AISD School Board Meeting

Public notice:

School Board meeting tonight: May 17th, 2010

6:00pm (they are usually in closed session until 7:00)

Argyle ISD Board Room, 800 Eagle Drive

13. Discussion/Action Items

L. Consider approval of amended mineral lease from Hillwood Oil and Gas resulting in additional $20,000. to AISD

M. Consider approval of easement document from Hillwood Oil and Gas

To hear the presentation two parents made to the school board on March 22, 2010 in regards to the Whitehead and Jenkins well site you can listen to the audio minutes here: Jennifer Cole speaks starting at 5:40 and Jayme Sizelove follows concluding at 16:25.
http://www.argyleisd.com/BoardMinutes/audio/3-22-10/3-22-10.mp3

Whitehead - Construction & Flooding

May 14, 2010 - Hillwood sent a letter to AISD - AISD posted it on the school website: View full letter at: http://www.argyleisd.com/districtnews.asp
Letter summary: Construction of the road entrance began as planned on Wednesday morning. Traffic coordination by Sgt Adams with Argyle PD was outstanding. If there are no weather delays, trucks will begin hauling gravel on Wednesday 5/19/2010. We are planning for 20 loads per day, which will be coordinated around the time restrictions in the morning and afternoon (around school beginning and ending), and will last for 5 days. Should anyone have any questions please feel free to contact one of the following Hillwood representatives:

Jim Kramer – 817-201-2360
Johnie Daniels – 817-454-3000
Tad LeBlanc – 832-418-2295
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Now that the traffic issues are being addressed, I wonder if anything is going to be done about the flooding. With the construction of the Jenkins well (12 wells behind school) the flood plane will be altered. The water from the Jenkins site will flow into the creek between the school and Front St. I hope they have done a hydrology study. Pictures are from Friday, May 14th. First picture- The creek is full and water and is flowing over the road at the entrance to the Argyle Intermediate School. I hope the homes along Front St. are not flooding. Second picture- Construction on road to Whitehead well.

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 

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.