Congratulations, Lubbock. While other cities are out here building functional infrastructure or attracting industries that don’t involve livestock, we are busy spending $375,000 on “new schematics” for an Expo Center that currently exists only in the fever dreams of local developers and the nightmares of our tax accounts. We’ve already lit $7.5 million on fire for this project, and according to County Judge Curtis Parrish, we’ve effectively gotten a whole lot of nothing for it.
The latest “progress” involves hiring Parkhill to draw some pretty pictures of a venue off North Loop and University. Project leader Randy Jordan insists the people of Lubbock “need” this facility because we’re the largest city in Texas without a proper place to host “dirt events.” God forbid the Hub City goes another year without a state-of-the-art facility specifically designed for professional mud-shuffling and cow-loitering.
The drama at the Commissioners Court hit a peak when Judge Parrish tried to suggest radical ideas—like, you know, actually having the private funding secured by June or making sure there’s enough money in the bank to keep the lights on for twenty years. But the rest of the commissioners apparently prefer to live on a prayer. Jordan basically admitted that the economy has tanked their original savings goals, so the solution is naturally to just lower our expectations and keep spending.
Lee Lewis Construction is “hopeful” for a full plan by winter, which is local government speak for “don’t hold your breath unless you’re prepared to turn blue.” It’s a bold strategy to keep throwing money at a construction site that has gone through “dozens” of versions without actually becoming a building, but hey, that’s the Lubbock way.
At this rate, by the time the Expo Center actually opens, the “dirt events” it was built for will probably be archaeological digs to find where all our tax money went.
