Apr 10, 2017 Public Utilities Board on 2017-04-10 9:00 AM
April 10, 2017 Public Utilities Board
Full Transcript
April 10th 2017 public utility board meeting to order. We
have a quorum here
and we our first first agenda item is to hold a public
hearing. Item number
PUB 17-065 to hold a public hearing consider recommending
that the City
Council adopt a resolution regarding the proposed site for
construction of the
what's known as the Hartley Field substation. So for staff
I believe the
presentation is going to be by Brian Dascombs. Brian if you
would please.
Good morning board and members of the public thank you for
taking some time
this morning to discuss this item. So for this for this
substation we're needing to
we're needing to construct a substation to meet the growth
that we've had and
then let me give you a quick visual on that those of you
that were at the
public hearing or rather the open house would have seen
this that a lot of our
infrastructure was constructed back in the 60s and since
that time we've had of
course a lot of growth as people have moved into Denton as
businesses have
moved into Denton and so DME has the requirement to meet
that growth and so
that's what we're attempting to do with this substation. As
the electric provider
in this area DME has a responsibility to meet that growth.
We've proposed five
different substation locations and there'll be a map with
those with those
sites here shortly and as we've discussed this item with
the public it
seems to us that two sites have risen to the top and are
worthy of further
consideration although certainly any of the five are
possible for us we can from
an engineering perspective we can we can build on any of
those. As a reminder
this is generally to the north of town just north of 288
across from the water
park there at the Hartley Field Road and Sherman Drive.
Here closer in you can see
those five sites that we've that we've offered to the
public the five options
that we've considered. You can see there's a yellow site
that has a purple
background on it that purple background signifies the
property that's owned. Oh
I'm sorry and you can see that that yellow side is has a
purple background
and that purple background signifies property that's owned
currently by the
city of Denton and it's that yellow site and then the blue
site on the other side
of Sherman that seemed to us at this point to be the two
most viable sites.
Now this is a fairly complicated map and I apologize for
the complexity but I
think there's some good information on here so I quickly
wanted to show you
that there's a TAM area that's on the bottom left of this
map and that goes
diagonally through the center and that shows the area that
is in which DME is
certified as the as the only entity that can serve electric
load and so that's
the area in which we have sole responsibility for providing
electric
load and then over to the upper right side of the map you
can see there's an
area in slightly lighter tan I apologize the colors don't
have more contrast but
that shows an area that's certified to be served by DME by
co-serve and by TXU
so any of any of those utilities can serve load in that
area and I understand
that that DME is often not the provider for that area that
's off to the east and
that's the area that's represented by a lot of people here
and then that purple
area is certified to be served by DME and co-serve you can
also see there's the
the area that is within the city limits and that's the part
that has that red or
rather that black hash mark and then the the red signifies
the area that's in the
ETJ and then the blank area is simply outside of the city
limits all right
well back at the end of January we held an open house and
we sent out 40
notifications for that meeting now the reason we sent out
40 is because we send
out notifications for everyone within 500 feet that's
either a property owner
or a resident within 500 feet of any of the proposed
options and we recognize
that there was a community to the east of that site that
they wouldn't get
those notifications so we put out a large sign to try to
attract attention
and in this time for this public hearing for the first time
we've used next door
neighborhood based social network to try to get the word
out so we're we're
trying to get the word out to that community and in fact
they did show up in
large numbers and filled out a lot of comment forms to show
us their
preference for for which site they wanted and their
preference was was
pretty clear the preference of that neighborhood you can
see the further
away it is over to the to the West the more they tended to
like it and the more
it was on Hartley Field Road there's a clear preference
that that it not be
there there was clear opposition to that to add a little
bit of complexity to
this picture we also heard from the landowner there's one
landowner that
owns both the blue and the green side and that landowner
did not want to sell
they did not want to sell us the land and they didn't want
to substation put
there and also the school district indicated that they
would prefer that it
be on the other side of Sherman there so so over they
preferred the yellow pink
and orange sides and so that adds some complexity to the to
the reaction that
we've heard from the neighborhood this is a map showing
where those comments
came from you can see as I mentioned most of the comments
came over from from
