Construction of Whitehead well - Near Argyle Intermediate School

Why is there construction equipment at Old Justin Rd. and Front St.?
Construction is beginning on the Whitehead natural gas pad site. There will be 24 wells at this location. One of the concerns was traffic safety. A couple of people addressed this with the school board and town council in March.  The town council voted to approve the wells ( and the Jenkins site, 12 wells behind AIS) but said they would form a group to look at the problem. Here is what has been done...  

Representatives from Hillwood Oil and Gas Operating Company, the Union Pacific Railroad, Argyle I.S.D., the Town of Argyle, and the Argyle Police Department met at Argyle Town Hall for the initial meeting of the Hillwood/Whitehead Gas Well Safety Committee. All representatives at the meeting discussed various traffic safety issues and agreed on enforcing a number of safety standards. The safety issues centered around the ingress and egress proposed by Hillwood during the town permitting process. Hillwood will use Old Justin Rd. and 377 and line up the entrance to the site at Front Street.  The concern was with added school and train traffic this intersection could become very dangerous. The task force has addressed many issues and here are some of the results:

• UPRR(Union Pacific) will have a person on site
• Hillwood will have off duty police officers at 377 and Front St. when their trucks exceed 10 per day
• Hillwood will stage at another site to avoid overloading 377
• When material hauling begins- will have an off duty officers to assist with traffic and a flagger present
• Hillwood will have restricted times  ( 2:30 - 4:30pm) in which they can move equipment in and out 

Elections are over - GAS operations move to Unincorporated Areas

If Williams is pushed out of Flower Mound
where will they go.....

UNINCORPORATED Denton County!!!

Get ready if you live in or next to Argyle or Bartonville's ETJ or unincorporated Denton County- you are a TARGET!!!

Now Williams will simply move to the unincorporated areas where they have NO ordinances, NO setbacks, NO restrictions as to where they operate. What a sweet deal for them.

FLOWER MOUND:

Flower Mound was successful in sending the message to gas operators they are not welcome in F.M. Now with a new Mayor and council members in support of a moratorium, a pause on gas drilling could be a reality. 

KERA, Flower Mound Drilling 

BARTONVILLE:
The unofficial report shows James Ferrell and Gracie Egan as the elected council members.
Only 11% of the registered voters in Bartonville voted.  (128 voted of 1070 registered) That is disappointing.
Bartonville Unofficial Results

ARGYLE:

Argyle did not have elections because only one council member (Bonny Haynes) was up for re-election. She ran unopposed so the Argyle town council called off the elections. Correction: ABCA has made a mistake. It was not Bonny Haynes it was Hasty, Thomas and Schreotke that ran unopposed. Holt, Landrum and Haynes will be up for reelection next May. If anyone wishes to run for a council seat be sure you have your name in around January or February 2011.  

Hillwood begins gas drilling near Argyle Intermediate School

Submitted 04/07/2010 Approved 04/09/2010

HILLWOOD O & G OPERATING CO LP (388852)

WHITEHEAD

1D

09

DENTON

Directional

Hillwood was approved for the first of 36 wells to be located near the Argyle Intermediate School (AIS). Workers were on site yesterday staking the boundaries of the road and pad site soon to be developed. 


History:
The Argyle Superintendent was made aware of the location of the two well sites and community concerns in late February early March. The school board met March 22 but this topic was not put on the agenda resulting in an inability for the board to discuss the situation.  However, presentations were made to the board and a call to action was requested. It was requested that a representative from the school speak at the town council meeting the following evening to publicly state the school district's position. This did not happen but the superintendent and one board member were present.


At the council meeting on Tuesday, March 23rd, the council approved all 36 wells to be located near AIS. Four Union Pacific Railroad representatives ( 2 public safety and 2 attorneys) were in attendance and one representative spoke in opposition to the proposed truck route. The route for the Whitehead well (24 of the 36 well bores) which will be located on the east side of the railroad tracks near North Star Bank will use Old Justin Road, line up with Front St. and continue to and from 377. One concern mentioned was for a gas truck or trailer to get high centered on the railroad tracks. This could present grave danger to homes, Intermediate School families, and anyone else who travels through that area. If this were to happen it becomes a matter of how fast can you stop a train and UP has 24 trains coming through a day. (Maybe it is time for us all to put UP's emergency number in our phones) The other concern is that one of the large tanker trucks can not pull up to the stop sign and clear the crossing guard – there simply is not enough space.  So, if it is stopped and a train comes, it will be forced to pull out onto the shoulder of 377, which is of course, a very dangerous situation.


Council gave very little dialog to this issue. The only addition to the approval was to put together a task force to better address the issue. The task force consists of town officials, UP railroad, Hillwood and the superintendent. I think this is a great idea, but should we not understand and address the public safety issues before we rush to approve massive gas sites. What is the hurry? The gas is not going anywhere. 


View from the road in front of Keller Williams Realty. Looks nice now..... but will people want to move to Argyle when the first thing they see is dozens of gas wells.