Traitors ? Really ?

I received an email that was voicing an opinion about the confederate emblem for the license plates. In this opinion the writer states “Why would the State of Texas honor people who were traitors to the United States of America?” Traitors ? Really ? Traitors ? But, I guess by the true definition of the word what the 13 colonies did was treasonous as well as Sam Houston and the fighters of the Alamo and San Jacinto. So we are all traitors? As you can tell I take exception to the term “Traitors” as so broadly applied to the confederate army. I believe that the Sons of the Confederate Veterans license plate honors those who fought for what they believed in. So why wouldn’t the state of Texas honor it’s war heroes? This is a matter of fact and History……. Of course in my opinion.

Fact is it will become an option because there are presently 18 states that have this option available. In most of those cases the courts appeared to have sided for the option to be available.

Thoughts ?

Liberal or Conservative Chopper or Hugger?

The oak tree on the corner of FM 518 and Louisiana Ave. (61 inches round and over 100 years old) is in the way of the widening of Louisiana Ave. (click here for facebook page) Council will decide what the fate of the Ghirardi oak will be at the council meeting on Tuesday. (Click here to see news article) So what are the options.
Option one: Moving the Compton oak to the Water Smart Park.

Cost: About $292,000 which would come from dedicated park fees.

Option two: Shift the Louisiana Avenue project west and create a pocket park around the Compton oak.

Cost: At least $267,000 and the money would come out of the city’s general fund reserves.

Option three: Cut the Compton oak down and replace it with new oaks according to the city’s tree preservation plan.

Cost: About $27,500 from the city’s general fund reserves.
So are you a liberal if you want to save the tree ? (spending tax payer money that could be used for other projects) or are you a conservative if you want to chop it down? (saving taxpayer money and selling off the wood to make up the amount spent to cut it? ) Is it possible to be both? (according to all the campaign material over the last few years it is not)
Our elected officials use the terms “Liberal” (tree hugger) and “conservative” (tree chopper) in city campaign materials so let us see what they consider the definition of the terms are.
Thoughts?

Changing the form of government again?

In a recommendation to the Charter revision committee, according to information I have received, our mayor has requested the committee to see “If the voters wanted to go back to a strong mayor or full-time mayor” Any thoughts ?

And so The Galveston County Daily News catches up with our city blog. Read this in today's paper.

New League City Drilling ordinance, is it enough to Protect Citizens against the haszards of Urban Drilling?

A new Drilling ordinance in League City was just passed. Council chose to approve a 600 foot minimum buffer for wells to habitable structures, instead of the widely used 1000 foot or more buffer. City of South Lake questions and answers web page about their drilling ordinance and application procedures No matter how you look at it, urban drilling of oil wells in residential communities is incompatible.

Some cities have decided that 500 feet was too close and raised their setback to a 1500 foot buffer between habitable structures and oil wells. Flower mound just raised their oil well setback to 1500 feet.Flower Mound Texas information on Oil Drilling. Why do you suppose League City wants to learn things the hard way?

League City government is not effectively using the tools available to it to maximize the protection to its citizens from invasive industrial uses next to and in residential areas. Therefore our Government and our representatives are failing us as a community. The problem starts with some of our leadership that does not stand up for the best interest of the residential (voting) sector of the population.

I cannot imagine why council would not want approve a more restrictive 1000 foot minimum distance for drilling a well next to homes, churches and schools. As Councilman Phalen said the distance for well drilling could have been adjusted downward when necessary. I certainly don’t understand the comment by a council person that said “A 1,000-foot setback would require a well be in the middle of an approximately 70-acre site — something Becker said would be hard to accomplish” It does not sound that hard to accomplish to me! We are talking about urban drilling here, it is not supposed to be made easy to do. Maybe someone can explain it to me? I would think that if someone is going to drill into the ground and extract minerals for a profit in an urban area, the surrounding property owners should be afforded some reasonable protections.

99% of the residences of League City have surface rights ownership only, with no mineral interests. Without mineral rights, surface owners have a limited ability to restrict drilling. The surface owner's have only have the ordinances of the city such as zoning and the drilling ordinance as the mechanisms to restrict drilling on or near their property. Last Tuesday’s vote fell short of giving the citizens a reasonable measure of protection from chemical and fire hazard, noise, vibration, and intrusion into their quiet enjoyment of their property. I suppose some people want to treat League City, an incorporated residential metro-plex, the same as undeveloped property near Odessa or the Barnett Shale.


