Showing posts with label Arlington TX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arlington TX. Show all posts

Thursday, May 09, 2013

And the Winner Is ~ Mayor Dr. Bob Cluck is the Best of the Worst in North Texas!

We don't fully understand all the upset about bike trails by these Arlington, TX residents.   

But we do understand being upset by time limitations during Public Meetings.  

Any North Texas Mayor who proclaims, 
"I'll Smile If I Want To!"   
deserves the Prize and All the Kudos.

Therefore, Mayor Cluck is the Winner! Hands Down.

Beginning in the summer of 2011, it seems the Arlington, Texas City Council and especially the Mayor went off the tracks. Click on over to the Fishcreek Monitor to see some more of that derailment. In the world of public administration, this is probably a textbook version of what you don't want to happen. But it did. And it's a lesson in politics. People like to be heard no matter what their viewpoints. If politicians in America don't want to listen, maybe they need to do something else. Or move to another country.

If you haven't already voted early, be sure to vote this Saturday, May 11, 2013!  In Texas, it's now one of the few things we own that can't be taken by private industry via eminent domain.  

Hold on to it with your dear life. 
Vote!

Official Notice for the Grand Prairie, TX Municipal Elections:


Precinct Locations.  VOTE!


Amen.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Gov. Perry selling Arlington, TX to Chinese Investors?

Yee Haw.
  
Was this really a news story? Arlington is referred to as a "mature" city!! 

Link to the Story and Video.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

"Hushed" by Chesapeake

Get Microsoft Silverlight
(Be sure to play this video on your PC or MAC. Embedded videos using the Silverlight Microsoft application won't play on iPhone or other smartphones or iPads ~ iOS devices. We're very sorry, but there are clearly limitations to the Silverlight software in 2012.)

Follow these easy steps to download the Silverlight application to your MAC: Click here for how to stream a meeting on my MAC. And here's another link to some additional info if you have trouble viewing the video: Additional Info.
Click here for the link to the June 5, 2012 Arlington, TX City Council Meeting. Then scroll over to 57:08 (57 Minutes, 08 Seconds) for the Rocking Horse Drilling Site Agenda Item Discussion from the citizen of South East Arlington, TX. She talks about "being hushed," at the May 31, 2012 Community Meeting conducted by Chesapeake, the likely Statewide Rule 37 Spacing Exception for mineral owners on this leasehold AND unpaid royalties for Chesapeake's Fulson site in her own neighborhood.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

"Tremors" (*Updated*)

About the Chesapeake Rocking Horse Drilling Site
Arlington, Texas ~ June 5, 2012
Get Microsoft Silverlight
(Be sure to play this video on your PC or MAC. Embedded videos using the Silverlight Microsoft application won't play on iPhone or other smartphones, iPads ~ iOS devices. We're very sorry for this inconvenience.)
 
Click here for the link to the June 5, 2012 City Council Meeting. Then scroll over to 53:27 (53 Minutes, 27 Seconds) for the Rocking Horse Drilling Site Agenda Item Discussion from the community leader about the "tremors."
 
(*Updated*) See the comments, please.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Cowboys, Baseball and Gas Drilling ~ Yee Haw!

Truman Drilling Site 
(2 Leaseholds Pooled Units converging  ~Truman and Bobcat ~ totaling 1,020 acres with plans for 14 shale gas wells)

You can certainly find more information about ALL the drilling operations in Arlington, TX by clicking here and visiting Chesapeake's Arlington Neighborhood Center.  It's very user-friendly. We count 35 Chesapeake drilling sites inside the Arlington, TX city limits. Beautiful!

Based on what we've learned, and what we know about shale gas, the FRAC Pond you see in the picture (the pond in the lower left that's holding the brownish-colored water)  ~ this FRAC Pond and the accompanying drilling operations will be a fixture in the core of the Arlington, TX downtown business sector for many years to come.  [Are you reading this Dallas?]

So, bring out the Welcome Wagon.


The Truman has landed!  AMEN.

