A sigh of relief!

Once again, and the second time in two weeks, I am so very proud to be a member of this community. Amidst claims of being fear mongerers, Communists, anti-Americans, and worst of all "liberals", I witnessed countless members of our community stand up and without emotion, without hate, and just stating the facts, make the clearest case ever against urban drilling.

The mineral rights owners were diametrically opposite by spewing hate, emotion and lots of hearsay. The presentation by Titan representative Bobby Dollack was a lesson in how to talk down to a governing group and showing he was discusted to have to be there explaining how great a job he will do instead of being at a Monster Truck rally.

It was so clear that the only need for this facility was wealth and greed hidden behind to guise of wanting to get away from foreign dependence of fossil fuels. Don't they realize that the mood in this country is to get away from the dependence of fossil fuels altogether.

If Mr Hilliard had proposed to erect wind turbines to generate energy or solar panels to harvest a pure clean source of energy, he would have had people lined up to shake his hand and tell him he is truly a fine American with the interests of saving the environment instead of raping it.

I was appalled at the mention of Titan drilling through not one, not two, but three aquifiers enroute to the Barnett motherlode. Knowing that they will have cement encasings of the drills to "protect" those aquafiers. The same cement encasing that Halliburton assured us were poured to protect the Gulf of Mexico. Oh yes one of those water sources is owned by Hilliard. What? A underground water source knows where Hilliards land starts and ends? Totally mindblowing.

A warm thank you to the O and G board for standing up for what is so obviously right even with the death threats that followed their decisions. I was contemplating publishing the rant by Mr Chris Tomlinson on his blog, Shiloh Drilling, but it is so filled with obscenities and hateful threats against anyone that went against his wishes, it even shocked me! I kept a copy of it though, even when he took that post down and replaced it with a milder, but still violence filled and enough veiled threats to cause some serious alarm. Mr Tomlinson, you owe this entire town an apology, and would not be suprised if The F.B.I. hasn't been alerted to his behavior and hopefully he is under surveillance.

Its not over, by any means. This group of "good, christian, Americans" have threatened to bankrupt the town and laugh all the way to the bank. Yes our town is under attack from Oil and Gas companies from Oklahoma with their big money and smarmy tactics of energizing the likes of Tomlinson (who was seated right next to former councilwoman, Jean Levenick and everyones sweetheart, Patsy Mizuer) to reak havoc on our town.

Its good to see the 2010 chapter of this towns ugly past is starting off with a bang.

My rights versus yours

Now that the election is behind us and we have regained common sense to our town, another hurdle is approaching.

Tomorrow night, the Oil and Gas Review board for the town of Flower Mound, will meet to discuss variances for drilling on a large piece of property known as "The Hilliard Airfield". This time its Titan/Cherokee Horn and associates that have purchased Mr Hilliard's mineral rights. As you know The Hilliard Airfield is right there on 2499 before you get to 3040, as you enter our town from the south. Mr Hilliard and his family have owned that land for a long, long time and could be considered some of the most prime real estate in our town. In a letter that Mr Hilliard sent out to his neighbors recently urging them to write in his favor to the Oil and Gas board, he stated, "this radical group of "anti-drillers" want to take away his "right" to claim his minerals, after all, we live in the United States of America and not Communist China". his letter in its entirety is posted here.

Which brings me to my point of his rights versus mine.

I too have the right as a citizen of the United States, to live in a safe environment.
I too have the right as a citizen of the United States, to breath clean air and drink clean water.
I too have the right as a citizen of the United States, to protest the fact that Mr Hilliard is threatening my rights by exercising his own.

Who is right? Who takes the priority here?

A few weeks ago at the town council meeting, the gas leasers all wore stickers saying "Common Sense".

Erecting a drilling platform within 1000 feet of two schools? Is that Common Sense?

Having an eyesore of a drilling platform surrounded by a 40 foot tall "blast Fence" as prospective home buyers or first time guest are greeted as they enter our town? Where is that common sense?

In a town that doesn't allow billboards or business signs to exceed a certain height to allow this monolithic monstrosity to greet everyone that drives that road every day that Mr Hilliard has "his" rights? this is just senseless.

