Chesapeake Energy withdrew its request yesterday for a high-impact drilling permit at the proposed TCU drilling site north of Amon Carter Stadium, according to an email from District 9 City Council representative Joel Burns.
Although many assumed that this site would be the next flashpoint as gas drilling operations move into the more densely populated areas of Fort Worth, that will not be the case, at least for now. There was no indication whether TCU would seek another site on its campus. There was also no word whether or not the proposed Alton Road pipeline would be postponed or canceled. During Tuesday’s pre-council hearings, District 3 representative Chuck Silcox had the pipelines permit hearing postponed until December 2 and indicated he would not be inclined to allow the City to issue a pipeline permit until the TCU well was permitted.
An energy industry source indicated that the combination of Tuesday’s rejection of the Eighth Avenue permit, combined with deteriorating relations between Chesapeake, the University and the neighborhoods around TCU led to the decision. Evidently, the University feels that Chesapeake threw them under the bus with the neighborhoods.
At the end of a very long evening and the vote was tallied, the elation of most in the City Council chambers was matched only by their disbelief as they watched a unanimous vote decline a variance for the proposed drilling site at Eighth Avenue. Even though it was the first time the City had denied a high-impact variance, I was still marveling at how the whole thing wrapped up. [Read more]
One of my reasons to arive ahead of the group Thursday was to get to see first-hand some of the public artwork of Seattle-based artist Dan Corson. Dan was recently chosen to provide the public art component of the planned Hemphill-Lamar Connector, which will create a new connector street that runs under the railroad tracks between Lamar and Hemphill, creating a new link between the southern end of downtown and the Near Southside. (For all Fort Worth Capital Improvement Projects, 2% of the budget goes toward a public art installation.)
Dan toured me around his works. One was the Sound Transit Project, which consists of over 200 Overhead Contact System poles in Seattle’s streetcar system with specialty paint and spire-shaped finials. At a maintenance facility, the poles are striped with black and “safety green” paint. The artwork is inspired by a prehistoric plant indigenous to this region – commonly known as the horsetail or Scouring Rush. Elsewhere, slender curved poles along a transit line feature tips that gracefully curve and blend the dark poles into a metalic sky blue and then to a silver tip. All the tips point west towards Puget Sound.
I came to the Pacific Northwest a day early to tour the Fort Worth Central City - Trinity River scale hydrology model before its dismantling at the conclusion of testing later this year.
(Note from Kevin: The Fort Worth Central City Hydrology Model is a 40:1 scale model of the Trinity River after reconfiguration by the Trinity River Vision, which allows water flow testing of the bypass channel, town lake, and other aspects of the design. It is in Richmond, BC near the Vancouver Airport. Joel’s tour guide is Ken Christison of Northwest Hydraulic Consultants. The video is in two parts and hosted by Vimeo.)
I need to get out more often. Sometimes I feel like all I do is go to these gas drilling meetings. And you know what? I don’t enjoy it.
So when a friend told me that the whole reason for the City Council forming a blue-ribbon committee is so they didn’t have to go to boring meetings like this, I felt a little twinge of envy.
But still, City Council members did show up — Joel Burns, Frank Moss, Jungus Jordan and Carter Burdette. Gentlemen, thank you for showing up. I know you can think of better ways to spend a Monday night.
But what about the rest of the Council? Chuck Silcox I can give a pass — he’s still fighting cancer and chemo is a bitch, so get well soon. But Kathleen Hicks, Sal Espino, Danny Scarth and Mayor Mikey, WTF? You can TiVO the Olympics. Get your ass down to City Hall and listen to your constituents.
Let me fill you in on what you missed. [Read more]
A friend of West and Clear in Berkeley — yes, our spies are everywhere — provided us with a recap from last night’s meeting with Chesapeake and the Fort Worth & Western Railroad. [Read more]
Got a question for City Hall? If you live in District 9, you can stop by Travis Avenue Baptist Church at 717 West Berry and ask Council member Joel Burns or a representative of almost any city department and ask City Hall in person. The event will be in the South Annex (the old Albertson’s store). If you have questions, contact Kristi Wiseman at (817) 392-8809 or kristi dot wiseman AT fortworth gov dot org.
Ryan Place, Berkeley and Mistletoe Heights, Chesapeake Energy has a message for you: Suck it, we’re drilling anyway.
Chesapeake’s Eighth Avenue drilling site, which was a dealbreaker for the Oklahoma City-based energy titan in its negotiations with these neighborhoods last year, is not off the table after all. [Read more]
The citizens of Fort Worth offered a fond farewell to outgoing District 9 City Council representative Wendy Davis last night. Council chambers were packed with well wishers who wore blue t-shirts inscribed with “Thank you, Wendy” or something like that. Newly minted District 97 Rep. Dan Barrett was there to show his support for Davis. Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks offered some last kind words. Davis herself offered some last emotional words. She was presented with rocking chair, a silver bowl and a quilt.
Of course, that was nothing compared to the going-away present offered by Mayor Moncrief.
I don't want to give away all our secrets, but the West and Clear team uses just about every Google product available, including a few not even on that list.