Don't get me wrong, I am not against drilling oil wells. I just don't believe that we should allow the drilling of oil wells with the least restrictive conditions allowed under the law right in the middle of the largest city in Galveston County.

This Link is a publication with many good thoughts about best practices for urban drilling.
Best Practices for Oil Well Drilling in Texas


Below, is some interesting reading on the health effects of an oil well fire issued by the Department of Defense.

Oil Well Fires


Southlake Oil and Gas Drilling 411 video

Mr. Campbell's link

Mr. Morgan Campbell listed this link on the last thread. I guess he would like it to be a thread of it's own. It is an interesting story.

http://seabreezenews.com/issue/Page_01c.pdf

Out of water because of drought? It is more like we have over subscribed our supply!

Recently League City government has instituted a stage II of the drought contingency plan which requires that residents reduce their water consumption through a myriad of restrictions. However, I maintain that the recent drought is not the cause of these measures taken by League City to conserve water. League City has grown by 83% in population over the last decade. As the population soared, the amount of water that League City has access to have not kept pace with its growth. Bad management of our water resources has led to daily water usage that comes very close to exceeding our available contracted water supply. The normal demand for water created by the need for irrigation in spring and summer months has pushed League City’s water demand to the limit of our available supply with no relief in sight until demand for irrigation is gone. Without new contracted water supply agreements available to League City, the problem of not enough water will not go away. The key to this issue is the demand for irrigation can no longer be supplied to our residents with the current available water supply.

Defining Moment for Mayor Paulissen and Council Part 1

Over the last so many years in League City, we have all heard the typical campaign slogans during campaign season. " I am for Business" "I am for Economic development" "I am going to fix traffic" "I am for smaller government" "I am for fiscal responsibility". These campaign promises are in Juxtaposition to the statement "I am for smaller Government. History has shown us that no matter how truly sincere the politicians are at the time they make these campaign promises, something happens once they are elected that stymies their ability to deliver on their words and pursue their office with their original credo intact. I say the cause of their inability to fulfil their campaign ideals and be effective community leaders is they are conflicted by the promise of delivering smaller government. The elected officials are beholden to a vocal and involved minority of citizens who want smaller and less government interference in their lives. This same group is a majority of the voters. Only 4-5% of the citizenry votes in municipal elections. If we ever hope to solve our issues, we will need to come to terms with the fact that to solve the communities real problems it will take money and more govenrnment. Let's look at some of the issues and promises.

"I am for business and economic development" of course a candidate should be for economic development. Most candidates do not win if they say "I don't want economic development" However, the application of economic development is not like fixing a road. You can not just throw money at it and yield results. We learned this painful 24 million dollar lesson at Big League Dreams. While in its own right BLD dreams is a successfully business, without the city footing the bill for its fixed assets, it could not make it. As citizens we still are waiting for the economic development that was hoped to surround that development that has not quite come at the levels that a citizen would hope $24,000,000.00 would yield them. Economic Development has to be wisely planned. To build an economic engine for a community, it requires that each piece of the economic machine has to mot only provide economic growth for the intended recipients, but it has to build value for the community as a whole as well. For economic development to be successful, in most cases, there is the need for more government offices and employees to oversee how the government can "assist" with economic development. Here lies confliction #1, how do I meet the challenge as a leader of a small town like League City to provide economic development without promoting larger government and spending more tax dollars? Answer, You Can't

Rumor sez it’s Chief Jez

I keep hearing that the new interim city manager will be Chief Jez. Anyone hear anything else? Or do you think the council will employ that firm they used before?

Welcome to Lago

This was on the front page of today's daily news. Thoughts?

Then there was this on 6-16-11. any other thoughts ?

Clear Creek ISD to Hold Budget Meetings

The Clear Creek Independent School District will hold two Town Hall Meetings to get further feedback from the community regarding the Citizens Finance Advisory Committee budget recommendations on:
Monday, June 6, 2011 ~ 6 p.m.
Clear Lake High School (Commons)
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 ~ 6 p.m.
Clear Springs High School (Cafeteria)

If you are unable to attend a Town Hall Meeting, you may send comments on the Citizen Finance Advisory Committee recommendations to
information@ccisd.net.

View the Citizens Finance Advisory Committee Budget Recommendations

The Board of Trustees is expected to take action on the recommendations during the June 27, 2011 General Board Meeting.
For more information, contact the Clear Creek Independent School District at 281-284-0020.