>> howdy, everybody. Today is tuesday, p.m. We are here for the
regular session of the coppell city council. We do have a quorum present, I
am calling the meeting to order. We will
be convening into work session in the first
floor conference room and the public is invited and encouraged to join
us. Thank you very much.
>> I need to email you too.
they took her off everything again, her ankle
is still not healing.
we are going to the physical therapist.
>> I have not seen her in a while.
>> I remember when they first opened up, we connected. Just had not seen
her much lately.
>> you already to get started?
>> yes sir. >> the time is 5:31.
we are convening into work session.
we have three items on the agenda, the first
one is a discussion regarding the agenda items. I have one question, I have
a proclamation recognizing national night out.
does anybody want to say anything for that one?
>> I think we all like that one. Okay.
>> I will not. That means I am not going to
turn around [ inaudible ] >>
approved.
>> thank you.
second item is a discussion regarding the former
fire center and fire station number 5.
>> filing in as
we speak.
>> filing in as they speak the
>> watch that first step. >> something is different. What is different?
>> kevin?
he is here!
>> that is two times.
>> welcome to the team.
>> they are usually out there waiting on an's.
>> all right, the items are on the record. We
are ready.
>> all right.
do I advance it on here? >> yeah.
>> okay. >> all right.
okay.
>> we found it. We found it.
>> it is 5:34. >> oh, okay.
>> we have been in the trenches, man.
>> sorry, we look like we have been waiting
for an hour. There are a lot of smiles here.
>> he has already got an empty water bottle over there.
>> all right, ready?
all right. See? Perfect timing.
okay, good evening, mayor and council. I'm just
going to give you a brief update on some of the current projects we have
got happening right now . These
are projects are going to touch on today.
powerstation five, the hangar, servicenter, phase 3, and the justice center
. Tonight I will also be asking for your direction on several
of these projects.
>> someone is calling in for direction.
>> the first project we are going to discuss tonight is the fire station five
located on warroad. The reason we are discussing the
fire station five project is the direct connection we have got of this project
scheduled to be and project we are going to be discussing. The next steps
for this project are tied
to the decision for the hangar project. The construction of fire station
--
>> we are not used to the word hangar.
>> okay, so this one is the old
fire edmond building. I don't want to confuse people because I
guess they are technically both fire buildings.
we call the hangar the one over on the intersection of
southwestern and south coppell road.
the construction of the fire station cannot proceed until the
old art center is --into the old art center
is demolished. And, the use the space have a place to
move to.
so, the recommendation for this is ,
we make sure that we relocate the folks out of this and tie that
in that construction schedule to the
fire station. So, that is kind of just where we are at.
we are not necessarily asking for direction but sharing the schedule
and the updates for the fire station project as it ties into the old
art center. In the building located on southwestern
and south coppell road. Just to
be clear, the construction of the fire station project
is tied directly to the demolition of this building.
>> what exactly is stored
in the more roadbuilding?
>> stephen over there,
janine can jump in on that, with our facilities guys, went
over there today and took some pictures. There is currently some space that they
then some space that they use for the old
standard they use for rehearsals.
the rest of the stuff was lots and lots of miscellaneous storage things,
piled up everywhere. I'm not sure what
that is , if it is new stuff or stuff that does not have
a home anymore.
>> props.
>> old sets and old costumes, different pieces
.
>> so that space , that building is 8500 square feet but they are not utilizing that
full space for that facility.
>> am I remembering correctly that there is
an additional --like a storage unit or something like that? Where
other props and things are stored as well? Or is anything
to start?
>> there is additional storage.
>> okay, thank you.
>> so this one is the way we are going, the hangar, little background
on the history of the building and a
picture just in case you're not familiar with where that is. It
is a temporary library space, it is the incubator space for
the new art center and then it is now what we call the hangar which
is the training space for the city staff.
it was originally constructed in 1992 and also at that time housed
building inspections.
let's see here.
then, most recently , the computer lab for the city
training staff has been located in this building and
that also ties into some discussions that we will have if
the art space takes this space over, then the loss of the training space
for the city ties into the servicenter.
here is kind of the floor plan for the
proposed remodel of this project for the approval to
move forward of the fire station five and old art center side, the resident
companies office spaces will be displayed so
the request is to utilize the space for housing resident art
companies. Tonight staff is looking for
direction on proceeding with this plan that consists of an estimated
cost of $1 million to renovate this 5000 square-foot interior, the
remodel would include 88 compliant restrooms, set building,
personal meeting spaces and offices for the users
that are theater, coppell, the creative's groups, this building
would only be utilized by our groups and not open
to the public.
so, proceeding forward would allow the resident arts companies
to be relocated prior to the demo of fire
station five, so the construction building being removed and in the
construction schedule for the fire station is directly impacted
by this project. We kind of try to outline some of the spaces
and their descriptions there and then the origin of this layout was from
janine spending time with those resident workers and this was
the floor plan that those four groups worked out
with her that everybody agreed
on so we moved forward with the architect to get to this point so that we could
get some pricing scenarios put forth on what it would take
to have it ready in time to relocate folks, so on this project
, we are to the point now if you guys
would like to move forward with that , our
next steps would be to go through the bid process for construction on that.
>> so give us an idea how those spaces compare, space to the right? Is that approximately
the same size as the theater stage and the black
box? Or is it smaller, is it much smaller?
>> I will let janine jump in too, we measured
the space that was existing, the existing black box space they were using
in the old arts area was 30 by 30 and
the meeting space they were using for the corral group
, the choir, was a 20 by 20 area. Even though the
building they are in was a very big building, they were
kind of primarily using it for storage and they had open spaces
tucked in there that they were using.
so this would be more the
opposite. It is more dedicated open space with dedicated storage.
so I don't know if you can jump in and say
whether it is approximately the same size because the building
overall is smaller than the existing building space for them
to use in this scenario.
