Here is Your County Judge for Life shaking hands with his brother in law, Contractor John Erwin, millions, millions of dollars in that palm to palm handshake. Make it stop.
Amazing to me that there isn’t a crowd of angry taxpayers at the Courthouse. Year after year, project after project, you have Judge Scott Felton and our Commissioners, who, by the way, have given themselves raises, giving the County money to Scott Felton’s contractor BROTHER IN LAW JOHN ERWIN.
Felton just keeps getting elected and sliding moneys over to Erwin’s Construction firm.
John Erwin is Scott Felton’s Brother in Law, folks, this is nepotism at its finest.
Vote out all these crooked Commissioners, AND, this County Judge in the next elections.
How many times are they going to prove to you they don’t care about YOUR families, just theirs.
Millions and millions of dollars, now, even more, but, hey, no outcry so why the hell not?
The jail when it was built forty years ago was called “Bobby’s Folly” back then, Bobby Thomas was our County Judge, it was not adequate, problems constantly for overcrowding, and now we have THIS, another folly, this time blatant nepotism.
You are getting what you deserve if you keep voting these crooks into office.
The next time you see Scott Felton, please let him know that YOU KNOW.
What a place.
H
Downtown Waco jail conversion to cost more than thought (wacotrib.com)
Back in December 2021, McLennan County thought remodeling the old downtown jail and creating courtroom space would cost $34 million.
But what a difference inflation, time and a closer look at the particulars can make. The likely price now hovers between $44.7 million and $55.9 million, depending on the assorted bells and whistles county officials, including McLennan County commissioners, choose to include. And since work will occupy three years, the pricing landscape may change again, County Judge Scott Felton said.
Space has become critical as the Texas Legislature in the spring of 2021 authorized the creation of Waco’s 474th State District Court, the sixth state district court in Waco, as well as a third county court-at-law.’
“There have been discussions on which courts will be housed in the new facility but nothing is finalized,” County Administrator Dustin Chapman said by email. “The thought is to have as many ‘criminal courts’ in that building as possible to help with security measures.”
Felton said the county this summer will sell up to $20 million in certificates of obligation to address the shortfall. The sale will not necessarily mean a tax rate increase, though commissioners have begun crunching numbers as they prepare a budget for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Listing other revenue sources, Felton said the county has at its disposal about $19 million from previous bond issues, and $14 million to $19 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act allocations. Toss in $20 million in new bonds, and the county would have nearly $60 million to work with.
Chapman said the remodel includes work on floors one through five of the gutted downtown jail, adjacent to the McLennan County Courthouse, and on the third floor of the courthouse annex.
Starting at $34 million, the estimated cost had climbed to $46 million in August 2022. It was then the county removed elements valued at about $6 million deemed not essential, Chapman said. Wish-list losses include removing the skybridges linking the courthouse, the jail and the annex; renovating the courthouse exterior; and building a clock tower.
Discussions have heated up between commissioners, the Brinkley Sargent Wiginton architectural firm that specializes in jail design, and John W. Erwin General Contractor, which will oversee the transformation.
“They provided plans, we reviewed the plans, and have gone back and forth on what the different areas should look like,” Chapman said.
Nothing we can do, the machine is too big, good ol boy in place.
Best we can do is pray the Grim reaper gets them and HELL is waiting for them.
sad but true
I voted against every time. That pic says a thousand words. One is the Cheshire cat, the other one looks like he can’t make eye contact, trying to escape quickly. Both thinking of all the free money they just acquired! Criminals!
How do they face people? One of my best friends told me he had NO IDEA that they were brothers in law. I had no idea either and once considered myself informed. Tell your friends, share my blog with others, it’s unreal and NOW WE KNOW. All we have is humiliation, ask the little bastards about it. They look guilty.
It’s amazing, absolutely,