This group of radical "anti-drillers" as we have been called, are being unfairly labeled as Un-American? When in all honesty, most of us feel it is important to harvest the Barnett Shale in a responsible manor and NOT smack dab in the middle of an suburban environment. That can be nothing but common sense.

Seven decades ago when the Hilliard family bought that 96 acres of land in the middle of nowhere and probably for a very small amount of money. Did they know that all us city folk were eventually going to wander out to the country and develop and live and make a community of responsible citizens? Had they known that then maybe they would have settled further north. They had no earthly idea or premonition that a town would develop around them, I'm sure they settled there just to survive with a few crops and some live stock. Did they know they were sitting on a vast empire called the Barnett Shale? Hell, Barnett didn't even know that.

So now, 70 years later, Hilliard wants to cash in 10 thousand fold on his original investment and blight his new neighbors for his prospect of wealth?

Please plan to attend the Oil and Gas board meeting tomorrow at town hall at 6:30 and voice your displeasure, if you can't attend, send an email to environmentalservices@flower-mound.com to be entered on public record.

We do not want even a slightly remote chance of a catastrophe such as what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico to occur "in our back yards".

*title of thread courtesy of A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers. ( its a band)

Mr, Harlan Jefferson

I must say that last year during our town council dealings, I was at odds with Mr Jefferson and was a harsh critic of some of his statements. However, I will be the first to admit, I was wrong and I offer a humble apology.

Mr Jefferson's actions in the last few months have impressed me and the capper of all capers came early Monday morning following the election, Harlan instituted the Moratorium. He followed the will of the people and averted a bold move by Williams by cutting their request for the CCF by an hour. Who couldn't see it coming, Williams trying to sneak one in after their stunning defeat on Saturday.

A cold slap in the face to big business and a heroic gesture to the many residents that set the mandate.

Thank you again, Harlan, and I look forward to future discussions regarding phase two.

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

Yesterday was truly amazing.

As I watched the events wind down after two months of hectic, not knowing what was coming next feelings, it was over by 7:30 last night. The crowds at the Police and Courts Building were dizzying, the constant flow of traffic, all the same minded people not caring if it took an hour or 3 hours to get the task done, it was getting done. The volunteers finding that last wind to go out and stand in the blazing sun holding up a sign was more important than the simplicity of the task. The fact that we were one step ahead of the opposition in everything we did, from the NFL express shuttle, to food and water. The one difference was we were so focus driven they could not match that as hard as they tried.

As the first results rolled out on the TV screen, I knew then it had done what was planned and it couldn't have been scripted any more perfect.

The elation of everyone I ran into at the ZGrill was so euphoric, you could not help having a giddy smile on your face. The job was done and now was time to soak it in because a lot of hard work is yet to come.

To think that now the distinct possibility of not having a toxic waste storage unit in our town will become a reality. The possibility that the signs on Gerault and all up and down Morriss reminding us that Phase One is in progress could soon be obsolete since Phase One will be it. To think that phase two might just go away altogether is a true dream completed. I woke up, remembered it, and lived. To think that huge chunk of wilderness and trees that could have been The Riverwalk will probably remain a lot more tree than apartments makes every breath I take cleaner and sweeter.

All of it was such a wonderful effort by so many extraordinary people who's main goal was to keep breathing clean, sweet air and live in a town that the threat of it disappearing was now remote. That was truly all of our goals, the simplest of emotions drove us to this extraordinary feat we just completed.

When I woke up early this morning, I didn't care I had just got just over 4 hours of sleep before a work day. I went outside to the freshest of mornings with rain clearing the air an hour earlier and the light starting to creep into the eastern sky, it all felt so different. I got on the road and headed south and looked at my town differently, and thoughts of tasks ahead of how to save it behind me. I could take pleasure with it and a clear and evident peace surrounded it.

I can't wait for the day to change the name of this blog to Stopped Morriss 6.

I am sitting here drinking a cup of freshly roasted coffee. You know what? It tastes fantastic this morning. As a matter of fact I cannot remember last time I had a cup this good.

As most of you know last night was a victory for all StopMorriss6 supporters. Even more important it was a great day for democracy. For quite a while groups of residents have fought to have their voices heard by the current town leadership. Regardless of how hard we fought we had to listen to the same broken record; we will listen to you, but ultimately we will ignore you.