>> you are correct. The rehearsal space, the
large square that is up on the right, fits the current
wilson theater stage space in that space. So,
if you do show could be rehearsed there. The secondary rehearsal space,
which is the little odd shaped room
in the middle, it is a smaller space that that would be for
meetings and table readings or breakout rehearsals. This larger space on the right
is not the same size as the usable space in the main hall, it
is about 10 feet shy of meeting that minimum usable space
requirement. But for the groups that use the
main hall , they are not doing full stage productions so they should still be able
to rehearse the same way
they would rehearse in the current art center.
these dimensions are based off of the current
arts center.
>> john?
>> I'm sorry, what was the size of the building again?
>> this building is 5000 square feet.
>> 5000 square feet. And you mentioned
renovation?
or, how much of a difference is it, what it was before to what
this is illustrating now? It just seems
high.
>> it is primarily interior demo, new floors
, electrical, adding office space ,
the original plan was kind of leave some restrooms and kitchen areas
as they are but with it being
over $2000 it triggers the texas department of licensing installation for the ada inspection
so we factored in making the restrooms ada compliant
as well as switching it out from a kitchen to a break room
which changes code requirements and makes it
a little bit less. It also includes exterior upgrades to
the building because right now , there is some exterior siding and roofing
that needs repaired. When we add the original layout of this building
for the double doors are on the south side, it is originally the front
entry doors, they are all residential grade doors and so we are replacing
the exterior doors
, commercial grade doors, and then we are shifting the entries to the rear of
the building which is the side with the fire station and animal
shelter so we are having to add accessible pathways to the parking lot and some
additional sidewalks . We are widening the doors so that they can
fit props in there. We were originally talked about
a bit of a rollup door but it is still a shorter
hate feelings of the role of door does not really get any
space. We want to make sure when we are building
the sets that they are not a three foot wide door so they
can get in and out and it also requires ramping down the parking lots.
some exterior considerations, adding access controls and some cameras
to that, so there is some I.t. Work in there.
there is a pretty good I.t. Closet in there that we
need to keep access for so what we are budgeting for, hopefully it
will be less and hopefully much less than that but that is just the overall
budget for the cost estimate. That the cost estimate for that entire
scope, because there are some in there for that
, some of those things want to get into it, I just
got estimated at this point, waiting on the green light
, if you guys are wanting to move forward,
that is where we will come back with an actual estimate and
a contractor.
>> is this strictly just the renovation
and remodeling, right? It does not include any of the
--I thought some had mentioned the main difference
is they had issues with dislocation because
of the lightings and all of the sound, so those
are not even included in the estimate of $1 million, is that correct? Puma
correct, it is not meant to be a space where they will be doing any
productions and it will just be a practice space.
>> read, but you mentioned how it is quite different, not having
those --
>> acoustics. Right. >> no, there is no acoustical upgrade or theater
lighting upgrades in that.
don.
>> just to clarify, this building is smaller than
the other one, is anybody actually practicing in the old fire station
now? Or is it just storage?
>> the old arts center , occasionally a group may use that if they
--we do not have space available
in the arts center but I can confidently say that 99% of all rehearsals from
all rooms have been there.
>> he would be moving from arts center
to this ?
>> for rehearsal purposes, yes. >> all right, thanks.
>> fitting part of the reason is this vehicle is
available but also proximity, the arts center, it is on the same road,
you can walk to it. That being close by I think is
a definite bonus because that availability is there.
>> jim. >> so, when was this building last use?
>> a couple months ago. We have used it
as training facility for city staff.
when we did computer trainings, a computer lab,
a college, several months ago. It has been
actively used.
>> okay. What were the plans for it? If we weren't going to
do this, --
>> we have not had any plans for it.
>> it was just going right.
>> it was kind of --you know, there was kind of just
storage space, empty space, I guess.
>> there is great ! Lily, like I said,
when we had a place to go for the library, right?
and then when the center was getting kicked off, everything was
housed over here. So it has been a great flex
space for us.
>> so, okay.
that I mean, one of the biggest features of this is I understand
it, is that a gives the arts companies out of the
arts center practicing so that we can
have some additional paid events there.
is that a fair --
>> it has the potential for doing that, yes.
>> you all had a broader conversation later but it creates
opportunity. With moving forward with the fire
station five , there is going to be displacement. So the question is,
what if any role do we have in that displacement? This is
an option that is available to us that then affords the arts groups
a place where they can call home ,
have offices, do their rehearsals, do their construction.
right now the artwork space, that would be a promising space for them, right?
so while it may be smaller square footage,
it is a good use for the facility.
>> well, I would still give priority to the
fire station, that is something with the extent of displacement
for a period of months, we were able to get the
fire station completed quicker, then we can complete this, then I would
still give privacy to the fire stations because the public health
and safety aspects of it, but, you know, I know that
all of rehearsals and a lot of the limitations on using the arts center for
has been a big issue so this seems to be
a fairly elegant response that
also frees up the arts center for some important things that we could
not do in this building that we could only do in
the arts center.
>> kevin. >> that is all I have.
>> just a couple questions.
with this space , would it provide enough prop storage
to eliminate the additional storage that is --that we
are currently renting?
>> that was my question.
>> I can't really answer that question. My presumption
is that it is not.
>> there is a lot of --
theater compel is over 30 years old and they store
their props and set pieces for all of those shows and they will
use them in and refurbish them to keep their costs low so probably
the answer is no, the book still continue to
have a storage unit
off-site.
>> so how big is the storage unit that they have?
>> I am honestly not sure but I do believe
this budget year, they are paying for it.
>> we budgeted for it. We continue to budget
for it, it is a line item.
>> I don't know that we can work
on it. I know where you're going, it is a shame to have them
storing stuff off site and pay for it all the
time.
>> that does kind of --
>> please just take this as it is.
this site has the capacity to potentially
have some additional space
.
>> you stole my question. >> yes.
we are looking for an immediate transition.
>> if my understand that.
>> but if there is a potential interest to do some
additional work out there, the site based on some site planning
could accommodate some additional space.