the east of the proposed options based on the feedback that
we heard at that
public hearing we heard people saying they didn't want it
close to Hartley
Field Road and so we've engineered a design that if the
yellow site were
chosen it would push it up further north further away from
the road and here's a
closer layout of that blue site which is the other the
other side of the two that
we think of have risen to the top this is just an overview
of the cost and it
doesn't it doesn't take into consideration which site we
would build
on it again we can from an engineering perspective we can
build on any of these
sites and we don't expect that total budget cost to change
dramatically
depending on which site is chosen we've already had the
public open house of
course we're having the public hearing with pub right now
and then if we if
we're so directed we'll hold a public hearing with the City
Council and that
will be another evening meeting and that will give the City
Council an
opportunity to choose a site I'll be happy to answer any
questions any
questions of Brian Brian yes ma'am how did the city come to
own that property
the water department purchased that for a project that
never that never
materialized okay I'll leave any other members a map for so
you're you're
saying essentially the any either of those sites the
budgets gonna be about
the cost is gonna be about the same from getting the
getting to TMPA lines and
yes sir yes sir there will be some some transactional ease
I suppose if we went
with the yellow site because the city already owns that
property and that
property owner for the blue and the green has indicated
that they don't want
to sell and so that could make it a longer process a more
contentious
process but we don't expect it to finally make a real
substantial difference
on those estimated costs okay okay anybody else no thank
you Brian okay we
do have we do have some requests from to speak I think we
have six requests and
what I'll do I'll call you if you if you don't mind when I
call you if you'll
come up to the podium and state your name and address and
you know there's
there's only six typically three minutes I don't know if we
even have a timer we
do have a timer okay you know if it takes you three and a
half or whatever
don't don't sweat it sometimes it takes a little longer to
get your point out so
we want to make sure everybody's heard and then we'll if
any of the members of
the board have any questions of the speaker then we can do
at that time so
we'll start off with Fritz pop poppy is that poppy thank
you mr. poppy
oh I'm sorry if you'll go to the microphone please state
your name and
address for the record Fritz poppy 2743 Hartley Field Road
Denton I must speak
to the property that's in yellow initially in the 70s we
bought 40 acres
on Hartley Field Road and in the early 80s we sold 37 acres
off to a lady eye
doctor in Dallas and she subsequently sold the 16 acres to
the city for that
proposed water project and then she quit paying us for the
balance and we had to
foreclose on on the other 20 acres but anyway since then we
've lived on three
and a half acres approximately and that diagonal line is
our back property line
and from the start when I first heard about this project I
said I really don't
want to cross the street from me and in our front yard the
city already owns the
land it I said I don't mind that they put it on that
property but it should be
to the north end and not up against my fence line and that
's also a little
lower level it's on high ground where the diagonal is is
almost to the top of
the hill and so you know if it's on the far north end of
the property I don't
you know we'll hardly see it so that's my opinion on it I
said if they insist
on putting it up along my property line I'd like you to buy
my property thank
you mr. poppy could you locate for your where you live
this is our home side and this is 2.7 acres thank you thank
you
okay next we have Anita Weisner
I'm Anita Wozner I own two properties I own a property at
5512 Woodland Hills
Road which is just to the to the right of the yellow where
the blocks start and
also another one on the corner of Hartley Court and Hartley
Field Road I've
been there in that area 43 years I've seen a lot of things
change mostly the
junk man on the way in but at the same point I don't think
it's fair to plop a
great big substation similar to the one down on Kings Row
right behind where the
houses are when people have property values there that will
go down because
of that thing it's huge it's bad enough we drive in
Hartley Field Road and have to see that mess on the left
without having to see
massive electrical things and towers and big whatever those
are I understand we
need power out there I know there are houses coming I know
progress is good my
thing is why can't they put it where there are no houses at
the moment either
in blue or green doesn't really matter which but away from
the houses so that
when they do come and progress does come which it will
houses will come they will
wind up selling that land eventually and the houses will
come they need the power
but put it where the people can get used to it where it's
already existing and
they can say oh okay this is already here I know I'm moving
next to this not
by houses that have been there decades and decades and have
to go ooh now we
got to drive by that you know we've got so many things out
there already the big
