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Representative Orr and TPWD Silent To Media

By Kris Smith
Freestone County citizens gathered on the front lawn of their historic courthouse on Thursday, July 6th for a scheduled press conference with Shawn Todd of Todd Interests.

Todd Interests, a Dallas based company, is the owner of the portion of real estate containing the former location of Fairfield Lake State Park. Todd released information a few weeks back that indicated a new gated community is planned for development, which will include a membership-based golf course as well as many other amenities.

Todd stated in the press conference, “I think we have forgotten how to disagree on things. Words like authenticity, integrity, and transparency.”
He continued, “This is about private property rights and the open and brazen abuse of power by appointed individuals, not elected officials and their weaponization of a state agency to take something that is not theirs to take.”

Let’s look at the property’s timeline. The land, according to http://www.freestonecad.org, was deeded to Texas Utilities Electric Company. TU Electric soon rebranded to TXU Energy. TXU Energy eventually rebranded to Luminant, which is a subsidiary of Vistra Corporation.
When the TXU Big Brown Coal-Fired Power Plant and Mine were retired in 2018, Freestone County took a tremendous hit. Luminant, at this time, were the largest taxpayers of the county, as well as the company with the most employees, at least 600 jobs lost.
Luminant Big Brown employees eventually moved out of the county, going where the work was – some out of state, taking even more tax money with them. Homes were being sold and many remain vacant to this day.
According to reports, Vistra Corporation offered the property to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for sale – since they had leased the 1,200-acre lake and rural land to them for 5 decades, at no cost to TPWD.
When TPWD failed to secure a real estate deal with Vistra, the property was placed officially on the market for sale for more than $110 million. Enter Shawn Todd, who quickly realized the potential and made an offer in 2021. A deal was finally reached, and the sale closed on June 1, 2023.
Since January 2023, a ‘Save Fairfield Lake’ campaign has been circulating throughout the state and fervently on social media platforms. Newly elected Texas State Representative Angelia Orr has made her intention known with filing of many bills, which unfortunately for their cause, never made it off the Senate floor.
With the failure of the Texas Legislature to ‘Save Fairfield Lake’, now TPWD wants to and has voted to utilize Eminent Domain to obtain the 1,800 acres.
A letter was sent to Todd Interests, less than a week after the purchase of the property was finalized. The TPWD commissioners are comprised of 9 members – Chairman Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, Dick Scott, James Abell, Oliver Bell, Paul Foster, Anna Galo, Jeffery Hildebrand, Bobby Patton and Blake Rowling – who have not made any statements about the use of eminent domain since the June 10th vote. 7 members of the TPWD Commission Board voted unanimously for the use of Eminent Domain. Commissioners Bobby Patton and Blake Rowling were not included in the vote, because they were not at that meeting.
Aplin wrote an OP-ED to the Dallas Morning News, stating, “TPWD is not taking, nor do we intend to take, anyone’s private land to establish new parks. This rare activation of eminent domain authority is a last resort to save an existing state park that Texans have enjoyed for the past 50 years.”
Essentially saying – ‘We’re going to do it this time, but we won’t do it again.’ And if you believe that, I have an ocean to sell you in Lubbock!
With the lack of legislative support, many landowners as well as county officials have essentially changed their opinions about the State Park issue.

Freestone County Landowner and cattleman, Bubba Rutherford stated, “I’m a cattle buyer. When I go to a cattle auction, sometimes the auctioneer will start out too high. If someone in the audience bids and I don’t because I was wanting it cheaper, that cow leaves the ring, and the sale is made final. That’s it. I can’t stop the auction, complain to the auctioneer, go in the office, and ask them to rerun that cow. Why? Because I had my opportunity and I waited too long.”

Rutherford, lifelong Freestone County resident, continued, “I have many memories at the state park from, learning to ski, fishing trips, camping, and some teenager after-hours skinny-dipping parties. However, property rights should not be sacrificed for recreational purposes.”
Freestone County Commissioners issued a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General’s office, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Commission, and other state officials, drawing attention to their collective disinterest in the utilization of Eminent Domain.
The taxing entities involved – Freestone County and Fairfield ISD – will gain $20 million in tax revenue from the $1 Billion project. According to Freestone County Commissioners, one-third of this amount is more than half of the total tax dollars Freestone County receives now from current property owners.

Freestone County Commissioner Lloyd Lane stated, “They don’t live here. They don’t pay taxes here.”
Freestone County Judge Linda Grant, who in the beginning was in support of the ‘Save Our Park’ campaign, stated via email on Monday, “The consensus is the citizens of the county are not in favor of eminent domain. We began working to save our Park in 2019 and hoped an agreement could be reached to save the Park area. People were very enthusiastic and formed committees that worked with our Representatives.”
Judge Grant continued, “The county has fought against eminent domain on many issues that are important to our county, most recently the High-Speed Rail project. The negative impact of eminent domain is very strong in our county.”
Commissioners have received no response from the recipients of the letter, as of press time.
Texans are encouraged to reach out to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Governor’s office, and Lt. Governor’s office, and express their concerns over this much concerning issue.

Representative Cody Harris issued a statement on Monday, ““During the legislative session, my office was inundated with phone calls from people in and around Freestone County pleading for the park to be saved at all costs. Several pieces of legislation were filed to do just that, but none made it to the Governor’s desk. The opportunity to save the park legislatively has passed. It is entirely in the hands of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. Whatever your position is, I encourage you to call TPWD to let your voice be heard. Like most proud Texans, I believe individual property rights are sacred and eminent domain should only be used in rare circumstances as defined by the Constitution.”

During the course of this story, beginning as far back as February 2023 and as recently as Monday, Representative Angelia Orr and Texas Parks and Wildlife have not responded to communications from The NavCo Chronicle.