Sunday, May 30, 2010

Summer Time Summer Time, Sum-Sum-Summer Time











So what is summer time without a dip in the pool right? I know my family and I love to go swimming the summer nights we have around here.  But this weekend I was surprised to find out how many visitors to Gonzales love to come here to go swimming too. The problem is, you and I are paying for their enjoyment. Let me explain.

We currently have a rodeo here in town.  Now I've been telling people that these people come complete. They are not your typical convention that tours your town, eats at your restaurants,  buying things throughout town, but never did I expect to see pools lining the trailers as I drove by.  These pools range from 500 gallon pools to the couple that you see above that hold 3000+ gallons of water each.  I could see 7 pools and well over 10,000 gallons of water being used by these visitors to our fine arena.

Now each of these people pay $20 for the nights stay.  Nothing stops them from dumping their pool and filling it back up as needed like the one below that had been drained till later.

When I drove by to take some pictures there were 7 kids in one waving at us wanting us to take their pictures, so here we go.

Now the $20 a night is for the use of electricity and water for their stay, but there has to be a reasonable clause. The $20 a night is made for "normal" usage.

So a couple of things come to mind after seeing these pools (by the way I could only see the pools lined up on Hwy 183, not the ones inside the compound). Ten thousand gallons of water for just the pools I saw definitely does not help the city trying to get the cost losses of the arena under control.  This is an added expense that goes beyond reasonable to expect us as local tax payers to pay for.

Second, we have a public pool that was open 2 blocks away.  Not only would it not cost us anymore for these visitors to visit our pool, we'd actually make money if they visited.  We'd be better off if we gave every slot rented 2 tickets to the pool instead of letting just those pools I saw being filled.

Third comes the fact that either we have a rule against this and it's not being enforce, or our city manager has allowed this to be overlooked. I'm sure Doc Graham is pleased to let it be overlooked but as a taxpayer in this community I'm pretty upset. This needs to be addressed immediately.  This is a case that either a simple clause needs to be inserted into or rental agreement or enforced if it's already there.

If you live in a trailer park or an apartment complex where they pay the water, there are always clauses that exclude swimming pools, washing cars, and other water activities that would run up the water bill unfairly.  Why would anyone visiting here expect anything less?

$200,000+ lost last year at the arena. I've already mentioned the commissary issue that needs to be gotten under control.  Let's look at these couple of dollars here.  Let's get our council to appoint a real committee that will put real world recommendations on how to control the losses, what to do to turn the arena profitable. Some of these issues that are plain as day to anyone that will look, others are going to take a deeper look.  But maybe that's the problem.  Maybe those who've been running the city don't really want the answers to be out in the public. They've gotten good at hiding the truth, is this just one more case of it?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

This was brought by a tip from another concerned tax payer! Thanks, you know who you are.

26 comments:

  1. This makes me very angry!!! I'm going to go buy one of these pools at walmart, fill it, and tell the city I only want to pay $20 for the water I use to fill it!!!!! Does it ever STOP????

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  2. And who knows how many times they will be refilled all week? I also saw 100's of RV's with bbq grills and popups over picnic tables. Which shows that money isnt being spent in town. Maybe over at Circle G when they run out of drinks or just need a nice air conditioned place to go chill out in but I don't see them coming into town like you would think.

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  3. mizchief1@msn.comMay 31, 2010 at 7:12 AM

    we saw people from the rodeo grounds buying some supplies (temporary fencing,wasn't cheap) at tractor supply. we regularly see arena users in tractor supply buying supplies and eating out at some of the restaurants. my point is, some of them do spend money in town, though I'm not making any claims as to how much.

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  4. I won't deny there is some money spent. I know Circle G gets visitors. I think even the Rodeo Restaurant, and I'm betting on the week long ones like this even E-Barr gets some visitor.

    The deal is that if you have a standard gathering (convention, activity, fair, sponsored event) then those people come to town, they rent hotel rooms, they eat somewhere there in town, and during their visits they will walk your downtown and hopefully make some purchases.

    I personally have seen may of our small towns throughout Texas going to state conventions for different organizations I belonged too. It's a great way to see the state. While there I would eat at least 2 meals on the economy, and always had time to see what the town had to offer. It was the running joke as to how many towns my car had pulled into a Walmart into also as my mother-in-law couldn't pass up a local Walmart.

    With that the local community would get my hotel tax (I'm not sure what Gonzales is at, but it's generally between 10%-20%) and tax on my food, and of course tax on anything we purchased.