towers out there the junk man's out there we've got a water
park we can't
even get out on a Friday night if you live out in that area
you try to get out
and turn any direction you can't they run the stop sign on
Long Road
continuously there's traffic what this all boils down to is
I just don't think
and I think I have a lot of people that are behind me that
that particular
yellow pink or orange are going to be good viable spots for
the neighborhood
and if they want to be good neighbors and do things that
would help us or at
least lean towards our favor I think green or blue would be
optimum and I
understand they don't own that land but I just don't think
putting another
unsightly something else on Hartley Field Road is fair I
just don't think
it's right so that's pretty much about all I have to say
but I hope that they
understand and realize that if they lived any one of you
lived out there you'd
understand driving down every day nobody wants to go by a
junkyard or by great
big electrical whatever it is if it were over to the side
in the field either
green or blue it would be out of the way it wouldn't be uns
ightly you wouldn't
really see much of it from our point of view and those that
move into that area
when it becomes developed won't have to worry with oh I don
't want one here it's
already there it's been there you bought a house there you
knew it was there so I
guess that's all I have to say I just wanted to say how
very unhappy I am and
very disappointed that they chose a place on Hartley Field
Road that's it
thank you question does anybody have any questions
I've got one question mr. poppy alluded to the fact that
there was a rise and
then a little bump it slopes down to the to the north a
little bit yes is and I
guess and I understand driving by it you know you don't
want to drive by that
those there's no there's there's not many ways to make
these things pretty
yeah yeah I understand that and it's not a tiny hill I mean
it's not a big hill
it's you know I'm just we're not talking a mountain that's
gonna hide it I wish
yeah if if I guess if we put it as far north if the station
went as far north
as it could I mean I'm sure to be better having it right on
Hartley Field Road
but still I'm just trying to find if there is there
somewhere on that and
that's what we all are trying to do in our neighborhood
yeah in my neighborhood
we're just trying to find a happy medium for everybody not
just for one but for
everybody and it's just gonna be really hard like I say
most of us have lived
out there decades and our property values are fair but you
start putting
something like that in people aren't gonna want to come
down the road they
aren't gonna want to come to that neighborhood they're
gonna go oh gee I
don't want to live next to that which there's only one
other person other
than poor mr. poppy that would be right on top of it would
be further down in
that big white spot in between the yellow and the red line
right and that
is currently owned by someone that we can't really do
anything about well we'd
like to but we won't that's not legal all right so anyway
we call code
enforcement all we can y'all just don't have enough codes
for that but anyway
that's neither here nor there we're not on that right now
the big thing with the
substation is visual for us yeah you know it's hard enough
for us to get out
on a Friday night there's no stoplight on Long Road no
nothing if they put that
down there maybe people would take an extra second maybe
you know not that
that has to do with traffic but people slow down a bit when
there's great big
things right beside you I know that sounds kind of
irrelevant but they do
they have children in the car except or right now there's
nothing but a field
they hit that and they don't even stop it's we call it a ro
llo because they
roll right up and load on up so it's hard enough to get on
Sherman Drive and
visually it's a beautiful place out there if you've never
been out there it's
fields it's gorgeous except for one little itty-bitty spot
and we don't want
two spots one is googops we really we got googops trust me
come down Hartley
Field Road look left we got googops we don't need something
else unsightly out
there really and I know we need power I'm not disputing
that at all growth is
coming I hear they're gonna put a bunch of houses out on
Hartley Field Airport
which is the great big square way way way down Hartley
Field Road so there are
houses coming they are gonna need power but I don't see any
reason they can't
get it from the green or the blue in my opinion okay so
thank you thank you for
your comments next we have Sharon Kramer
if you would okay okay thank you thank you for getting the
name right it is
Sharon Kramer good job thank that he is disconcerting so I
've lived in my spot
yes addresses three five seven four pine trail which is
just off of
Hartley Field Road okay and I've lived there since 1979 and
what you all don't
know is the condition of Hartley Field Road it's not gonna
it's not going to
stand up well to the construction of a substation there we
all remember the
construction on Kings Row and the jam it caused on the loop
and those are divided
two lanes during the entire construction and the Kings Row
was a little bit off
the loop so to put something that you can only access off
of Hartley Field
which is barely two lanes and there's no division a county
is responsible for it
right about where you're gonna need to access that and