>> that is exactly what I was going to
ask. My next question was, is then what are
we looking at for potential future growth?
if we do have that, in a tenderness that.
>> the questions come
up about dual rehearsals. Obviously dual rehearsals,
that is problematic. You know?
but again, we are getting out of that so that is between me resident
companies, right?
if we turn this building, turnkey, our responsibility
would be , and we will do
a better job of taking care of the actual physical facility, the actual internal use
and scheduling and those kind of things, that will all be the resident companies.
but this dedicated space, both from a
meeting standpoint, creating the offices as I
said earlier, being able to do some of the construction of
their props , it is great flex space. Will it be perfect?
no, right?
but it is a reasonable response to fire station five.
if the council chooses to support it from that
respect.
>> the only reason why I am asking about
space and stuff is that, you know, if we are spending
the time , I understand time is a factor in this
so I am not saying, we have all the time in the
world, but if, I think about the dog park if you
will, how it was just kind of something that
was put together just to get something done versus
if we invested properly now , and maybe look at
expansion or if you are telling me it is more easily expandable based on
the layout of this building, going back and making sure that
it is done right for long-term use. I understand there
is a short-term need, but .
>> as an example, there appears to be space
if we wanted to construct a storage facility , separate and apart from the particular
building, there is space to construct that and
they are not having to pay, they have got
all the stuff on the ground, they don't have to go back and forth and
those kind of things. Yes, thinking down the line, the site has the flexibility
to meet some future needs oregon, if
that is where
the council would like to go or if the resident companies come together
and say, okay, we are going to raise the money and we are going to build
the storage facility, right? But it gives that opportunity where is they don't even have
that opportunity now.
>> hypothetically, we could play a scenario where a secondary
storage facility is built on the site and then that
ability and storage to maybe turn into a secondary rehearsal or
however they choose.
>> depending on how
we configure the storage facility.
>> my last question was,
there are four offices being proposed here for
5 resident companies?
>> the valley is not interested.
>> just want to make sure that wasn't --
>> they have their own business operations.
>> they at the arts center very often.
>> they do perform .
>> it is more limited. >> they are independent from a business
perspective. They operate and function differently.
>> that concludes my line of questioning.
>> you rest.
>> thank you, mayor.
is the staff recommending to use this facility exclusively for resident companies?
>> yes, that was the discussion we have
been having. That is the purpose.
you are called at one time we talked about this being a
business incubator.
with the council we have multiple different
kind of conversations, as a fire station five moved along, we examined and just,
this is really our only spot that we on that we are in control of that
we could offer as an alternative solution.
the reason I ask is the there is not enough gathering place for the
community, so in the space we have,
there is an abundance see from the city to use
, for example, the library there, right?
>> oh, yeah. I am sorry, I was trying to --is
kind of surprised by we do not have enough gathering spaces in town.
it has afforded us flexibility because it has been
vacant space, quote unquote.
they moved to 265, in 2013? 2013.
>> the reason I'm asking is, can the
city use as a gathering place ,
the city has opportunity to use in case there
is an emergency we need to use .
>> archer based on
the partnership there could be something we could
work out with them. I can't anticipate what I have square
footage across the street, the library, the safety., the corporate
we have a lot of other spaces that could not
be used. This is not be the top of the list. To that answer
your question?
>> yes. >> okay.
>> I just did not know if you were wondering
about ownership , like the city would still retain ownership?
>> that is like we do with moore road, the arts groups were in there.
>> they would be paying electricity, gas, everything else.
>> I am looking. I
think right now they take care of all the innards as far as electricity,
telephone, internet, all those kind of things. We are supposed to be responsible
for the exterior of the building and you
know how well that has gone.
>> they will be paying utilities for energy
they use ?
>> that is my understanding, bethany is shaking
her head.
>> [ inaudible ]
>> that is one of those old days. Okay. We will clarify that tomorrow.
how about that?
>> as long as we retain ownership will have responsibility for maintaining
the building.
>> correct, that is not going to fall to
the resident companies.
>> as long as we are using it for whatever reason, we
are going to be paying utilities, correct?
>> we have been, yes.
>> I'm going to say this, it is a pretty nominal cost.
>> we actually have
site plans, but just in order to stagnate the project
from the perspective, we do have that as kind of a
comet let's go to the budget, figure out if everybody wants to
move forward with that, then that is actually something we have already
kind of talked about and placed different places on site
to see what that looks like.
it is a strange shaped building so there are definitely opportunities
to make spaces get filled in and the future like those w wings. You
can easily add
two rollup doors and fill those w's in with
two storage units, they are probably bigger than
the storage unit they have now that is on site without looking like an
afterthought kind of thing. There are definite opportunities on site
to use that space, so that is kind of the reason that we
shelved the storage a little bit, did not
want to start a whole other architectural
project. Let's figure out what everybody wants to
do so we can move forward and not stop the fire station project. That the
nice with this one where if
we get told to move forward, we are ready for the bidding part
of that project. We are pretty far along so that it would
not be that long of a timeline to go in and get
stuff demoed out and get things to where
they are okay.
>> just to be clear, there's no functions
going on in their currently if we just use it for training?
>> for training. Es uses it if we have computer training or,
remember, we were doing the tether project, a lot of
the trainees were over there. It is set up for that purpose and
that purpose only.
it is basically in that area that says personal space.
>> so, would we displace that
and move it somewhere else?
>> we have some alternative locations.
in our operation , in this building as
an example, but then that also kind of gets to
the justice center conversation.
>> service center.
>> then I also wonder, do we have other facilities and spaces
that could house the rehearsal space for the different
resident companies ? You know, we have got
a biodiversity center, that sits over there
after hours, not being used.
we have the latest safety..
there are lots of space over there in those various buildings,
do we need to spend another million dollars
here if we have got space
that is not being fully utilized?
>> we have not explored other building locations for rehearsals.
this facility is more than just rehearsal
space. Right?
