|
|
|
|
|
|
By Michael O’Connor/reporter3@trcle.com
Security at natural gas wells in Burleson will be heightened under a revised ordinance passed Feb. 12 by the city council. The ordinance, which replaced the city’s previous requirements, requires, among other things:
• Operators with wells outside the city limits to enter into a road-damage-remediation agreement if any portion of a city road is used as a haul route.
• A fully executed road-damage-remediation agreement to be submitted with a permit application.
• The road-damage-remediation fee to be fully paid before a permit will be issued.
• A remotely monitored, controlled-access, automatically closing gate and an exit-only gate for personnel.
• Internal fencing of all production equipment using chain-link fencing, landscaping of the site and the installation of security cameras at sites near high-pedestrian areas such as schools or shopping centers.
The council also adopted the fee schedule for road damage remediation, which takes into account the type of road being traveled on and the overall condition, or remaining “life” of the road.
Council members made a few changes, requiring locks on the gates for the internal fencing, specifying that gates must close automatically on entering and exiting, and changing the distance from high-pedestrian areas at which security cameras must be installed from a quarter mile to 1,000 feet.
Representatives from Chesapeake Energy and XTO Energy spoke to express their concerns about the ordinance, but Bob Montag of XTO ran into a buzz saw when he said he wished the industry had been given more time to review the ordinance.
Mayor Ken Shetter told Montag that he had been pressing the industry for 18 months about the issues covered in the ordinance, and they had not responded.
Council member Claudia chastised Montag as well, saying she’d been making the installation of controlled-access gates a requirement for permits approvals for three months.
Alarming statistics
Montag wasn’t the only attendee at the council meeting to feel heat. In a report to the council, Police Chief Tom Cowan reviewed statistics on false alarms from home and business alarm systems, one of which showed the number of false alarms had fallen less than 6 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Shetter interrupted repeatedly, saying the industry had promised reductions of 50 percent to 70 percent if the city enacted a verified-response ordinance.
He said the industry had scared the public and lied to the council and suggested the city consider an education campaign telling the public that the most effective deterrent to crime was having an audible alarm and signs posted on the property indicating the presence of an alarm. In an aside to the reporters at the meeting, Shetter said the city’s ordinance would not be revisited, however.
Shetter asked the alarm industry representative at the meeting, Kathleen Schraufnagel, if she would like to respond. Schraufnagel is the industry and government liaison for Brinks Security and serves as the secretary for the North Texas Alarm Association.
Schraufnagel began explaining that she wouldn’t have said the reductions would be as great as those mentioned by Shetter and that more than a year was usually needed to accomplish significant reductions.
Shetter interrupted, vehemently asking if the industry had any statistics to show that monitored alarms systems provided customers any more protection than an audible alarm. She said she could not.
After further questioning from Shetter, Schraufnagel said she would continue to work with the chief to discover ways of decreasing false alarms.
In other items, the council:
• Denied a request to establish a school zone on Hidden Creek Parkway near Bransom Elementary School. City staff had met with school officials and resolved the access issues that sparked the request.
• Approved a drilling permit from Chesapeake Operating Inc. to drill three more wells on an existing site off Southwest Hulen Drive, with the provision that the company would abide by the requirements of the new gas well ordinance that was passed later in the meeting.
• Appointed Carol Montgomery to be presiding judge, Toni Driver to be first associate judge, and Eugene Kim and Michael Newman to be associate judges, of the Burleson Municipal Court of Record to two-year terms that expire Feb. 12, 2010.
• Approved entering into a three-year agreement with Connect-CTY, a communications firm that provides calling services to cities. The system will be used as a supplemental emergency warning system to alert residents by phone or e-mail when conditions warrant.
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
