Eclectic commentary from a progressive voice in the red state

Friday, May 1, 2015

Look who crawled out from under the rocks on the AGN website

A poster signed @mwaelti posted the following on the Amarillo Globe-News website on this story. Here is what she wrote:

“MPEV

The cost to build the MPEV is known, and the funding sources identified. A market study has been completed, and there have been numerous conversations with the owner of the Thunderheads as well as the various baseball associations. The homework has been done. Now it's time to build it.”


I am pretty damn sure this is Downtown Amarillo Inc. Executive Director Melissa Dailey, so this is what I posted:


“Hey Melissa Dailey,

"The homework has been done" Just like the homework you did to give us Wally-ByGolly. You've mislead us on Liberty Theater -- folks reading this need to just ask Keith Jones about that. You've got Lutz out in front on the old Santa Fe Depot, in a case of too-little-or-nothing-too-late. I could go on.

If we know the cost of the ball park (MPEV is a friggin' joke and we all know it), why don't you post it here? And will the contract or whomever builds it contain a guarantee that the taxpayer will not pay a penny if the costs exceed your (or Jacobs Engineering's, or whoever's) guesses on the cost? As for the market study, if you're referring to the Sports and Leisure study a few years ago? People who have forgotten more about finances, statistics and market studies than you ever knew shot more holes in that thing than all the Swiss cheese ever made.

And, specifically, what are the funding sources? Tell us exactly.

And now, you're using your middle/maiden name in an attempt to hide who you are as a poster here. This is the lack of transparency that everyone is talking about. You run an organization that the Texas Attorney General ruled is subject to the state's sunshine laws. Live up to the spirit of the law.

It is clear that you, some of the councilors and others are running scared over this election. A decent voter turnout will doom you and your half-baked plans and you and others know it.

OK - that said, since I called you out by name, I am going to confirm who I am since some have suspected and others have known. I suspect it will get me banned from the AGN postings, but that will just define the AGN. It doesn't define me.

I am George Schwarz, semi-retired publisher of The Amarillo Independent; and, once again for the record, left the AGN on my own accord for reasons I have made clear elsewhere.”