**Update:  Here's some more detail.  Just in case you aren't sure what you are seeing. We understand how it's hard to know with all of this. It's a very special and unique new neighbor.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

City of Arlington, TX on a Serious Mission?

So, WHAT's the Big Emergency??
Get Microsoft Silverlight
(Note: The above video may not play using some phones ~ so be sure to open the video from your PC or your MAC.)


Dateline June 5, 2012.  Arlington, TX 
Arlington City Council Meeting 6:30 PM 

Interesting. Apparently, this portion of the Agenda (as shown in the above video clip) is a Public Hearing to define the "drill zone" for the "so-called" (Mayor's words) Eden Southwest Drill Site because prior to these Modifications to the *Gas Drilling Ordinance* (XTO's Walter Dueease's words) no operator was required to define the drill zone in their plans. Oops.

After a quick discussion, the Mayor asks about the homes outside 600 feet of the drilling zone. Outside?  600 Feet?  Mr. Dueease tells the Mayor that they don't usually count that!!  Oh, well.  Yes. What?  Then the Mayor and Mr. Dueease go back and forth about it for several more rounds! (Be sure to watch it.) The Mayor seems to confuse Mr. Dueease, (we know he confused us) but then neither one of them would acknowledge any confusion whatsoever.  

Kind of like when men get lost..
.you know how that works...they never ask directions!!  Yeah, that kind of situation.  So, neither one of these two men ever asked the other one to please explain it better ~ the train wreck in full motion right before our eyes, and wow, it's get out the popcorn time!! LOL!!

And for such a serious matter being voted on ~ and it must be because it was designated as an "Emergency" ~ then Councilwoman Sheri Capehart jumps in and asks Mr. Dueease (not to confuse, but "just for clarification purposes"??) if he is alright with doing this First Reading on an Emergency Basis?  Mr. Dueease, who seems to have the knack for changing gears quickly and who certainly knows how to be brief and to the point without showing any outward signs of braggadocio, replies succinctly and with firm conviction,

 "Yes, Ma'am."

So, after watching all of this, we really do have to ask this important question...and we're serious, too:

 "WHO'S on First"?

**Update** You won't want to miss Mr. Dueease's featured role in the Temporary FRAC Pond saga on the Fish Creek Monitor. Click here.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Overcoming the Maharishi Development Fund *Update*


P.A. Watson Cemetery (also known as the West Fork Cemetery) 

*Update* (February 10, 2015) We had to fix the link above since it was apparently taken down by the City of Arlington.  We added a new one. If you click on the new one (above) the discussion is about a monument erected
honoring Confederate Veterans  who served during the Civil War.

Drilling and fracking so near this historical cemetery shows such disrespect for our past.  AMEN.


Dateline Arlington, TX We have seen it many times before. A church or another business entity owns a fairly large piece of undeveloped land inside City Limits. A shale gas operator finds it, makes a deal and...before we know it, everything is ready to go through the approval stages. The City does a little tap dance and all vote in unison for approval.  Cities all across the Barnett Shale revere their shale gas deals.

And as we so often find in shale gasland...there can be many unknown potholes on the road to that promised land.


Follow the Yellow Brick Road

The Colony -- An investment group established by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a meditation guru who once inspired the Beatles, is apparently hoping that a mixed-use development in The Colony will hasten its plan to establish "heaven on earth."

[...]

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is credited with bringing transcendental meditation, or "TM," to the world in the 1960s. Transcendental meditation is a meditative technique in which a "mantra" is chanted that aims to nourish creativity and well-being. Today the yogi is said to have 4 million worldwide followers, a global network of meditation centers and universities, his own 24-hour TV channel in Holland and the Maharishi Global Development Fund, which is based in New York City. [emphasis added]



The clock is finally ticking for Hartford's 1960s-era Clarion Hotel, the 12-story eyesore in spooling white concrete worthy of an Eastern Bloc nation that sits in the way of hoped-for redevelopment of Constitution Plaza downtown.

[...]