    The rodeo crowd is a different type of 'gathering' if you will. And please don't misunderstand, I'm thrilled they are here, but these aren't The Elks type crowd when they travel.

    For the most part they come self contained. They pull up in their RV's, cook in their trailers, and pull up and leave when it's done. It's nothing against our town. These families travel week in and week out, and it's the only way they can afford to do this.

    The percentage of those eating out, staying in hotels, and 'seeing the sites' is nothing compared to the normal gathering that visits.

    Let's also look at a simple number, for us to make up the $200,000 loss, we would have to sell over $10,000,000 (yes that's millon) worth of goods to break even at our 2% tax rate (remember state is 6.25% of the 8.25%). It just doesn't happen.

    Every visitor to Gonzales is a good thing. It's potential that they will revisit, or will tell someone about Gonzales who will come visit. Our arena is built, and we need to utilize it. The problem this article talks about is an abuse by these visitor, and unfortunately it's more wide spread than I would of thought.

    But in the whole 'expand the JB Wells' controversy we run into a few other issues, like who's running this show? The city council or Doc Graham? Now that the spot light is on the arena, why is it being run so poorly and at a loss to the tax payers? And where in the heck would we come up with $5,000,000 when we are already down $2,300,000 of our $5,000,000 savings since David Huseman took over? These aren't unreasonable questions that everyone in town should be asking their councilman.

    God Bless,
    Dennis Nesser

    PS, remember a vet today!

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  5. It's nothing against these visitors either. This is strictly a city management issue. JB Wells loses money. Period. And when we charge $20 per day for unlimited electricity and water then the visitors fills up a swimming pool, we just lost money AGAIN. Heck, I bet with some of those rigs at the arena, even if they dont fill up a pool, we are still losing money on the electricity.

    But until we can have some better management of JB Wells, we will continue to lose money. Dennis touched on the loss in the concessions area. One of two things are happening, 1) "hands in the till" or 2) too much product minus low sales = shrinkage (loss of product). Until the city decides to do some analysis of whats going on out there we will continue to lose money.

    Not sure if everyone realizes, but we pay, yes PAY, YRA, TYRA, and Wrangler to come here and have their rodeo. We paid last year $153,396 in incentives for these rodeos to come here. Seems like there is something wrong with this equation. Not sure how much sales we would have to do to recoup these incentive fees!!!!

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  6. Ok I understand that Dr. Graham is a supporter of the arena. However, we should not see him as a bad perosn for wanting to better the town. Yes he does own the busines across the road form the arena. I am pretty sure that everybody had a chance to buy that land when it was for sale. Yes Dr. Graham did throw the city a curve ball by just throwing the additioal arena in a last minute thing. However you look at it he was wanting to expand something that could help the city out.

    Something else i have been reading about on here. People talk about staing in hotels. Does Gonzales have enough hotels for people to stay in ( in reference to the youth rodeo finals there now). I am going to venture out and say no there are not enough rooms.

    I did see many people that were visting the towns establishments throught the weekend. Just for example I will List a few: 5 men in HEB buying food ( there was more than half full basket for each man) The City Market was pretty full with what looked like to me was rodeo people on monday and Waterburger was well over half full monday evening for supper When I drove by.

    The Water issue I understand. That does need to be addressed for two reasons. One the cost the pump and treat the water, second to help conserve our natral rescorces that we have.

    These are just my thoughts and opions that may be really right or they could be really wrong. It just depends on you thoughts.

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  7. I dont believe Dr Graham is a bad person, I do, however, believe that he has a self-serving agenda. Why do you think he wanted an arena expansion? So the citizens of Gonzales could enjoy it? NO! He wanted the expansion so he could reap the benefits for his store directly across the highway. No one says the rodeo'ers NEVER spend ANY money but they are self contained. Look at the tax revenue report from the comptrollers office, have your city councilman get you a copy. Look at it, analyze it and decide for yourself, does the income (or lack thereof) constitute the expense.

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  8. The store across the street is only a small part of the picture for Dr. Graham. Whenever there is an event, cutting horses, rodeo, etc., guess whose steers get used? Bingo, you got it, Graham Cattle, oh and not for free... No, he is not a bad person, but if anyone has reaped a great deal of benefit from JB Wells, it is him... If he wants the expansion, let him go out on a limb and raise and invest the money needed to do so... Then and only then should we take these folks serious...

