Many hill country people have been following the Flying J story in Junction; a poster child for ongoing threats to Hill Country rivers due to a lack of rules and oversight. View this video, read final testimony to the City of Junction below.
City Main St. Truck Stop Annexation, Shifted?
February 19, 2015
by Bill Neiman
Only two – 10 minute Public Hearings are required; giving citizens voice before accepting responsibility to provide perpetual City Services. City taxes will be used to provide services for 2 acres of convenience stores, 14 fueling lanes, 3 restaurants, 8 truckers showers and several traveler bathrooms… all constructed in the flood plain with one-way in and one-way out.
Additionally, 6 acres of 18-wheeler overnight truck parking built in the river floodway will be incorporated into the City Limits. These 74 overnight diesel-idling sleepers will berth every product-cargo known to man on your Main Street entry and perilously close to the banks of my Llano.
All City liabilities related to water, sewerage, stormwater runoff, flood control, underground petroleum storage, traffic safety, lighting, fencing, landscape screening, signage, air emissions, noise abatement, hazardous spills, drug enforcement, pornography, prostitution, fire and police protection are included.
A private absentee landowner and an out of state corporation demand Junction and its ratepayers agree to NEVER enforce Public Nuisance Ordinances and to grandfather-exempt all plumbing, electrical and construction ordinances pertaining to the Truck Stop.
The following words adapted by Winston Churchill after a great disaster.
Now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which then might have affected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Bible. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind.
Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring siren …these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
Here’s to hoping for a more robust future for city and citizens alike.
Bill Neiman & Family on the Llano River
Downstream farmer/irrigator/stakeholder
Also read: Stormwaters Brewing on the Llano River
Learn more: Llano River Watch