Instead, exactly nothing happened for the past 15 years, resulting in the haggard, water-damaged wreck that today sits astride Kinsley Street on Columbus Boulevard. Hartford City Assessor Larry LaBarbera recently toured the inside of the building, with flashlights since there's no electricity, and describes it as "totally devastated."

In 2003, the MGDF abandoned plans to build a mixed-use development on about 300 acres in The Colony, Texas, that would have included the world's tallest skyscraper, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road (keep going)


THE COLONY (CBSDFW.COM) - A theme park in The Colony? It could happen.

The city council agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting lists a proposal for a “1.5 billion dollar” development for “a theme park, hotel, convention center, stores, concessions, restaurants and park facilities.”

[...]

Years ago, the Maharishi Global Development Fund wanted to build a 1,600 foot tower on the land.

That skyscraper project never happened, and neither did a separate mixed-use development the group later proposed for the same location. The land is empty now.[emphasis added.]

The video starts after the ad ~ wait about 28 seconds:


We're Almost There


(Pages 229-230)
On March 16, 2012, the Community Development and Planning Department received a letter opposing the zoning case. As the owner’s signature represents only 7.9 percent of the land area within 200 feet of the subject site, approval of this case will not require super majority vote of the City Council.

REQUEST
The applicant requests approval of a Specific Use Permit (SUP) for gas drilling on a 5.035-acre tract of land zoned Entertainment District-Industrial Manufacturing (ED-IM). The property is addressed at 601 Avenue H East; generally located north of Avenue H East and east of State Highway 360.

ANALYSIS
The subject site is currently undeveloped with frontage on Avenue H East. The City of Grand Prairie borders the north of the subject site, while there is undeveloped land to the east, office and *cemetery uses to the south, and office and gasoline retail uses to the west. The operator plans to drill 14 to 37 wells on the site. However, due to the fluctuating demand of natural gas and market prices, the applicant does not have an estimated timeframe of when drilling activities will be complete.

[...]
(Page 231)
Pipeline Route
The applicant has identified a proposed pipeline from DFW Midstream that will serve the site. The line is an eight-inch Maharishi lateral that will connect to the future Great Southwest Parkway 16-inch lateral.


Enough already. Maharishi Global Development Fund is a non-profit organization with assets of $122,580,646 at the end of 2010.


*Watson/West Fork Cemetery, Arlington, TX and Historical Landmark

Monday, March 05, 2012

The Children's Doctor Who Just Found Out

Arlington, TX City Council Meeting, February 21, 2012 Get Microsoft Silverlight
(Reminder Note: The above video will not play using the iPhone's Safari Browser ~ be sure to open the video from your PC or your MAC.)


"The Letter" the Doctors Wrote (Signed by 3 M.D.s)**



A Larger View of "The Letter"**




Hopefully, sanity will prevail in Arlington, TX this Tuesday night. 

Of course, others have a vested interest. And possibly, less interest in the work of doctors striving to help children. We'll leave that for you to decide.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The New Documentary About the Barnett Shale

"It's really sad...everyone was so pro-drilling. This is the red, white and blue American thing to do. I just never saw it that way and I was being personally affected by it. But now I'm seeing other people rise up who are feeling the same way.
I think a lot of people now would like a do over."
~ Jane Lynn, Arlington, Texas (Meet the Frackers)
Fulson Pad Site(Picture courtesy of the Fishcreek Monitor)
(Fishcreek Neighborhood, SE Arlington, TX December 2011)

"A lot of things that are generated during this process are known to be harmful to human beings. But it’s similar in my mind to how we found out about cigarette smoking and cancer. It wasn’t that we did a study and found out oh no look cigarettes cause cancer, it was 40, 50 years of ah... exposure."
     ~ Dr. Gordon Aalund, Emergency Doctor and Southlake, TX Resident

Here's the link to the Video. Click on "Play Video."

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Exceptional Maternity Care

Or So the Sign Says Right Alongside a Drilling Rig
FYI: Click Here and Breathe Carefully.

The area is surrounded by shale gas drilling and fracking.
Actually, we believe this billboard would serve the community better by stating:

"Get yourself and your baby out of here. Now."