>> yeah, but we could get by
with a lot of storage space for $1 million.
>> yes. Correct.
>> so that is where I am a little concerned.
and if you want to go down this road, I don't
know that all rehearsals have to be moved over there
to a new location and then we displace
the amount of the art center.
>> that will be a discussion we are going to
have in just a moment.
>> I have a question. So, I think just
for clarification , because you make a really good point,
mark, but for clarification, it is used for storage
as well as , I presume , storage of props
or costumes and then staging of whatever they
are doing ? I don't know. I guess because I
am thinking about, if we were to use the biodiversity center or some other
location in the evenings, not during the day, then would that require
something to be taken down so that the biodiversity center can function as
a biodiversity center during the day?
and here it would stay the whole time, but I don't know enough
about this business to understand how that works.
>> if you look at even compel, they're going
to utilize the space to have their table, they will have their rehearsals,
they use mock staging tears, tables
and props. In the prop storage and building area, that is actually
store all of the staging for that show that will
then move into the arts center when it is time to do
the show. The orchestra and corral will
also be rehearsing in that space and have all of their music storage there which
they shaded in green square , is probably
maybe just big enough to possibly fit it in.
almost 30 years of storage. Than they have all the chairs
and music stands that they will all need for their rehearsal.
so all of that will have to be housed in that facility and
when they multi use and they schedule who uses the main rehearsal
space, they will have to move those items. But there will be construction being
--happening in that building as well.
>> thank you.
which I think is what we had also talked about when we
were building the arts center, was that we would
still need to have this building to do described, right?
>> during the lead up, there was a discussion,
peter is not necessarily in agreement with it,
quite frankly. That was that the sets would be built offset
and trekked over to the art center.
we opened and they started building their sets
at the arts center.
>> what
will move the art center to this new facility, 100%?
>> so, for theater, let's say that they
have a --each show they do a two month period. They would
do the first month
of rehearsals in a rehearsal space and they would be building and then they
would be able to move into the arts center
performance. So, they would have 12 to 13 days
to move their sets in, paint the floor, install their set, do blocking rehearsals
to be comfortable in that space and then start their tech. They traditionally
do four days of tech before their show opens.
so they will do the basis of their rehearsals and prep time in this facility
and then move over to the arts center when it is time to get ready
close to the date of the show. The orchestra and the corral
tends to do what we call one off shows where they literally
move in the morning of the show, do a
text, and then do their show that day, or they move in the day before
the show , do a tech and do the show the next day. And they could take
the opportunity to move in as much as
five days in advance because they could have a full eight days in
the space they can have multiple rehearsals before their performance
if they wanted to. If they only wanted to have one or two
days before, they could do that as well.
>> thank you.
>> all right, we can also hold that until further discussion, it does tie
into the next flight a little
bit which is , a project to introduce to
you guys before which is the third project. Which is service interface
three.
just to recap, the original need for the service interface three was to
bring them into the building including traffic management systems we discussed
before and provide and improve locker room spaces, increase
public spaces and on the flexible training space
, that includes one we would be losing from the remodel
, from the hangar. The original service center phase 3 design addressed all the needs
of public works the community expensive, they are currently housed in the facility and
included enterprise solutions training space that was shipped over.
because of this project a. We worked with park
hill architecture and came to schematic design and went out for
some construction level pricing with this.
we came back for a $12 million
all in , so by
all in I am speaking of architectural engineering, furniture, construction,
everything combined, not just the construction budget. This pricing was
also confirmed by the architecture company, definitely
due to the high costs we encountered we decided to see if we
just moved straight from the new building and remodeling the existing service
center to just doing a
remodel project without adding the new building, so the one on the left
is the schematic of the new building
which kind of box field service center versus the
new elevation on remodeling the existing.
we reworked and are calling it project b. This
would include the new front elevation and increasing
the locker room spaces , still adding a
public facing restroom but basically remodeling the existing facility so
that came out to 6.5 million.
that includes relocating a few people that are currently
inside this building to some of the outbuildings
versus project a where everybody is moving from the outbuildings
and some of the existing spaces to be ada compliant locker rooms
, so the people that are currently sitting in
their need to relocate to another area.
so we added some remodeling costs in there for the existing outbuilding
, kind of thing the background of the buildings
called project b. That is keeping the traffic
management system outside
of them outbuilding and relocating, closing in some of the existing beas and
conditioning the spaces.
so that also loses the training flexspace and kind of the capacity
for the forward facing residential interaction.
so, that was just basic trying to see pricing exercises, see how
we can make sure we can accommodate the needs and meet most
of them without alternating, so that is kind of where we are
at. I have a slide going through the pros and
cons of each one of those that we can look at. So, these are
kind of the comparables. We will discuss on project is higher cost
, includes the training room and public --it also has a public
engagement spaces. The locker room spaces increase there
for both the men and women's locker rooms and includes a public facing
restroom at the front of the building.
the son includes moving people inside to the new spaces and out
of the outbuildings, and then the constructibility is a little bit
harder on this building meaning we can build the new
building, relocate folks to the new building and work on the existing
building remodel. Then,
recruiting and retention aid, having a facility that
meets the needs of current and future staff, project a addresses
the needs and also includes that piece from the hangar
that relocates from enterprise solution.
and then the project
b is a lower cost, has a lack of training space and public
engagement space , the locker room space increases
for the women but really does not increase for the men's, but it keeps the
restroom front. People are moving from the existing building into the
outbuilding and as I discussed, requires consolidating
space to housing staff, there is a bit of an unknown cost associated with
relocating people during construction because this remodel would be construction while
working and so that
is going to require existing folks to either be worked around or relocate
during a remodel. So there is still a fa?ade upgrade from
a public perspective just to give it a better look to fit
in with life safety partner old towne. Project
b addresses the space needs and upgrades the work. It also upgrades
the working environment so I am just looking for some
direction on how you would like to proceed and take some
questions on that.