again as as you just
heard you're putting it in an established a neighborhood
and it will
impact our property values and it will impact our view the
blue and the
group the the blue and the green neighborhoods not
established you already
have a sort of non-neighborhood complex with the water park
there and you've got
a couple of other different ways to get to your
construction site hauling big
trucks in to do construction and getting them on that
getting them onto
Hartley Field off of Sherman Drive we're all going to be
taking the back roads to
get out in the mornings and in the evenings during the long
construction
period just not it's not an optimal site to put something
that big in a
neighborhood that is already established so I have really
nothing much new to add
but an iteration of construction problems and kind of bad
neighbor policy
okay any questions no thank you very much thanks for your
comments
next speaker we have is Ned Woodbridge mr. Woodbridge
good morning I'm Ned Woodbridge 3596 Hartley Field Road
excuse me thank you
for providing the opportunity for us to speak this morning
appreciate it I'm
not going to speak in I don't recall an opposition because
I want to say that I
recognize the need for DME to support growth in the
community and an
understanding that the access for the axis for growth will
be northward along
Sherman Drive 428 understand the need to you know to
service that area
potentially however I do think that that you know one you
know I question why are
we locating this so close to existing substations you know
this is about a
half a mile from you know the 288 loop Kings Row substation
it's less probably
a mile from that from the Denton North substation you know
you look at it you
look at the map and you can see that it's that you know it
's very crowded
right in here you know it doesn't look to me like that that
is optimum
placement for for such a substation that the optimum
placement will be further
north along that axis of growth so that's kind of point
number one point
number two is I you know as other speakers this morning
have indicated I
think this is this will significantly impact really the
pleasurable use of our
homes in our community and also it you know this will be
will cause a
diminution property values if we place this on the yellow
zone right here along
Berkeley Field Road or on the we talked about the pink or
the orange the you
know a electric substation is is a substantial you know
fixture and that
would occur you just go look at the ones that have been
built recently around and
there's no question it's not just the substation itself
which is surrounded by
walls it has but it has high structure that can be seen
from quite a distance
it also there would be power lines coming in and out and
emanating from it
you know there there's certainly one that would pass
through at this time but I
could imagine ultimately there might be others that would
emanate from it like a
spider like the legs of a spider going out to serve the
community so it's more
than just you know than what we might see right now thirdly
and I don't know
much veracity to put in this but you know there certainly
are potential health
implications there are studies I've read the studies that
are out there that
that suggests that there may be health implications for for
communities that
live too close to power stations and power you know the
high voltage power
lines that's that's clearly in dispute you know there but
then we just want to
put that on the table that there are there are studies that
are out there and
I guess I also my last thing I want to conclude that it's
for me it's better to
locate if we need to locate it within this route this this
area and as I said
up I think that probably be better located further up north
along the axis
of growth for the community that it would be the we do it
on the west side
of Sherman Drive which is in either the blue or the or the
green areas thank you
sorry I didn't have a mic on them still getting used to
this thank you next we
have Anne Woodbridge okay just it's not noted on the card
okay okay your comment
comments I'll read the comments that's okay comments were
to locate the
substation on the west side of 428 away from existing
residential yeah thank
you okay and David Cullen Cullen yes
names David Culkin actually live in Austin Texas but I am
my sister and I are
the owners of the property on which the blue and the green
site are located it's
been the family for decades it's an old family farm it's
still operated as a
farm today I am here I to voice my opposition to the site
for a number of
reasons you know over the years we've we've seen the area
grow we've had the
gas pipeline that easement come across the property of
course the power lines
across the property those those additions over time have
obviously
subdivided the property in some ways but you know the long-
term future in
invariably for that area and for that property is probably
going to be some
kind of development probably for homes but you know every
time a site plan has
been sort of reviewed for that sort of thing most of the
access for that kind
of thing is going to be in this part of the property so a
substation would have
substantial impact on that the ability for that to be done
I'd also point out
the site as it's currently planned I mean if everybody's
been up there that's
really just sort of out in the middle of a field so in