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  9. I do think Mr Graham has a lot of self interest. The thing that upsets me about Mr. Graham is that he literally thinks he can buy our council. A direct quote from Mr. Graham was "That was the cheapest council I ever bought." So yeah, I have a bit of an issue with someone who thinks he can purchase our city council.

    I have a horrible issue with the way this illegal committee was created (that falls on Mr. Huseman), and this special called meeting at the last minute that no one was able to be notified about in a reasonable manner.

    I do NOT have an issue with Mr. Graham making money on his enterprises. I do have an issue for us as taxpayers to pay his way to make more money when we are loosing money on what we have. Again, I think that arena should be making money. And I think that if private industry wants to pay the $5,000,000 in expansions we should be grateful for it. But I'm not ready to put a dime of taxpayer money into a project when we can't manage what we have, and the only person who is going to make money is Dr. Graham.

    As I explained earlier, I'm not saying no one from the rodeo purchases anything. I'm saying they don't purchase like a normal convention would, because of them being self contained.

    And you're right, we don't have enough hotel rooms to handle all of them in hotels. But rodeo riders do not as a percentage stay in the hotels.

    And last, comes the fact they still are not purchasing $10,000,000 worth of goods in Gonzales to pay for the $200,000 loss, or the $7,500,000 to cover the $153,000 we paid to have these rodeos come to Gonzales. So where is the business sense in it?

    You'll note there are several people throughout my blog that disagree. One of the things I believe in is that we can and should be able to discuss issues. That we ALL should look at both sides and be able to at least agree that there might be some valid points.

    Doc Graham is an employer in this town. I'm not sure how many hands he has total, but I'm certain that there is money made at HEB and Walmart every day because of his business sense. For that everyone in Gonzales should be grateful. But that buys him no more privileged than you or I at our city government.

    And in all honesty, I blame those in elected and hired offices in our city for thinking otherwise more than I think ill of Mr. Graham. They are the ones who took and oath, or are responsible to the citizens of this city. He's responsible to his businesses, and making sure he can turn a profit. It's every business owners job, and he does his job well.

    God Bless,
    Dennis

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  10. It is my understanding the city manager or city council (whom ever is in charge here) provided a special deal on the RV spots - besides the several thousand dollars we paid to the organization to come to Gonzales this year. They are renting this week for $14 a day not $20... This is beside the dozen-plus RV spots the city gave to the rodeo organizers... Go figure - it is only tax dollars!

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  11. Dr. Graham my be just a regualr business man that likes to make money. Who doesnt?? however if you will look at how he started, it was in the equine indstury. I like to call that a horse enthusiast. So what who provides the cattle for cuttings or other events. Who else has enough cattle to do it that is close. And no he shouldn't do it for free. if you think he is making alot of money then you need to go back to animal science 101. Cattle lose weight when stressed, science tells us that.

    Yes there needs to be some mangement problems changed and can be. However it needs to have some influince by someone that is in that type of world and can advise the big diesion makers what others are doing. You dont have to re-invent the wheel.

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  12. I have seen many rodeo families eating at The Rodeo Restaurant, Mi Lupitas, today Docs was packed, Tuesday night the Cow Palace was packed. I have been in Wal Mart twice this week and there have been many people from the rodeo, also my step daughter works at HEB and she said that every night she has worked rodoe people have been coming in. What about South Texas Trailer Sales, I have seen many many rodeo trucks in that parking lot. Ok say that you were a family at JB Wells park and you have your whole family, mother, father, son, daughter, I know that I would go buy groceries and eat some meals bar b qued, cooked on my stove in my trailer that is hooked up to an RV site. Not every one has the money to eat out at a restaurant, feed 4 mouths 3 times a day for 7 days add that up, do you have that kind of money?? Wait and also pay for RV, stalls, entry fees, shavings. I know I have been there and done that. Also if you would go down to the arena and see whats going on, what other event is held in Gonzales that brings this many people to this town. The concession stand at JB Wells Arena is doing quite well I have been to every rodeo performance and every time that I have been there you have to wait in line to order your food.

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  13. Yes the concession stand does very well BUT it too is operating at a LOSS. Check out the city financials for the concession stand. It alone LOSES money!

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  14. Yes I am upset about the pools also, but what about the way they drive all over the grass! They seem to not care about the rules about not parking on the outside the park and trailers being pulled up over the side out by the highway. If the City had put up the fence like they should have done then you wouldn't see all the new roads made by the new traffic. It infuriates me to see the way people disrespect the property. But again the city does not seem to care or the management at least. Why can't some one step up and enforce the rules?????? Oh but that might hurt someone feelings or make them mad and not what to come back. To BAD show some respect!