>> I remember
when you presented this to us before, you said that the women's
restrooms were insufficient in the you were talking about adding shower
facilities back then. Are both of those covered
with both of these?
>> yes. >> definitely both considered, since there really isn't
a women's locker room at all, with both scenarios,
the women's locker room is pretty much the exact same. It
is the men's the loses some spread for the less expensive version.
>> this is one we were originally estimating was
going to be about half of what it is coming in it? And that is just
due to escalating construction costs?
>> reporter: right.
that is based on the sticker shock of the pricing, we went back and
tried to see, was there a scenario where we can
kind of sharpen our pencil or figure out if there are
spaces that work. That project b
gone to the whole chart and made sure everybody has got a seat, everybody has
their space, so it works as far as that goes. We are both at the same
level of drawing the schematics of drawings for both, the architect has gotten
to the point where we have started putting
furniture in places and things just to make sure they are both actually doable.
so it is just a function of seeing which
direction counsel would like to go on that project.
because it is a vast difference in the scope
and price , one is double the other.
>> I'm going to follow up on what the mayor asked, with respects to
the women facilities , locker room shared facilities and if
we go with b,
are we allowing for some growth in the number of female employees as well?
>> yes.
>> okay, it will be the same quality facility as what the
men have when we are done?
>> right, correct. >> okay.
>> you would have to relocate in either
case, project leader and project b, right?
>> so, project a, the original plan was to build the newer facility
out front and then folks could move into that. Similar to what you do with
the school, they are in
the existing area. There might be a bit of relocation but I think it
can be accommodated with the mobile mini units kind
of things. I don't think it will be the large-scale
versus the project b where you have got 72 people
but now you need to go move their operations elsewhere. The
plan was to build the entire building, move in,
got to this building, and then move the rest of the folks back into that
building.
>> I see. >> the building
letter a scenario, that is all about offices, training spaces, flex spaces. Even
the folks that would be displaced out of
flex spaces . In theory there is an opportunity
there to not even need to relocate those folks at all.
that is the only reason I wanted to note
that because on the project b side there are some unknowns on that cost
, scheduling and means and methods, but we are not quite there yet
but I just wanted to know would
be a cost probably associated with b that is not accounted for that number.
>> any other questions?
donald.
>> are we funding this with a bond?
>> you are going to have options. The funding mechanism
was something we were specifically going
to discuss in january. You can cash fund
it.
>> just like we have the potential for
is in 24 with the bond payments beginning in
25, right?
>> right.
>> you still have rail to discuss and how much and what you
want to do there, so , you have options.
>> I thought that was the case, I just wanted to make sure.
I cannot remember if it was already planned to
be in a bond or what the plan was.
initially when it was a smaller amount.
>> yes, at the time, it is about 6 million.
>> for the new construction and the remodeling, but that is when
-- I mean, we slowed this down as soon
as he started getting the pricing because it was like, we just could
not believe the pricing was changing that fast on us.
right? Especially for a pretty basic building. It
is not overly complicated.
>> breanna.
>> I may have missed this but if we did project b with the plan
--would the plan b then to finish up what we did
not do as part of project a at a later time? And if so,
how much --
>> the answer is no. >> so it
is either a or b, it is either all in, so there isn't --
>> the best way I can compare it is, some of you
were around , I think it was, like, there is a decision
made on the quarter in 2000, less than 10 years later
it was like, we need more. And so
.
>> that is my fear, right? If we don't to be --or
if we do b and we do not do a, then you're going to
come back in three years, five years, whatever that number is, and say we
need the other part done.
>> from a staffing perspective there's not going to
be a lot of growth in the staffing.
10 to 15 years.
really, we have done two or three phases on the exterior,
right? As far as
bays and construction and doing this kind of things.
I think there are still some needs but they
are nothing compared to what we are looking for as far as operations now.
>> right, okay. Thank you.
>> anything else? Marks?
>> you said the 6.5 million for project b, that included
redoing the front elevation just to make it
look nice , it didn't have anything to do with
accessibility or anything like that?
>> no. Just the settings.
which the original -- the project a, the new building basically
hides the older building.
>> the beautification?
>> that is is not an option. The only thing
that we did 2b was take the front entry of letter
a and stick it on b so we still
had that public lobby, public restroom scenario, so the
only thing that would change on b if we did not update the elevation would
just be a little square entryway that is a little bit different. If you're
familiar with the building there is kind of a front covered area that is
basically where the covered area is.
>> what you would give up the public lobby
and the public restroom?
>> both projects have that, --
>> but if you took off the
--
>> elevation upgrade? >> and you lose those
components.
>> I'm sure we can add it, it might just look a
little weird. Having a new square.
it can be done.
>> the reason that we wanted the question of front is because when we
have people visiting that facility, they are going
into the locker room, right?
>> they're going into our facility.
>> walking through and around.
>> that is what we were trying to avoid. So
without the front facing on plan b we lose the public restroom?
>> correct.
>> I think is a critical component, it is not
just the beautification, it affects the functionality, when
people are going back into the center.
>> in both projects, if we went with b and
kept the fa?ade, they have kind of the secure line, there is a public restroom
, but then there is a secure line so if somebody has a security
problem they can get back.
so both scenarios have that kind of same front approach tied into it.
>> and clarify for me, because I'm not familiar
with the building, the outbuilding occupants , pro or con depending on
which one, can you sort of describe, our people actually outside
in the garage the day rather than an interior building?
>> correct, --
>> we would be moving , with a we would be
trying to move more of those people into an actual building rather
than --
>> your correct.
there are some that are storage based routinely and some that have a hard
door on them. That is where traffic management is and some
other functions are back there and then our facility staff, it says
auction bar in it but it has people in there too. So the original plan
was to get some other supervisors in the building
and they are in the outbuilding, so that
disconnect and there are no restrooms and things out there so if they need to
go to the restroom, you know, they get around and go through
the building perks it is trying to get everybody into one building was
the goal of letter a and is much as we would like to get them
in there, there is just not space since they are actually
moving people into the outbuilding that are
currently not --
>> actually would have people going out
.