The issues that we fought had no party affiliations. What we wanted was a playing field, were our concerns would be taken seriously. We got tired of showing up at game time only to find out that the outcome was rigged.

Last year another group of residents, with completely different concerns came to the same conclusion. This time the issues ranged from urban gas drilling, centralized collection facility to pipelines.

Yesterday’s game had a different outcome. Why? We brought out the most determined players available. We played fair and we secured victory. As we move forward just remember that each and every one of YOU made this possible. All I can say is THANK YOU.

In a few days we will have a new leadership in town. They will face difficult decisions. The problems we are dealing with will not go away overnight, but I am convinced that this new leadership will be more receptive to preserving our town.

I like to congratulate our new referees, Mayor-elect Melissa Northern and new Council Member, Place 4 Steve Lyda. I also like to congratulate Council Member Al Filidoro on his re-election to Place 2 and Council Member Tom Hayden for his involvement on making this possible.

Enjoy your day,

Bjorn

Who has grass roots support?

I am amazed at the number of Northern-Filidoro-Lyda signs in the front lawns of neighborhoods in Wellington, Bridlewood, and along Morriss. They are everywhere! I am equally amazed at the number of Smith-Robinson-Webb signs in front of businesses and for-sale commercial lots. I even got a mailer yesterday from Mayor Smith with a big-name endorsement that she is a "true conservative". When did N-F-L become anti-business liberals? They aren't. In fact, N-F-L has decried the liberal use of Town funds quite vociferously. Truth is, it is hard to find a liberal in Texas whether you like them or not.

Businesses will have just as prosperous of an environment in Flower Mound with N-F-L as with anyone else. Developers will still be welcomed to Flower Mound to build the infrastructure that the people have asked for. And with N-F-L, mineral rights holders will still be able to collect royalties for their minerals; but the drilling/extraction company may actually be REQUIRED to use safe and responsible drilling practices. After all, this is a Town of 60,000+, not the middle of a desert.

GET YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS TO THE POLLS TOMORROW, and tell them the truth about the candidates! Because the uninformed voter may see the Smith-Robinson-Webb signs in front of their Kroger and vote for them. Or worse, they may think they are voting for fiscal conservatives!

Sorta Sad

As I drive to work every morning heading south on Morriss to the Airport, I can't help but get a little sad when I see them digging up the median on Gerault. It makes me start to think about last year when we spent endless nights at town hall and walking streets talking to people, standing on corners holding signs and trying to get the word out to everyone who would listen. I think about if we had only knocked on 30 more doors or sent out 30 more flyer's or got 30 more hits on the Blog, Steve Lyda would be celebrating a year on council instead of working so hard to get elected. I think about how when we first met Tom Hayden and he came to one of our meetings to hear what we were talking about and he was convinced we were just trying to get the message out to the town to do the right thing and not the thing that was prescribed in a document from 1978.

If we would have worked harder, last year we wouldn't have to be working so hard again this year to get the people elected that have the best interests of Flower Mound people like you and me and not faceless developers looking for big pay days.

Six years ago, I lost interest in Flower Mound politics when I heard a woman that had the developers best interests in mind and they ran out of town a hard working Mayor and council that wanted to be smart when they built. Gone was the scrutiny, gone was the humility, gone were the guts to fight for residents. We ushered in the Jody Smith era of this towns dirty little history of slimy politics. Its culminated now with Smith contributing large sums of money to her "running mates" just as she did last year. She has bought loyalty of her council members for paltry sums, but just enough for the Dixon's and Wallace's and Tasker's and Webb's and Stones and Robinson's and Levinick's to cow tow to her mantra and only reinforce her narcissistic neurosis.

One thing I am not sad about, is the fact that she is headed for defeat and she knows it. This town has finally woke up and will no longer bend to her whims and royalty like behaviors. No longer will she hide behind her "good conservative" "good christian" jingoism's and be revealed as a hypocrite.

If I am wrong and she somehow slithers back into office, I will be more that sorta sad or sorta mad.

I will probably just move.

Keep me as a neighbor, Elect Northern, Filidoro and Lyda.