terms of visibility there
would be this would be something that would be visible for
the community for
forever going forward it's right there on the roadside
there's really no there's
no geography that's going to really hide this site so in
terms of its impact for
any kind of development it would be substantial we do
oppose it because we
know that it would greatly diminish the value of the
overall property that
particular property is 237 acres but again as I say a lot
of the access for
it is long for 28 and for a long road for that reason again
I I don't think
it's the best of the community I do appreciate of course
for folks who are
already out there how this impacts them but I think the
other way to look at it
this is that there are many more people who will be living
in this area in the
future and this site as it's proposed right now will have a
huge negative
impact for them and honestly everybody in the area so thank
you any questions
I have just a couple questions I know that and I know we
can't see the aerial
here but you're talking about the power lines that came
through can you kind of
point on the map where the power lines go through now
approximately okay so this
dotted line okay so it basically the southern border of the
green and the
northern border the blue there
we've spent a reasonable amount actually having you know
some engineering firms
look at what site development would eventually look like in
every case this
part of the property is one of the sort of more key parts
for that access
especially if we want to have access that doesn't drive
more traffic in front
of the school district in front of the buildings there so
again this kind of a
substation would would greatly reduce the sort of
flexibility associated with
development in the area but again it's also as you can see
even just from
looking at the satellite imagery you're really out in
exposed field so out here
there would be no hiding this substation it would be
visible from you know from
every direction honestly and something that would be my
opinion be an eyesore
honestly for the area but again a big impact on our
property so okay all right
thank you thank you thanks for your comments you bet okay
those are those
are all the requests to speak is there any other anybody
here that would like
to speak that has not filled out a card or had a chance yes
ma'am if you'll come
up to the podium please okay yeah I'm sorry yeah
if you'll just state your name and address and then into
the
well anyway our property almost joins this the it's the
back of it we've been
out there we bought the land in 68 we didn't build until
our children got
pretty big that was a good idea because we didn't want to
have to scoot kids
back and forth I'm a retired teacher so I always consider
kids the only thing I
would say is that I don't really approve of having one of
those across from a
school I know that anyway that's not what I came up here to
say the do you
know or do any of you know if the land I don't know maybe
mr. poppy knows but
anyway at one time when the city was going to put gigantic
towers out there
we fought and fought and fought for that and they finally
decided not to do it
but anyway they said that there would be an easement or a
road going down to 428
I don't know if that's a big deal but it's a little bit
better than doing it
doing it on for on Hartley field I agree that the traffic
is out there is just
unbelievable especially every week when they have a bicycle
thing they stop the
traffic down there going into the natatorium and all so it
's really a you
know hardship to try to get out but that do you know if the
city actually went
through with buying an easement to get out on 40 for 28 do
any of you know sure
you're talking about going back to 428 from the property
yes I got you okay I
understood they they had had the easement but evidently
didn't but anyway
the thing also that I worry about it are this lines I don't
know which way they're
going they would have to go over our property something the
other thing is
that the what do you call it sewer place my mind is crazy
but it's down Hartley
field - when they start building it or maybe it's already
built we don't know
because you can't get in see it down there but it's out of
the way but they
have trucks that come and go in there I don't know what
they're doing but anyway
I'm sure that that would have to serve that down there so
that would be more
you know people going back and forth we don't even have a
turn lane up there I
guess everybody up there realizes we have to cross a double
line to get in to
Woodland Hills now the long road you know has a big turn
you know thing which
they need that but we also need a turn line up there
because it's right at the
top of the hill right next to the water park and you know
you just come up that
way and if you're coming from this way you have to cross
over you know traffic
which isn't legal but you have to get in there something
like would you do me a
favor before you just your night would you state your name
and address I don't
think we ever just for the record so we have it and into
the
and 5547 Woodland Hills that's okay that's all right
okay
you know where the water comes from it's where the water
comes from it fills up that pond you know all the time most
of the time it doesn't even go down very much but you have
to consider that too when you're starting to build
something.