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  15. I saw the exact same thing yesterday. They (the participants) made their own little road from the new rv sites north to the couty road. I am assuming for quicker access to the river. The city put up 3 small barricades to stop it but they just drove around it. If it was a local citizen the police dept would arrest them for criminal mischief and destruction of property. Come on City & JB Wells mgmt, get your ACT TOGETHER!!!

    Oh and by the way, is the city renting all the little golf carts that I see driving around??

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  16. I have heard, but no one will confirm for me, though there is a lot of nod nod, wink wink when I ask, about the $125 for 10 days instead of the $200.

    And yes we give up some spots to organizers.

    And yes the concessions are selling. Problem is last year we purchased $85,000+ worth of goods, and sold them for $65,000 (give or take a few pennies). So either there is to much spoilage/loss or someones hand is in the till an no one is bothering to watch it.

    Again, I repeat, YES these people spend some money here, but not on the percentage a normal convention would. And since we're running at a $200,000 loss out at JB Wells, these people (not use, just the rodeo visitors) would have to spend $10,000,000 to make up that loss. You really think they are spending anywhere close to that? If so just watch for the state sales tax report to come out and cry then.

    Dr Graham is a shrewd business man. He didn't make it where he is because he's stupid. Anyone who thinks that is nuts. And I don't blame him for trying what he's tried. But right now we need some one to step up and run the arena like a business it is, excluding 'good ole boy' desires around here, and getting things under control. There is no reason that arena is loosing the amount of money it is!

    After that if private industry would like to come to the table and explain how expansion is going to look and where the funds are going to come from, then I say we need to talk! Until we are under control with what we have, that master plan is just a waste of paper.

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  17. I am respoding to the peron that thinks there is destruction of property. Where do you see this. I see a feild that is not improved what so ever being drove through. There has never been any plant upgrade other than the johnsongrass that was floated in by the flooding.

    Also, How would you compare a "normal" convention to the wrangler jr. rodeo finals. I never knew that gonzales has had a convention. If so please repond, I would love to know. The only thing that I can remeber is the large bands that come to town and the city poile decided to not let people come to the concert because the bikers were wearing their colors (even if they were a christain bases colors on some of them).

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  18. the horses drink from those pools. there are no other watering facilities. if our kids swim there also, its just to keep them occupied and out of trouble.

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  19. If you'll read my original comment, the pools I saw had kids swimming in it wanting us to take their pictures. Never once did I see a horse drinking out of a 5000 gallon pool! If there aren't drinking facilities, then again our city has failed to recognize and rectify a serious situation.

    There was one city employee (that will remain nameless to protect the stupid) that told us "well they used 4 hoses from 4 different spots so it would go fast filling the pool"...he couldn't understand that it still took 5000 gallons of water even if it didn't take as long to fill the pool. Are you trying to tell me that a horse (or any amount of horse a family is going to bring) drinks 5000 gallons of water in a week? Really?

    I never said Gonzales has had any conventions (that is a whole other rant and rave). I'm telling you from having run conventions for state organizations what is considered normal for a city to expect when a convention of any size shows up in your town. Look through Chamber of Commerce material. You'll see why chambers clammer to get conventions to their towns, it's because they make money. Hotel taxes alone generally run 10-20% (if I read correctly ours is 13%). The normal convention will have 90%+ of their people staying in hotels, not 10%.

    The normal convention will have 99% of the meals eaten on the economy, either through catering, eating in the hotel restaurant, or going out to eat.

    Many conventions arrange activities in the towns for spouses, or even the attendees that bring them into town to show them the sites at an additional fee. And almost all would have free time set aside specifically for the conventioneers to go visit the local economy.

    As for the grass, the fact is that there were barricades put up so that people would use the roads put in by the city to enter and exit the property. Our guest ignored the barricades and drove right around them. It was at least inconsiderate of them to do so. I'm not sure it was criminal, but I am sure it was inconsiderate.

    Please note, and read my blog and my update from 6/7 that I'm NOT against the arena. I'm against the mismanagement of the arena, and even in this blog I consider these pools to be a city issue that needs addressing. Any general manager of a private business would of slapped his head and taken care of the minute it was realized. This is NOT a difficult solution to fix. You ban these large pools. You let people know there is a city pool with life guards in the adjacent park and you send them that away!

