward a higher debt to the city than just completing the original plan would have been? When the Black Castle cancellation cost becomes due, the city will essentially be broke.

3. Is the insanity, continuing with the project change after it became known that the EDA and Way grants could not be used for the City/AT option? The Mayor and City Council response was to remove additional parts of the scope such as the reclaimed water line to Blue Hole Park.

4. Is the insanity, running a raw sewage line under Cypress Creek just upstream of Blue Hole (when another better option was available), then paying Aqua Texas (a company with documented very poor service and environmental records) $300,000 to treat Wimberley sewage for dumping on the Woodcreek golf course, instead of having reclaimed water for Blue Hole Park?

5. Is the insanity, using 15 to 20 minutes of city council time discussing whether to sue the Chamber of Commerce for $38,000 (calling it fiscal responsibility) while probably as much as $1,000,000+ will be wasted by changing the project scope? The wasted $1,000,000 plus the EDA and Way grants would cover the total cost of the Black Castle contract.

6. It has become obvious that cost was never the justification for the scope change. MAYOR and CITY COUNCIL: Stop the insanity of trying to justify your current direction. Quit carrying the water for a few individuals and start serving the citizens of Wimberley, many of whom voted for each of you thinking the Aqua Texas option was off the table. Where is the transparency that you promised prior to the election?

At the November 15th City Council meeting, the Mayor again promised a future (January) Town Hall meeting to update us on what is happening with the WWTP project scope change. She also committed to the posting of several documents on the City Council website that to date have only been available through Freedom of Information requests. The Mayor has made similar statements several times before in Council meetings. Will she again play the part of Lucy to Charlie Brown and pull the football just before Charlie can kick it?

What has become apparent to me from attending Council meetings during the past 3 months:

1. Although a vote was taken to cancel the Black Castle contract, the actual cancellation has not taken place. Black Castle seems to be resisting the Mayor’s total settlement offer of $350,000 versus the $750,000 of billings to date, plus some portion of the profit and all other miscellaneous cancellation and legal costs.

2. The contract with Aqua Texas has not yet been signed. A copy of the initial AT proposal is supposed to be placed on the City Council website. In summary, it appears written entirely by the AT lawyers and includes a 25-year contract life, a $275,000 penalty to cancel early, and a $300,000 payment, ostensibly for upgrading the AT treatment plant.

I have one last prediction. When the next council gets in office, a detailed study to collect all data related to the wasted expenses that occurred due to this scope change will be quantified. I think the size of the wasted expenses and the damage that was done to the city’s financial status will shock Wimberley citizens and will have negative impacts to Wimberley for years to come.

I may be wrong in my analysis, but I doubt it. But how could we citizens possibly know for sure since the mayor and council have kept both the citizens and at least one council member in the dark through the entire process to date.

William Bowman

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054