>> reversing, yes.
>> we have money to upgrade the outbuilding spaces.
>> how about this? From a critical path and point, we are
asking for some direction but we have time. So
why don't we arrange, we will try to get a
group tour but if the group tour is not possible we will take
you on an individual tour to go out there so you all can actually see from
an operations standpoint, before you make this decision, what to your point
--to say they are in a garage is actually --
that is making it sound nice.
>> I hate to say it is more expensive but
, I am not saying it is a recruiting tool that is a
take care of your people and your people take care of the city
typing, provide the facility that really is not just bolted on, just
sort of haphazard, even though it is going to
cost us a lot more than what we originally thought. So that
is what I was trying to clarify is that this is actually going to improve the
day-to-day work scenario for employees.
>> that
is why we step back, just because of pricing.
listening to you all this evening, I think having you all
go out, just tour the facility, it gives you an opportunity
, because it directly relates to our operations, right? In terms of how things
work and where things are, so that way you at least
are better informed.
after that is done, then we can bring that back into a work session item and
just have you all --or just thumbs down, keep doing
what you are doing. In terms of the way that
that could work, right? Is that okay?
>> yes. Kevin.
>> option a, obviously but
bring people inside, I am assuming that these
barrages you're speaking of, that is able to
be converted to more storage space , we increase our capacity for
outside storage kamara quitman storage, whatever that
is needed, then we have additional people , areas and offices and all that stuff on
the inside so overall experience that capacity.
>> correct. >> okay.
>> a step back is, let's go take a look
at it.
>> this is where they have the
public works mentions.
the corn hole tournaments and the hamburger fest
over there .
>> I have not been to those either.
>> the main building is dated. There is no doubt
about that. I can't even imagine where the office , or where
the desk or whatever is out in the garage is because they are
pretty much open air. So, I would appreciate the tour myself.
>> I am fine with the tour and everything, I think this is one we
ought to go more with a.
this is a critical facility and will continue to be into the future but I
am fine also taking the tour. That would be early on.
>> I have to say I am with don on this,
I have been out to the facility several times and walked through and
we have had the public work stays out there and stuff.
it is hard because we spend a lot of resources on these publicly outward
facing buildings all around town, and we have got a facility
there that , we have people that are frontline public service
, they are the ones keeping our water bill,
they are the ones that are out there when it is cold and rainy. I
think we owe it to them to make sure that we as a
community can see that we are investing in them, as
you say, you
know what? If you guys are out there busting their tail, trying to get my
water back on, maybe I want them to go back
to a nice, warm facility, go shower off and get ready to go back to work.
I think it is worth that appreciation. If you would have
originally said building cost $12 million instead of $6 million,
you would not know anyway.
>> at the time we started that,
we thought, attack them. I am not saying that
to say that rome.
I'm seeing a building cost is a building.
if they need to serve the community, I and we want to continue to serve at
a high level.
>> if it was the right decision a year and a
half ago, it is still the right decision today? For public works.
>> I strongly feel that.
>> [ laughter ] >> I am going to move this along a little
bit here. Come in, schedule a tour if you
would like and we will bring this back up .
>> is in is everybody who has told us they
wanted to argosy tour.
>> okay, so I think that would be a good idea. If
you have not been out there, it is worth a trip out there.
>> I am in for a tour.
>> last but not least. Tonight , going to ask for your info
on whether to proceed with next steps on the justice center expansion, this
will be the first time he referred to this project.
so, the justice center expansion has three main components, the
locker space and the breaker space.
I will show photographs and some upcoming slides for reference. The
current fitness facilities
are extremely space confined, it has a mass capacity of
two people at best in the room at a time, with the upcoming police fitness requirements and
allowance for fitness on shift is not allowable use
of the space is required.
there is also a lack of ability to complete any
of the physical testing components required in
physical classroom training that is needed for the space in addition
, they also host public facing classes that
are physical , like the women safety and things like that,
they do not have enough room for the training and the space
. The current locker rooms are not ada
compliant for the men's or women's spaces.
in walkers
for women and men are inadequate for future needs especially on the women's side
of the locker rooms. There is a ventilation
issue in the locker rooms with the high humidity created from
the showers.
the materials are particleboard for the walkers, so they are not faring well
and seem to be falling apart. The project moves
forward, the demolition controls will be added as well
as materials for more of the locker environment.
lockers currently contain a lot of sweaty and bulletproof vests
and they do not dry well and are creating
issues with people saying them out to dry. They are still wet from the last
time they were used, so some other things we had worked out were
antibacterial cleaning cabinets pick some of
the other municipalities have a standard thing. I will see in some of
the photographs where people just kind than
in their lockers in an attempt to dry things.
that is just containing a health problem for the officers. Lastly the current
break room only seats six people.
there's typically at least double that in the break room
for meals, during breaks officers are turning conference rooms and other
spaces to accommodate their needs , so I will
just share some of the photographs that were shared with me.
it is probably hard to tell but ,
there are some more folks in the breaker --break room but if
you have been in there it is an extremely tight space, like if you
are testing for pd, there is enough room for
one percent to go in there and test. If
you have a multiple person testing environment you basically have to take turns or, in
the break room.
so, typically the officers do not want
to eat out in
public, a lot of times, just want to come in and he took their food
and get rolling, there is a race for space and
just running into everybody's areas to switch and eat.
so here are some photographs of , it
is kind of hard to tell but you can see the
materials of that particleboard, the hinges on both of these are
hanging off and you can see somebody's clothes are attempted to
be dried by hanging halfway off the locker room. So here
is some more farther away photographs of people's
things, you can see a lot of the vests and shoes and things
where there is space in those drawers for shoes and space for the rest,
that they are just hanging and the fact
that you can stand between the two lockers and reach across
and touch tells you it is not ada compliant, so I think
in pd there is a real need for that because there are
people injured on duty that to require assistance sometimes, even if
it is temporarily and they would be able to utilize the space. So,
the next steps would be going forward with this, based on your
feedback tonight, would just be to engage
with the architect , do landing and needs assessment and
manic design, set of drawings, that is where we are at with the projects
as we go through and do the cost estimating. Then, come back to you guys with
more information on costs and plans.
so, we are just looking for feedback on if you would
like to proceed with that, with this project.
also, the funding source would be the crime
control budget. Just in case, they have sufficient funds
.