    God Bless
    Dennis Nesser

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  20. Mr. Nesser, After reading all these articles I have become angry, first of all you have made a comment about the concession stand "hands in the till" have YOU ever met these wonderful people who work there, they are all well know people of the community no one there would do something like that. These men and women are loyal and trusted workers. Second issue I have is SO WHAT if a few of these people had pools, having one myself my water bill only went up by $20.00. And I hope the arena expands. Have a wonderful day.
    Full supporter of the arena expansion.

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  21. Its the principal of the matter. That's SO WHAT! JB Wells was originally give to the city for a PARK, not an arena. It is for the citizens of Gonzales, for all citizens, not a select few that rodeo. Why would you expand something that loses money every year, when we, the city, do not have a handle on what we have now? Nothing against anyone that works in the concession stand but there is something wrong there. The city should have gotten control of that a long time ago, there is no accountability. If I worked in the concession stand, I would want a inventory before and after my "shift" so that my name would be cleared if anything does disappear. Its called CYA. As well, I hope you have a wonderful day. Full NON-SUPPORTER of the arena expansion.

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  22. Wait a minute, I said that one of 2 things is happening at the concession. It's a simple matter of business. When you purchase $80,000 worth of goods, that SHOULD be bringing in well over $200,000 in sales, and less than $60,000 is turned into the city we have a problem.

    There are only 2 things that can be happening.

    1) There is mismanagement that is causing spoilage and waste. This would reduce the amount of product that can be sold to reach that amount.
    2) There is theft of product or money.

    Give me another explanation and I'll be more than happy to listen. But as a business person, to have included running food services, I know this is where profits on food services go.

    I know there is a way to easily clear those great city employees. It's called inventory. It's done in EVERY private business that survives and makes a profit. It clears ALL those involved. Kind of like a dna exempts those who are innocent. If I worked for the commissary I would DEMAND that they do that before and after my shift to make sure I was never accused of anything.

    As for the pools, those pools are approximately $30-$40 of water each. These visitors DID NOT PAY FOR THESE SERVICES! They paid for reasonable electricity and water usage for their RV! This is called THEFT in most cases!

    So it is a matter of principle in both of these cases. And I for one am tired of paying for other peoples mistakes, cause guess where that money has to come from? You got it our city taxes!!! If our city manager had a clue none of this would be happening!

    I'm all for expansion, but only if it's done the right way.

    God bless,
    Dennis

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  23. The $200K loss can be attributed to capital improvements to the arena not an operating loss. Capital improvements are deprecitated and not expensed into one operating year as you and others are doing. The capital improvements totaled more than $200K which were additional RV hookups, Big Fans for showbarn, stall barn, and arena, and power washer to clean the facility. So in reality the arena is more than breaking even when you take out the capital improvements and that doesn't take into account the economic benefit that is gained by the city businesses. Also besides paying $20/day for a hookup most of these individuals are paying $20/day/stall which most have at least 3 horses so that is another $60/day to stay on the grounds. They also have to buy shavings for the stalls which are $8/bag and it usually takes 4-5 bags for each stall and has to be stripped and rebedded after 3 or days. So in reality the RV spots are paying alot more than $20/day to be able to stay at the arena. With stalls, bedding, and hookups you are looking at an average of about $112/day just to park at the arena for one trailer.

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  24. I would like to thank the perosn for pointing out that the users of the JB Wells Arena are spending more than just the $20/ day to use the RV. It is funny when people who talk about subjects that don't know about them. If a person was around that type of events just twice a year they would realize what really goes on.

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  25. The Arena is the feature on this website http://bestarenas.com/.
    Well I feel this is some pretty good advertisement for the JB Wells arena. We as a community should be happy we have this great resource in our great town.

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  26. So I've done some checking to some of the comments here, and some of this will be in another blog later, but here's some facts:

    1) The $200,000+ loss does not include any depreciation. It does include less than $20,000 in capital improvements (not $200,000 but $20,000).

    2) We pay back to the finals 40% of the hookup fees we collect. So out of the $20 we get $12, for unlimited electric and water. Of that there were deals cut for $120 / 10 days, of which we still owe the association 40% ($48), so we got $72 to unlimited utilities for those 10 days.

    I'm thrilled we have this facility around, now if someone will just manage it like a facility of this quality deserves to be managed I'd be tickled pink.

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