okay we're not picking any of this up in the microphone I'm
sorry I'm used to
talking loud forgot what I was gonna say now but anyway the
I don't really mind
the place because most of those they're trying to you know
fix them up so that
they look pretty good and it probably would in you know
would help our back
fence you know but the wires you know which way they go and
all like that we
feel sure that they'll go down to the water place down
there and so they that
would have to come across our property you know so that's
all okay thank you
thanks for your comments question of a question of staff
about Hartley Road and
Sherman Drive out that far am I correct are these county
roads and that's who
would be dealing with the maintenance and repair that's an
excellent question
and I wonder if there's there's someone with an answer it
looks like Phil does
so Sherman drives far in the market road that would be Tex
dot the internal
Hartley Field and I'm thinking the first part of Hartley
Field is in the city and
it turns at the sea limits to a county road thank you okay
is there any anyone
else who would like to I'm sorry we have someone in the
back there yes I'm
Elizabeth Faring and I live in the Hartley Field area on C
oyote Point we're
not in the city but we're in the EJT ETJ one of those I
just wanted to say we I
we do have a substation now on Kingsrow as you all know and
I would like there
to be equitable sharing of the joy of having a substation
so close and so if
there is possibility find another spot and within the city
because that's a lot
of substations really close and especially to follow up on
what Ned said
if there is any kind of health issues in there may or may
not be but certainly we
would be in the crossfire so just to consider that maybe
you could look a
little bit more thank you
there anyone else who would like to speak again is there
anyone any public who'd like to speak for the fill that
part I do have some
cards I'll read those after we finish all the speakers so I
'll ask one more time if there's anybody else who'd like to
speak on behalf in opposition or in favor of any of these
proposed sites hearing none then we will I'll read these
into the public hearing
section these are we did not want to wish to speak but did
fill out a comment
card Jerry McClendon 2729 Hartman Court comments were the
area on Hartman Field Road
near the use car lot is not a place for substation road too
narrow for work
crew and too congested for all please reconsider plan on
placement of substation
we also have a comment card from Senator Marsh at 5513 Wood
land Hills Drive
and I am against the proposed site on Hartley Field
anybody that's one more time there's any other anybody who
'd like to make a
comment in the comment section go to me if not then we'll
close the public
hearing let us I guess they couldn't hear me so they any
any member of the
committee who would like to make a comment or have
questions or see see
any more information I do have Brendan I wonder at the when
we presented this to
the public did we present a GIS option did we show them
images of what gas
insulated substations look like as opposed to the ones that
they're
commenting on no sir there's no there's no presentation of
a GIS option was that
not a consideration at all you know those are those are
pretty unusual
substations to build and so it wasn't one that we
considered for this site I
guess I thought that at the last the last time we ran into
a situation where
the public was concerned about its view was over there on
Eagle the Eagle
substation and I thought we were going to kind of roll that
into our
consideration of substations just as generally so due to
the doubling of cost
the cost for GIS substation usually those have been used in
places where
there's very limited amount of land available okay and so
that's not the
case here it's not the limitation of land would drive it to
us it'd be for
appearance only but the the main reason it hadn't been
considered is because the
doubling of cost here and access to open land okay okay and
a few people
mentioned the Kings Row substation and I guess what I'm
noticing here by this map
is that it's actually on a 69 kilovolt line and this is on
a different line altogether.
That's a very good observation yes that is the reason for
placing this one in
this location is these are on two different transmission
line circuits to
point about locating this substation site further up
Sherman driver further
north you drag with that a transmission line going up and
down with that and so
that's a reason we're trying to stay along the existing
transmission line
route is so we don't have to build additional transmission
lines because
no do as well received as our substations so trying to just
make use of
what we have do do we anticipate any additional lines in
and out of this
particular substation or just as one line in and one line
out like we're
saying this one line in one line out okay okay okay thank
you okay Barbara is
this the northern most we looked at these sites is this a
site the yellow
site is that the northern location that you're talking
about now as opposed to
the earlier one no we're just located here is where we
originally took it to
open house since then taking in and figured out the
engineering could take
it buried to the north piece of that property all the way
to the top piece
that property so this would move up this yellow side okay
so would the diagonal
line on the west would that also be moved up yes there
would be lines that
would go in and out from the structures there but had to be
like one span so it
wouldn't be a common line between mr. poppies property and
the substation it
would be adjoining that line yes but but the structures we
would build to just go
off that line into one span in one span out to northern
