09/08/2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting September 8, 2014 Page 4 Council Member Lancaster said at the last City Council meeting it was brought to their attention that there were four buildings that were ready to be reworked and in the middle of that work, they were stopped because of a concern of transformers being too close to the building, making it impossible for them to work. She said it was her understanding that those transformers could arc up to ten feet. Council Member Lancaster said she was asking tonight that they temporarily go ahead and pay for the moving of that, but expect reimbursement from Texas Utilities and Oncor. She said based on the fact of safety, three of those transformer units one of which was on Main, one on Grand, and one behind Paris Baby were lower to the ground than was safe if they arc 10 feet. She said she chased down some fed ex trucks to find out exactly how tall they were and they are ten feet eleven inches, which means that they are within that ten feet arcing capability and the place behind Paris Baby was only twelve feet. She also said that made any vehicle in danger of being struck by that electricity. Council Member Lancaster said she thought it is a very bad safety hazard, that she thought they needed to go ahead and help these owners out, they want them to be able to make our city pretty and she certainly did not want to have the electricity that was being supplied to these different buildings to be safe. Council Member Lancaster said she has seen 18 wheelers parked there, making deliveries and they were certainly within the ten feet. She said she would like to open this for discussion. Council Member Hashmi asked her if there were other areas with a similar problem. Council Member Lancaster said there were eleven in the downtown area, there were others not downtown, there was one on 19th Street that was seriously bowed with two transformers on it, but none as low as the three downtown. Mayor Frierson asked Mr. Godwin about the overall cost and about expected reimbursement. Mr. Godwin said this was not something he had dealt with in the past, that Kent McIlyar was doing some research and that Mr. Dux had just given him some information, but he had not read it yet. He also said Council Member Lancaster had done some research too and this was something worth pursuing. Mr. Godwin said if they wanted people to invest in their downtown, then it was their responsibility to try and help them. He said he had structured a potential grant program and he thinks these people would be the first people on the list no matter what because they're ready to go. Council Member Lancaster said these three should be an exception, because they are talking about a safe issue brought up by Oncor. She said they should help them but expect reimbursement from Oncor. Mr. Godwin said he did not disagree and when you have someone who wanted to do something with a downtown building, they should help them out as much as they reasonably could. Council Member Lancaster said this was a safety issue, because electricity was going to go the least resistance route and that may up, sideways, or down. Oncor representative David Collier said the law prohibited them from working ten feet of the primary area. Council Member Lancaster said she counted one at seven and one -half feet, so that definitely was within the ten feet. Mr. Collier explained if someone was working within that primary area they would have to be certified, because the primary wire holds the 7200 volts.