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Arlington, TX: Feel Safe or Maybe Not

Drum Roll Please...


Introducing the Arlington, TX  
(Click Here) Community Development & Planning Department
Guiding Arlington's Development
Gas Drilling and Production in the 
Barnett Shale 
 

$$$$$$$$
Ambitious, High Achievers Are Promoted Quickly



August 2011 Contact Information


(Click Here) to view a City of Arlington Gas Well Inspection Report 
(Chesapeake)
See Page 119 for the CONTACT Info (Above)



Harold Sutton and his Team were clearly very busy in the HOT, dry month of August, 2011.  Be sure to click on the link above to view ALL the Inspection Reports for ALL the Gas Operators doing business in Arlington.  There are a lot of them.  And there are clearly a lot of issues.  But not to worry.

The primary violation on most of them is "No fire extinguisher on site."  Oh, and N/ASounds good, even though many of the pictures show what appear to be a ton of violations. Oh, well.

Then there's this one ~ Chesapeake's Pruett Site at 2000 South Watson Road (Page 92 of the Inspection Report) *with labels and colors added for emphasis*




Clearly, Harold Sutton is a very smart Gas Well Inspector/Former Streetscape Inspector. He knows that being anywhere near a FRAC job is not advisable. Feel safe, Arlington.  Yee Haw.



Welcome to Arlington, TX

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Oh, My.

So here's Part 2 of the story about an Arlington Church's business deal with Chesapeake:

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
High Point Church's Lake


Sunday, September 4, 2011 High Point Church's Lake


Large Hose Hooked Up to Metered Fire Hydrant
Near High Point Church's Padsite on E. Arbrook 
NW Corner of Highway 360 and Interstate 20

Is It a Very Scary Industrial Accident?

Nope.  It's a Ginormous Water Pump. And It's
Sucking Water Out of This Church's Lake


Re-Plenishing the High Point Church's Lake and/or FRAC Pond From that Arlington, TX Fire Hydrant


So, Where is the Water Going?


Follow the Yellow Brick Road


Musical Interlude


Oh, My

Follow, Follow, Follow, Follow


Follow the Yellow Brick...


Follow the Yellow Brick...


Follow the Yellow Brick Road


We're Off to See the Wizard


The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!!


Ugh. There's No Place Like Home.
~The End~

Click here to see Part 1 of this story. You won't want to miss that, either.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

The Failure to Communicate: Update**

Link to the Video




You see, the problem is, municipalities like Grand Prairie, TX have allowed the shale gas operators to "tell them" what is safe and what is not safe. If you watch the video and see Chesapeake's response (Leah King, Sr. Director of Public Affairs for Chesapeake) it's clear that "the company" (even after this report from the United States Army Corps of Engineers aka USACE) continues to push its own agenda.

Fact is, USACE is "planning" to conduct geotechnical testing at this site. To continue with drilling activities under those circumstances is well, dumb.

Oh, never mind. Apparently Chesapeake is A-OK with being DUMB. They do it all the time. We're sure you must know by now.

**Click right here to check out TXSharon's Blog Post (Saturday, September 17, 2011).

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

If It's Not a Nightmare

What is It?

Just a reminder...these Texas Railroad Commission GIS maps don't show the schools where children try to learn so that they may grow up to live healthy, productive lives. 

This map shows the horizontal wells from numerous pad sites as well as the multiple, non-odorized gas gathering pipelines (meaning, if you can't smell it, you won't know if there's a "leak") right in the midst of highly-populated, residential communities in southeastern Arlington, TX. 


If this is not an "Industrial Zone," what is it?

Saturday, September 03, 2011

What the Quack is Going On?
















The 5,000-member High Point Church was founded in 2000 by Simons and his wife, April, whose brother is Joel Osteen, well-known pastor of the 38,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston. Now High Point meets in a 432,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, near Dallas. Link to Story
Link to the Video of the Tour of High Point


"...SuperNatural Gas the Pastor Says."


Don't miss Part 2 of this supernatural story. Click here.