boon•dog•gle
North American / informal
noun:
work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.verb:
waste of money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.Get email notification of new posts
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Hotel parking a big money loser for City — projected revenues don’t come close to servicing needed debt
The City has projections from consultants of the possible revenues and operating costs of a single level and a two-level parking garage under the proposed City-sponsored Plamondon hotel. Projected operating income is so small relative to the capital expense that … Continue reading
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Plamondon sought help of hotel trade group to lean on Governor Hogan for $s for his hotel
Pete Plamondon sought the assistance last summer of the Maryland Hotel Lodging Association, the Annapolis-based hotel trade group to influence Governor Hogan to release state funds for his proposed hotel in downtown Frederick. We got a copy of an email … Continue reading
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New boondoggle financing plan glimpsed — hotel a third bigger, op profit up 78%, still hoping for $5m State subsidy
MuniCap, the City’s financial consultant has radically enhanced its assumptions about the financial viability of the downtown hotel project in reports delivered to the City dated October 25 and November 5. Net operating profitability, and hence market valuation — based … Continue reading
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City & County attempting to make up for lack of State-$s but lawyers struggle
For the second time they’ve cancelled a scheduled Joint City/County Workshop of elected officials for ‘Discussion of proposed agreements regarding Downtown Hotel Project.’ Reason: a legal consultant advised against the draft MOU. We haven’t discovered the nature of the legal … Continue reading
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Boondoggle Team effort to gin up state funding flops — 3 letters & UPDATES
A push for a special meeting of the Frederick County Delegation to pressure Governor Hogan to provide state funds for the City’s decade-old downtown hotel project has flopped. Four Delegates led by vice-chair State Senator Michael Hough have said they … Continue reading
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The governor’s take on the downtown hotel — it’s a boondoggle LETTER FREDERICK NEWS-POST
Your May 5 report (“Clock ticking on future funding for downtown hotel”) says that Mayor Michael O’Connor has not gotten to sit down with Gov. Larry Hogan to put the case for state funding of the downtown hotel project. The … Continue reading
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HB1347 reviving $5m of state grants for hotel passes General Assembly in last minute crush of bills
Hotel boondoggle boosters have won another round in the battle for state funding in the last minute crush of bills at the end of the General Assembly session in Annapolis. They managed to keep grants of $1 million and $4 … Continue reading
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Plamondon walks away from Downtown Hotel, says City’s inability to gain promised funding makes project ’non-viable’
Pete Plamondon Jr announced today his company is exercising its option to withdraw from its partnership with the City to build a downtown hotel and conference center in Frederick. He said that City officials had “gone the extra mile” in … Continue reading
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HB 1347 Please delete $5 million in grants for boondoggle hotel — an appeal to Senate and House appropriators
Dear State Senator/Delegate: Please delete the $1 million and $4 million grants for the Frederick downtown hotel in HB 1347 (pages 8 and 12.) see https://legiscan.com/MD/text/HB1347/2019 The State of Maryland should not disgrace itself with support for this project. It … Continue reading
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$5 million for hotel sneaked into a ‘prior authorizations’ bill HB1347 (corrected)
Hotel boondoggle supporters in the General Assembly have managed to sneak $5 million into HB1347, a small bill which is separate from the main budget bill. NOTE: This is a correction. Yesterday we reported a provision early in the bill for … Continue reading
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