Town Council Meeting

Last night was the last council meeting prior to the election. On the agenda was a vote to either accept the ordinance imposed by the petition or send it to a vote this November. Our friends and "good" neighbors from Oklahoma came in loaded for bear. WilliamsStone (Williams and Keystone, one in the same for our purposes) sent a mailer to all residents with a false statement regarding the intentions of the ordinance listed on the petition. They stated it was to place a moratorium on DRILLING, not what it was in reality a moratorium on issuing any type of building or rezoning for the Centralized Contained Facility or CCF. The petition wanted to have the town just wait to learn more info on the impact on such a facility on our entire community and the beginning of the industrializing of Flower Mound. Several of the opponents of the petition were there sporting stickers that were provided by WilliamStone was they entered.

They immediately claimed that those that signed the petition were miss informed, lied to, fear mongers, and overall just not nice people. That drilling was the American way and trotted out copies of the Constitution, told us to stop driving our cars, heating our houses and zoom right back to the stone-age. Us commie Marxist liberals wanted to take their rights away to drill for their minerals. Most was laughable.
The pro petition people were well armed also, stating facts, exposing lies, talking articulately on the issue and trying to beat through their heads they weren't against their ability to sell their minerals. Of course it didn't work.

Most of the PPP (pro petition people) were interrupted by hecklers in the audience or by the Mayor and her henchwoman Levenick for personal attacks. pounding away at the gavel.

I was there to read a statement prepared by Bjorn, that I will publish here, but I wasn't able to stay past the 3 hour mark and a lot of what Bjorn had written had been stated in one way or another by someone. Here it is:

Unfortunately I am unable to attend tonight’s Town Council meeting, but have asked Holly Berg to read my statement.



Another political campaign is coming to a close with less than a week to cast your vote.



When I got involved in local politics back in 2008 I was naive not knowing how much effort it would take to make a difference. Sometimes I even wondered if we as residents CAN make a difference.



Last year’s hot issue was the expansion of Morriss/Gerault. This year it is natural gas. What will next year bring on?



I am not going to preach what each and every one of you have promised to the residents of Flower Mound, but don’t forget we live here as well and I for one refuse to sit by while a slim majority of this council completely disregard the wishes of thousands of concerned residents.



As if that is not enough to I would like to read a paragraph from Mayor Smith’s re-election web site:



In any election you can expect a certain amount of mud slinging and negative press and this election has seen its fair share of detractors making statements about Mayor Smith that are distortions of facts or outright untruths to evoke fear for political gain. To her credit, Jody Smith is a conservative person who has chosen not to respond to gossip, rumor and innuendo that some may have heard or seen. Her intensely positive focus remains on running a campaign that is based in facts and highlights the experience and results gained as Mayor since 2004



It also state Progress, Integrity, Experience. While I am sure you have plenty of accomplishments to be proud of, your Integrity certainly need questioning.



While some of your supporters have blasted Al Filidoro and Melissa Northern I never envisioned you, as the current Mayor would to stoup to this level. At the News Connection debate you stated that you “selfishly” served this town. A simple miss statement. Do you see any TV commercials attacking you for this? You knew very well what Melissa Northern tried to say with regard to FM2499, but you still managed to twist the truth and mislead anyone not fully aware of what is going on in town. Way to go for a few votes.



You owe Melissa Northern as well as the residents of Flower Mound an apology.



What this town need is a Town Council with integrity and that is what Northern, Filidoro and Lyda will bring. And on behalf of the Stopp Morriss team I like to thank Tom Hayden and Al Filidoro for a great job so far.



Sincerely,



Bjorn Vandug



After many hours of public comments and some other issues, including Tom Hayden deferral of discussions of Phase 2 of Morriss Rd until after the election that was quickly accepted even by Steve Dixon (a real shock). They had discussions about the petition and decided they were not going to accept the will of 6000 registered voters that signed and defer it to a November election. Another shocker.

So a few hundred people left even more pissed off and supercharged for the last two days of voting.