>> so, with respect to this, would include
presenting and drawing up space for the drawing unit?
>> correct, similar to when we have the traffic management
area, we factor in
everything and pd would help select a climate
they need and lockers they need and build the space
based on what they require.
>> would include a separate
testing room so they would not be sitting in
the lounge?
>> the discussion was having a big, almost
come I don't know if you're familiar with a crossfit gym,
the weight area and workout area and a big open wrestling that area where it
is open and fitness and that would be the space
you can utilize for training and flex space and can
move the climate back and forth as needed.
a lot of the equipment now is on rollers where you can roll the
equipment back and forth, so having just a lot
more open space in the plan for fitness, and there are
several other facilities, I know that the police have toured in
grapevine and different competitors as far as retention and recruitment
tools, so just in comparison, and they have
looked at several other facilities.
>> I would really favor this, absolutely.
>> kevin? >> is going to ask, chief, I
know we have the new positions we authorize for the
sros, what is our current staffing level?
are we 80% staff?
>> year two shy.
>> what does that -- 56. So, we are
right now being fully staffed, and we are having
these suggestion issues? Okay.
>> you said there was enough money
in the budget, what are you all thinking is going to
cost? I know you do not have the official cost yet but
do we think it is 1 million bucks?
>> the answer to that, we don't know.
>> but we have enough, how do we know we
have enough, I guess?
>> because it is in the control district.
>> and we have a ton. >> we have enough.
>> and because we have set aside funds for capital investment and, you have
already set aside the fund balance is strong.
>> that is fine,
this wasn't public safety, this is another one of these --
>> reimbursing thing for me was I was
going to ask , we just of this renovation of the justice
center last year, we are having to do it again? Then
I realized it was more like 10 years ago.
>> a thinking that too, then realized it had been a while back.
I am all in as well but do we have enough --I guess
we need the architect but I am thinking of that space and do we have enough
space to do what we want to do even in that building?
>> the inspection would
include potentially expanding.
if your member were the break room is
versus the weight room, the building is not a complete rectangle
or a square, depending on how you look at it.
>> I know when we did national night out,
that is all pretty tight.
>> absolutely.
>> he is not forgetting the details but has also looked at,
there are some things about the silly bird that could have been done differently.
>> there are just some different configurations to take into account.
>> there asking permission to get the answers to
those types of questions.
>> absolutely.
>> so are we okay with that one?
>> yes.
so, justice center, yes.
>> --fire station five moving forward.
>> I think I saw a thumbs-up from most everybody.
>> on the supercenter raring to do a
tour and come back. Now we are ready for
the arts center conversation that has an impact on the fire admin
/hangar building brick
>> we will take c and
cover the fire admin building at the same time. That one is up to you.
>> I'm sorry, I was talking to her.
>> so the follow-up discussion from the
fifth tuesday work session has your name beside it but
I think I can -- we heard from brett egan
at the devos institute, he sent out his report, everybody has
got that , I hope you have had a chance to review it, he
had some very specific recommendations that are up there and the
question is , philosophically, what is our direction going to be?
>> she is pulling up the last --the second to
last page, actually,
it is left.
>> there is a
way. They go.
>> there we go. That is the thing.
>> did that go down? Yep. Next and up, that one. That one.
>> yes, that is it. That is
fine, okay.
so, this was, you know, we heard this in august and
everybody has had some time to think about it and
noodle over it. So, mike is looking for direction on what to
do about the arts center.
>> I have a question.
>> is, john. >> this actually goes to janine. So, we discussed
about the recommendations of the city, is that going to be sufficient
for you to try to maximize the use of arts center for the revenue? Is
this going to be
enough?
>> enough to focus on generating more revenue? Yes.
if these recommendations go into play,
and we are able to open up and have more inventory available
to the arts center to rent the space, then that is
going to increase our revenues.
>> to have ideas of what we
are currently able to do to what this will allow you to do?
>> I do not have an exact percentage
for you because it really is going to depend on
how much the resident companies continue to book with us through the new booking policy. So
for instance, right now, the wilson theater is
being used 0% of the time for rentals or presented events.
if this recommendation moves forward, the wilson theater
will be available about 50% of
the time to the arts center to be either available
to put a presented event in order to rent out to a third party rental. And
that is just that space.
>> so, it could always be more, but is
this enough for you to go and do what you can do in
terms of [ inaudible ]
>> yes, this recommendation would allow us
to have increased revenues, increased rentals , in the sense
of, we are going to be able to have have expanded our staff
and our staff on board at the end of march,
we exceeded our revenue expectations in rentals because we
have the bandwidth to book more. So now, we have the inventory and the bandwidth,
we should actually be able to exceed
our budgeted expectations in revenue.
I would say, by maybe at least 30 more percent ? I am being
safe with that number.
>> john?
>> so, as I thought through this
and figured out what is the important piece here, it really seemed
like the important piece is increasing inventory to sell the
arts center. We have this huge beautiful asset that we can sell
and increasing the availability of that to sell as we go is
the crucial thing. So, dovetailing on that, we
talked about the hangar, renovating the hangar.
this process of getting the resident companies a place to rehearse
that is close to the arts center and therefore
freeing up the availability in the arts
center. I am in favor of this plan.
the one question I do have on this is
part of this plan, if you go to page 22, if you go back,
it breaks down how we get to 1 million bucks. Resident company
fees, that is my only concern that I am willing to
have some discussion about. It is $30,000 a year
out of this . I'm not as concerned about
whether or not we get an additional $30,000 out of the resident companies to get to
the million dollars as I am increasing inventory. Does that make sense?
if we can find a way
to take care of this, or make up this $30,000 or fund the resident
companies, whatever it is
, if that gives us additional inventory, that is what I am more concerned about getting
because that is where we increase all these other line items
is by increasing inventory.
