The election

The big election is Tuesday, and here in Brazoria County the voters will decide if the taxpayers want to go into the wedding reception/auto show/rodeo business.

Reading the papers, the "pro side" seems to feel that Brazoria County needs to catch up with Fort Bend, Montgomery and Harris counties.

"We aren’t a sleepy little county anymore," a gasbag on the Pearland City Council told The Facts.

A retired yahoo in Manvel opined to the Chronicle's This Week reporter: "It'll bring a lot of visitors."

The retired yahoo was talking about the 322,350-square-foot convention and exposition center that will be on the ballot. It'll only cost $38.5 million.

It's the most expensive of the three projects that a 31-member Blue Ribbon committee studied and will inclde a covered open-air arena with seating for 4,000, an adjacent 126,000-square-foot covered pavilion and a 120,000-square-foot convention and meeting facility.

I'm just a lonely voice here in Brazoria County, but to tell you the truth, I don't want a lot of visitors coming down here. I don't want to pay for anyone's wedding receptions or auto shows and I don't go to the rodeo. If I did go to the rodeo, I think it'd be OK to go to it where they've been having for the last 50-something years. Slap some paint on it and tidy it up a bit and it'll be fine.

I like Brazoria County just the way it is. Lonely, dull, full of wide open spaces, no traffic, a place where kids ride their bikes to school, the people are fat and don't care and there isn't much traffic.

If you want a different lifestyle, you can move to Fort Bend, Montgomery or Harris counties, is the way I look at it. You can even have your wedding reception or annual banquet or low rider show up there, too. Just leave us hayseeds alone, keep our taxes as low as possible, keep the roadways relatively clear of large craters and overturned pickups, and we'll be fine just the way we are.
[this week in brazco]
[the facts]