The business of the Water Board is two-fold: Flood control and water supply. Not economic development. Yet they are asking the voters to approve a $250 million bond to salvage Panther Island, heretofore known as Trinity Uptown. When I started writing letters to the editor 15 years ago about this uprooting, heartless eminent domain economic development boondoggle, we were promised that Fort Worth’s total obligation would be $26 million – no more.
Consider this: In 1990, the city asked voters to OK a $20 million bond to replace Will Rogers Auditorium with a new modern state-of-the-art Music Hall. The voters said No! Loud and clear! Now we are asked bald-faced by the Water Board for more than 10 times that amount to salvage the mother of all shameless, nepotistic boondoggles, Panther Island.
Panther Island! Seemingly a more appropriate name would be The Beached Whale.
Don Woodard
Fort Worth