part of that property
okay anyone else questions no thank you okay
are there any any member who would like to make a
recommendation at this time
this will again this is headed for more than likely another
public hearing with
City Council but we are we are asked to consider making a
recommendation to the
council on which site would would be preferable so I'll
open that up to anyone
stuff decision I know you know one thing is we've done in
the past is to show
some renderings of some of these substations on what the
view is like what
it looks like from a ground level I think that would be
very helpful and I
don't know if we did that at the open house but it's it
could be I'm curious
about on the yellow side the slope of the hill how that's
affected really what
you can see from Hartley Field and from other areas it
doesn't sound like it's a
huge mountain but you know I think probably just and it may
it may look
worse than what everybody imagines it may but I'm thinking
it's gonna look
better than what we're imagining I'm kind of maybe that's
why we're not
getting a recommendation from from this board is because of
that yes sir to
answer your question we didn't have a photo simulation for
this one we can
certainly order one those tend to take about four weeks to
get and so it would
take some amount of time before we would have that in hand
but we can
certainly do that okay yes Marla okay the same number of
lines going in and
out or what we see right now is that correct Phil saying
yes transmission
lines yes so in this one there'll be eight feeders coming
out probably so
those are distribution lines distribution lines will come
out
underground go out to the main street like Sherman Drive
and come up overhead
there that won't increase I'll have to say I've lived in
the area of the old
Kings Row substation for 40 plus years and I've tried to
sell property where
they ran across the back lines and some people would object
but it basically
didn't make a difference the houses sold and I remember the
research on that
people got sick from this and I'm totally unaware of
anything I know that
research was done but I don't know that there was a
positive thing about it
causing people any help health issues and I when we were
looking at the other
King that other station nearby I went over there because
some of the neighbors
said there's a lot of noise I didn't hear a lot of noise I
hear more from
airplanes going overhead than I heard from from the subst
ation so I don't know
that that's going to be a problem and I don't know that
that research of health
issues was ever substantiated to respond to that World
Health Organization did a
study it was very conclusive study about a decade ago of
concerned about that and
certainly if anyone be concerned about be people that work
around electric
lines day in day out we were concerned for our employees
health as far as far
as well as the health of neighbors next door they did not
find any correlation
between that although it been suggested our prior studies
theirs were pretty
conclusive as far as once you got the distance of the East
man away from
electric lines the effects were noticeable on the health of
people next
door going back to the King Joe substation that you
mentioned the
original King Joe substation when it was built was built
out the middle of the
country and as you saw houses built right next door I mean
back up to us
enough so that we've learned our lesson that we want more
buffer on most of
substations in the future and that's what we try to do and
that's what we're
trying to do in this situation is get out ahead of the
growth and get a
substation out in this site before growth happens okay yes
Charlie feel
before you sit down you mentioned the distribution lines
going out to Sherman
Drive would you give us the indication of where and I
assume that be a right
away involved in that yes I'm looking at my engineers here
as far as I don't know
who got as far enough design yet to determine where the
distribution features
will come out I doubt we have
and so they would come out they would come out from the
substation probably
half would come out to Sherman Drive another half would
come out Hartley
Field Road and they would come out underground initially
and then go
with the overhead lines down the road probably a span or
two away from the
substation
no not planned I say no plan right now there's not I say
not let me correct
that there's no plan right now there's nothing we served in
that direction if
in the future there was a development happened that we
served then yes there
would be lines going down if that was lines would happen no
matter where we
served from from this substation or one down the road
existing area yes
Terrell if you won't recognize anybody from the other one
sorry yes yes I mean
every every substation has different topography located to
it that one that
one was very challenging because it was kind of built into
the side of the hill
and this one in the yellow side would have some of those
same issues as far as
the hill being there
so that was just a question I just raised to my engineering
staff was for us
to if a decision was made here probably before the City
Council public hearing
for us to investigate the possibility of an access easement
for construction
traffic take the construction traffic off or you fit Harley
Field Road not
committing that just saying we'll look into it and see if
that's a possibility
in that way to take the construction traffic off of there
okay any other questions of the board members of Phil or
still ask if there's
any recommendation for a site from anybody or some
something we can pass
along to the council with our comments or recommendations
if you want to
eliminate some sites or make some suggestions that might be
helpful but Mr.
