Sunday, November 8, 2015

THIS IS JUST CRAZY

The reason I have not posted much of late is that I'm trying to rid my thoughts and energies of the stench of local politics. Frankly, I'd had enough. Then I saw something on Facebook that inferred that I was a liar for including Doug Martin and other backers of the lawsuit against The Four in my rant against what seem to me is pure evil.

It also seems that certain people are trying to revise history to clean up some people's reputations. In what universe is it not evil to start a lawsuit against four duly-elected councillors because they opposed a development that basically gives away the last decent piece of beachfront property in Crystal Beach to a developer? And that was not the only reason they were sued. They were sued because they represented a power shift at town hall and that could not be tolerated by the mayor-by-five-votes and his supporters. I saw it at the court hearing. Former Mayor-By-Five-Votes admitted that the law suit respondent (Former-Beaten-in-a-Landslide-by-One-of-the-Four Tim Whitfield) was merely a "Straw Man" in the lawsuit. The other named supporters of the lawsuit represent a Who's Who of local political power brokers and their minions, one of whom went on to defeat one of The Four in the 2014 election.

All this is out there for those who care to look further. One of the local political gadflies even helped finance a slanderous billboard on the main drag in town. He also funded a blog that went after the four using confidential information collected from various "sources" at town hall.  Of course, they all deny this now that their people are back in power. Mission Accomplished. The regular folks out there in Fort Erie have lost again. Town Council is now almost entirely made up of Chamber of Commerce members. The mayor can only hope to corral these agenda-driven flunkies. Only one of The Four remains: Don Lubberts. (He's still facing another conflict of interest lawsuit that the litigious GM of the Fort Erie Racetrack Economic and Tourism Development Corporation filed against him. That, along with the lawsuit he filed against me will accomplish nothing, but that's how Thibert rolls.

And now the Big Announcement about a development at the Racetrack. (Love the pic of Dougie and Jimmie hugging Paladino) Where have we heard this before? Well, I found THIS. An earlier blog post by yours truly recalling the big story from 2008 where Nordic Games (the then owner of the racetrack) was planning a big development (alarmingly similar to the Paladino plan) at the racetrack site. The Ministry of Tourism gave the town (EDTC) $2 million to be used to enhance tourism. That went towards the potential "purchase" of the Fort Erie Race Track by the town (Thank You, Kim Traitor) The $300 million development project was shelved and the $2 million disappeared into the coffers of the holding company of the track.  

So, here we are again. Promises, promises. Clue: Paladino is looking for massive tax cuts and funding from all levels of government.

You might already know my prediction regarding the Speedway: I'll believe it when I see it. Now they're adding this multi-million resort at the horse track and we still have an antiquated international car bridge to serve both these "crowd pleasers."

The best line of all was said by Paladino himself:

“We’ll put our shovel in the ground the day after they put theirs in,” Paladino said. “That’s how important the CMS is to our project.” 

(Buffalo Business First)

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