By the way, the Mayor had her crack team of henchmen, lead by Councilman Mike Wallace's wife Amy, take down the giant signs at our dear friend and neighbor, Old man Hilliard's air field. I guess her guilt of be accused of being a liar finally got to her. She replaced them with an endorsement sign from our Oil Rich U.S. Congressman and fellow "good conservative" Dr. Michael Burgess. I guess WilliamStone got to him the same way they muscled "good conservative" ex-govenor of Arkansas and Presidential wannabee, Mike Huckabee. Those Oklahoma boys got a lot of loot to award Christmas Gooses to the whole damn Republican party to protect their "good conservatives" like our Mayor, the Teflon stewardess, Jody Smith.

For the record, Tom Hayden and Al Filidoro voted to accept the petition with no election.

Hiney Gate and the Huckabee Flip Flop

On Friday, April 16th, former Presidential Candidate and current radio commentator mentioned our local Hineygate caper in his daily radio address.

Here's the link. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redlasso.com%2FClipPlayer.aspx%3Fid%3D58812ac8-78b3-4898-a125-3a63246f752f&h=591f1

He mentioned sorta half jokingly about the irony of reverse sexual harassment by "two attractive females" and the unsuspecting male police officer. Oh the hilarity and hi jinx in those small Texas towns, a real knee slapper.

I agree the incident was pretty innocuous and didn't deserve as much press as it did, but the fact that a nationally syndicated commentator mentioned it and got our town the kind of press that isn't at all flattering.

But here are the facts: An incident occurred in a town government facility prior to an official Town Council meeting, otherwise known as "the workplace". A Police officer, on duty at the meeting is approached in an orchestrated fashion by The Mayor, (his boss) and The Mayor Pro-Tem in nothing short of an immature childish prank. The event is witnessed and reported to The Chief of Police. It is his responsibility to make a report on the incident not only for the protection of the officer, but the protection of himself as his superior. If he hadn't, he would be totally remiss in his responsibilities. Imagine if it has been a male mayor and a female police officer. The uproar would have been monumental.

It reminds me of the movie "Disclosure", back in 1994 with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. It was about a male being harassed by an ex-lover who has now become his boss.

Back to Hineygate, The Police Chief files the report and the town attorney investigated the incident and it was determined that there was no sexual harassment, the ladies apologized for their immature behavior and it went to die in some buried file in an undisclosed desk. No harm, no foul. But wait, somehow it leaked, oh wait it was an incident at a official town function, so bingo. IT'S PUBLIC RECORD. Much to the mayor's further embarrassment, it gets to the press and she is forced to comment on the event at a town council meeting on January 21st, which also happens to be the meeting with the largest attendance ever. The mayor proclaims that it as political and intended to make her look bad.

Flash forward about 2 months when the actual video tape of the goosing is released under freedom of information act and Channel 11 runs it as its lead story at 6 o'clock. The Mayor, in her brief sound bite, blames the police chief and claims to have been trying to fire him for months. (Plagiarized right from Disclosure).

Another embarrassment and a sign that our mayor does not act in the most prudent manner.

During the town hall debate of the Candidates two weeks ago, some of her opponents mentioned the Huckabee exposure as just that, exposure of the embarrassing kind and a trend of lack of judgement.

Flash forward to April 30th, in the heat of early voting. This time in the first minute of "The Huckabee Report", Mike chastises the Mayors opponents for using his words to discredit the Mayor. here is the Link: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=58812ac8-78b3-4898-a125-3a63246f752f

As you can see in Mike's flip flop is "he thought what the Mayor did was funny".

So here is the smoking gun. The officer works for the town in which his "harasser" is the Mayor. Now if you wanted to keep your job, wouldn't you publicly say "I guess I got my Christmas Goose early this year". We don't know and we shouldn't know what he told his superior the chief of police how he really felt out of fear of retribution. The Police Chief who again, was doing his job, and publicly was chastised by the mayor on local news of his poor job performance. Retribution for reporting a case of a hostile work environment? I'm surprised the lawyers aren't lined up at his door step on that one.

Mike thought it was funny? Well there is an answer for that also. I don't have to mention the election and the hundreds of thousands of dollars someone has spent for TV ads, Phone surveys, Several very expensive mailer and a PR wagon train a mile long. The very deep pockets of Williams Oil of Tulsa Oklahoma. I'm sure it didn't take much effort on Williams part to call ol' Mike and tell him our bruised, yet "fine conservative" mayor was in trouble. So blatant you could drive a truck through it.

I can't wait for the Movie, Disclosure II.