Chairman yes Charlie I'd like to make a recommendation okay
I recommend that we
send forth the option of the yellow site with the provision
that it be sited on
the northernmost edge of the property and that DME does
investigate the option
of having a right away for construction purposes okay back
to the West back to
428 okay okay that's stated in a motion I guess okay is
there a second to that
motion I'll second second by Susan any discussion on that I
think although
everybody except one gentleman was here to speak in
opposition to the yellow
site it it unfortunately seems to make the most sense and I
know that it's
unsightly I live two blocks from the West Oak Hickory
Street substation the
big giant one that's right there on the west side of our
town that's actually
being built there's already one there and I think that's a
hit that we
sometimes take to to provide the electrical infrastructure
that we're
looking for I would encourage you to to hold to hold the
city to any any options
that you have like for the construction easement for any
kinds of aesthetic
improvements that can be made the the substation that I was
just speaking of
the Hickory Street substation yeah a committee was created
to come up with
aesthetic wall coverings and some other things so if this
does end up being in
your neighborhood I think that you should push for those
types of things to
make it more visually attractive to you that seemed to be
the bulk of the
complaint was that it was visually unattractive and they
are indeed
visually unattractive okay other comments no we have a
motion a second on
the floor all in favor say aye any opposed same sign okay
thank you motion
passes to recommend the yellow site then to the City
Council thank you I want to
thank everybody all the public who came here for their
comments your input was
really appreciated and as Brendan said I think that aesthet
ically there are some
things that can be done and and we will make sure that
those are part of the
part of the process so okay moving on we have items for
individual consideration
item number a which is consider approval of the public
utilities board meeting
minutes of March 27th 2017 a draft copy of those minutes
have been distributed
in advance are there any comments questions changes
suggestions hearing
nine and those will be approved as submitted item number B
is P item
number PUB 17 - 0 8 7 is to consider recommending approval
of IFB 6 3 7 5 to
Dickerson construction company in the amount of 1 million
thirty eight thousand
one hundred eighty seven dollars for the construction of
the pecan Creek
Interceptor for project and I believe we have Jim Wilder
with staff who's going
to make this presentation
my name is Jim Wilder I'm with the engineering services
department or I'm
not sure exactly what we're called now I was not really
aware that this was going
to be an item for individual consideration so I just
printed out a
kind of an aerial of the route of the sanitary sewer this
is the fourth
component or installment of the concrete Interceptor
project it's the very last
one that we have about 2,000 feet is being done because we
simply don't have
enough capacity in the existing lines the the original
concrete Interceptor
was built in the early 1960s it is built probably for a
size of a town about half
the size of done is now and so it's been out of capacity
for probably good 10 to
15 years and we're going to finally be able to close that
gap will be then in
compliance with the Clean Water Act which is an important
thing for us as a
wastewater utility to do and so this is the reason for the
project we got five
bids we just bid it here last month they were generally
within the range that we
thought we would get the low bidder is Dickerson
Construction Company which is
a local construction company that we work with many times
before they should
be able to do the job well we've got a good working
relationship with them and
the project came in just slightly under budget in terms of
the the construction
costs that's pretty much all I have if you have any
questions I'd be happy to
answer them
questions an interceptor is typically a sanitary sewer line
that's generally
about 15 inches or larger the reason we call it interceptor
versus just a
standard collector line is because it's gathering flow from
a much larger area
and it's dealing with much larger flow rates than then like
say the the line
that's in your neighborhood that collects the flow from
your house this
isn't those concrete creeks that run through the town no no
no this would be
a in this particular circumstance would be a 30 inch line
it'll be buried about
probably 12 to 15 feet deep you can see from the route part
of it runs right
next to Denton High that's why we've scheduled the project
to begin
immediately and as soon as school starts so that portion of
the project is
supposed to be built during June and July while the kids
are out of school
and then it runs up behind some homes into a property that
Denton ISD owns we
already have an easement there and so we're putting it in
the easement yes
they're joining existing lines that have already been put
in yeah to the north
was just put in with the US 380 relocation project its new
line and to
the east is where the concrete three project just finished
last summer okay
questions no there's no recommendation to award the bid or
approve the I have be
to Dickerson construction company move approval the motion
by Barbara is there
second second second by Lillio any discussion all in favor
say aye any
opposed same sign okay motion passes next we have the ACM
update the new
business metrics any comments on that John I just would
point out that we've
have one item outstanding we're still working on a report
on comparing the
city number of city employees we have in our water and
wastewater departments
and we hope to have that very soon the other two items we
completed at our last
meeting okay any member who would like to see you have put
something on the new
business matrix Barbara when you had asked for this you
didn't want it to
just be water and wastewater correct no what what my idea
was was just to see
how we how we relate with other cities similar sizes on
their own utilities do
we have less employees do we have more employees I just
wanted that comparison
we're working on that we'll have that for you okay okay at
this time we we do
have a closed meeting item to discuss so at this time we
will go into our closed
meeting