Is the water park economically feasible?
Consider this
After receiving $100 million in publicly funded incentives the water park developers now have 18 months to decide whether to go through with the project.
We have given away the store, our funds and future are now tied up while the developers try to figure out if we have given them enough money.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
To SELL the franchise or SELL the IDEA to INVESTORS, looks like they make the most ridiculous deals . . and . . THEN . . TRY and sell the package to INVESTORS.
Great Wolf went on a fishing expedition to find some sucker city to take a deal.
(Maybe they read these posts and other blogs and see how litigious this project is and what the TAXPAYERS think of it.)
Gander Mountain Sporting Goods lasted 1 year here, before they figured out there is NO WATER for the canoes they sell or swim gear or ski outfits or fishing gear or hunting gear.
There is hardly any place to even shoot guns or fire and test rifles or practice without the Border Patrol Blimp SEEING them in the desert and calling the Sheriff.
Because of Illegal Aliens. . . the deserts are constantly watched from above.
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Cabelas will soon get that message, too. Unfortunately.
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Actually, I’m glad to hear the Border Patrol is calling the Sheriff. A couple of years ago I was trail riding in the desert and had a bullet whistle by my ear so close I could feel the breeze it generated. Some idiot was shooting out into the desert and the bullets were traveling further than he could see. From the speed of fire he had probably also modified his weapon to full automatic. I yelled and he stopped and when we rode up close enough to see him he was turning his target so it was facing away from open desert. My friends and I weren’t the only people out that day. It was Christmas Eve and a bunch of kids on motocross bikes were also out. The desert is a shared recreational resource. I don’t mind sharing it with shooters following basic gun safety rules. But folks who shoot high powered weapons into the desert without regard to who may run into their line of fire need a visit from the Sheriff. Hopefully, this hotel will have difficulty finding investors for a project that only makes geographic sense to our City Council. My guess is we are being used to sweeten the Scottsdale deal and it that happens this probably won’t.
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Comments thus far today show why public officials and their puppeteers are able to get away with this stuff. Taxpayers have attention deficit disorder and cannot stay focused on the important issues. One minute we’re talking about misuse of tax dollars and public assets and the next minute we’re more concerned about whether we can shoot guns and ride dirt bikes.
Maybe we’re getting what we deserve.
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You got it. Thanks for your comment.
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Actually, I’ve voted against all this foolishness and the folks behind it including Margo. There is nothing attention deficit about my focus in voting in every election against the stupidity of our local donor-owner politicians. And I don’t ride a dirt bike. I ride a horse. My point in mentioning kids on dirt bikes was to point out that idiot shooters have a lot of accidental targets in the desert. I brought the topic up because of the complaint of another commenter about the Border Patrol sending the Sheriff out on shooters. It seemed like a good opportunity to inject an educational moment into the recreational shooting community because that near miss taught that folks apparently aren’t getting the same education my dad gave me when he taught my brothers and I how to shoot. I’m sorry another commenter feels it is necessary to play topic police and be insulting in the process. The reality is most of the commenters here are on the same side. We don’t have a problem finding things to do on own in El Paso without taxpayer incentives. We understand what debt and overdevelopment is doing to destroy this community. It is particularly hard on the horse owner community because open spaces in farm areas are shrinking and what’s left is getting paved so cyclists can ride faster in rural areas. There is really no need to fight among ourselves or insult each other, particularly since we are a minority in this community in terms of voting strength. Once our open areas are gone we will just be a high tax area with a lot of chain amenities and nothing unique. Kinda like the 20 something kid who maxes his or her credit card to look rich at the dance club. That never ends well.
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Your agonized comment here and most of those below do not relate to the posting about the folly that Council and Commissioners have engaged in about this Great Wolf Lodge nonsense. The GWL development now is next to I-1, not a great place for horses..but that is not the main issue with this proposal as far as debt is concerned…
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Nobody’s mentioned how much money we’ve spent already or are going to spend on water-based entertainment venues. We paid about $1 million each for 8 “splash parks” (one in each district) plus another special splash park for dogs. Then I understand the city has approved building possibly 8 fancier special-themed “water parks” (again, one for each district) at a price I don’t know yet but must surely be more than $1 million apiece that was spent on the basic splash parks. So now the GWL is an indoor water park probably intended for travelers and by the way, wasn’t an indoor water park also planned for the northeast makeover of the diablos stadium site? I’m feeling waterlogged just thinking about all the money wasted on these wet dream brainstorms.
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Hey, water attractions are a Tommy-boy specialty. Apparently he feels showing a track record of aquatic center expertise is important on his resume—that helped start this stupidity.
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Where El Taxo politicians are concerned and the Developers THEY support, REPRESENT, nothing is ever enough, or limited when THEY are taking, stealing from US. Whatever the Developers, “Carpet baggers” want, El Taxo politicians will GIVE them. Inherent corruption. Ball fields, Arenas, sports complexes, etc
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We can EACH go to Great Wolf Lodge on facebook and TELL them, as El Paso Taxpayers, we DO NOT WANT GREAT WOLF !
And that WE do not want to substitize their water park.
post that . . right on their facebook page.
Right along with other “responses” and “comments.”
They read these comments.
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I will definitely post on their FB. This is just another shafting of taxpayers by the local politicians. Just like their ball field, the Arena, EVERYTHING else THEY want and want to force US to pay for. Walmart builds a new store for customers, McDonalds, a Franchisee opens a new store and neither of them EXPECTS taxpayers to pay for it, except with the consumer business WE give THEM. These uneducated politicians need to use all the Lobbyist THEY pay, “Friends and Family” to build businesses that provide, GROW JOBS. A Ford plant, Chevy plant, electronics, FedEx, UPS terminals, Distribution centers.?? But all the POLITICIANS can manage is “Jobs” for $5 an hour to sell hot dogs, beer, rake the grass, sweep the floor, clean up, mop up, clean the hotel, clean the pool. Apparently this is what gets THEM the biggest pay offs, campaign “Donations”, back-pocket money. Mountain Star Sports did not even exist until they came to El Taxo, CONSPIRED with the Mayor, City Council to FORCE taxpayers to build them a ball field and then FORCE us to pay for it. And the PRICE of that scam continues to grow all the time.
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