>> good point, and
keep in mind that you can do whatever you want to do. This was based
on the -- breath a suggestion based on what is
common with other performing arts centers.
>> we built this beautiful arts center and taken on
--this is different than the old fire station that was converted to an
arts center practices a big deal. And it
is an evolving deal.
whatever we decide tonight or this year is not the way
it will continue to be. We hope this continues to be an evolution
of arts in coppell. I don't
know what that will look like in five years but I think this is a
great next step of continuing to raise the bar and increasing revenue. We
are not going to get back to 0 on the arts center and we knew
us on the path of getting to sustainability
for this and hopefully increasing the resident
companies exposures. I am in favor of the plan as laid out
and certainly open to this resident feed. How do
we take care of the resident company fee schedule?
quite frankly I would sort of think if we do increase the fees , they
will be coming to us for additional funding
from the city, my guess is, how it would have been.
I am not as concerned about the $30,000 as we need
the availability in the arts center to sell.
>> kevin.
>> around that time I spoke free earlier,
I am kind of a ditto. That was very well said.
>> you got mine earlier, so.
>> I just purpose of
, and the presentation, trying to get the
resident companies to pitch in, and I have zero interest in that whatsoever.
it is great if they are able to increase the
revenues that point but I feel like we would squash them out
of existence to try to come up with that kind of
contribution so I am definitely interested in that.
>> jim.
>> to me , this combined
with the building is really more about
making sure the arts center is more a performance center and not
, you know, predominately a rehearsal or set construction center. And
the more, I think certainly I have been surprised, and I
lot of folks have been working for us have
been surprised with the demand for rentals and what we are asking for
rentals is not inexpensive. It is an expensive place
to have an event. And yet the demand has been tremendous
, I think that is a real testament to a
facility . To me, when we had $1 million
, or when we had $970,000 , I don't think it will really make
a big difference. The thing to me about it is
it is a resident arts company. These residents will be paying taxes
so they are paying all the same fees we are. To support the
arts center. So, because they are resident arts companies,
there composed of people in our community that want to express themselves in
some artistic fashion whether it is through their voice or playing the
chamber orchestra or whatever, so, that tends to contribute
for the folks that want to go watch them and be entertained by that, it tends
to contribute to
our quality of life in town which is exactly what the arts center was all
about. So, I am not as concerned about the resident
companies, they have had some other challenges, when
we first started doing this , I mean,
you know, janine requires they have an annual calendar for events and
they had to experience some growth, in
this organization to even get to that point. This is been
a big learning experience for all of them. I am more interested in freeing
up the space
to make it more of a performance-based, an event rental
space, maximize the revenue we are bringing into the space,
particularly as we make another space available for the rehearsals
and the set construction, that sort of thing.
I definitely want to support this , you've already invested so
much in it and so many people derive so much joy
from it, we also porting resident arts companies
at the same time for $30,000 is of less interest
to me than the , you know, one to $300,000 that we
could pay from increasing the usage of the facilities and
performance center and event rental.
>> anybody have any comments, questions? John?
>> things I would say also, the only thing
is, 30,000 I think part of the reason
why they came up with that or we both came up with that
was just [ inaudible ] the only thing is
, like you said, space is important and if we
are able -- I know you were working, you have group relations with
the performers and if there is a way that we could free
up spaces for the timeslots, and they wrote
with us, maybe you could knock out whatever, the 30,000, as
it might have been --they
may have had the space they need.
if we can offset in that way so that they do
not actually pay but rather we work with them to get
generating , [ inaudible ] I don't know.
>> we don't want to put them on the verge of not
being able to perform , but at the same time we do want to make sure that
they also work with us to make sure we can
maximize the spaces and the time, that we can use for
bringing in to show them what else they could use it for.
you are right, 30,000 is not a lot.
it is really not a lot
for trying to make of the million use that as, just knock it off, every
time we have a swap, in a
sense, right? And that kind of gives them incentive to work with us
if there is a conflict with the
date and time that someone wants it and they are willing to pay a lot
more money for that time and space.
>> mark. >> I want to ask a question about the future.
from the fast year, 55 ticketed show days.
than the load in days, those are the six days
prior to, or excuse me, those two weeks .
>> so, this document that you have ended, september 30th, so this is
with them fully rehearsing and fully set constructing in the
center. So, there rehearsals and load in their 100%
in the space, they have reserved on our calendar 138 days in
order to produce their performances.
and then they do on occasion
come into the building when we have open building hours to complete the
construction outside of their reserved times.
>> with your proposal, with the new space,
what would that number back down to?
>> for each show, you figure how they do six shows a year,
and each show has nine performances, but a three weekend long, they
days in the space which is again, that
12 to 13 days before the first performance,
and then you brian --run into we can performances and if they choose
to, the dark days in between
, that we can performances, they can come in and do pick up rehearsals,
they can do auditions for the next upcoming show in the space, because the spaces
there's. Essentially once you move into the space, you have
the space for the consecutive days to
the end of your booking so a
maximum of 29 days for a full-scale production show
for theater coppell. And for a small scale production show , like the orchestra
or ballet, they can choose for a maximum of eight days
with one performance weakened.
>> bijou. >> thank you, mayor. A question, you had mentioned
the space availability will increase 50%. What about the
main theater?
>> the main hall theater would increase mainly during weekdays because
if you see on the chart that you have, it is the rehearsal time for the
resident companies to corral and the orchestra that take away days. Those
are the days we are trying to fill with
corporate rentals like we have moving in tomorrow for the next four days
in that space. I cannot give you a 100% estimate on how much we can go
in there because the weekend usage of
the resident companies will primarily stay the same as long as
they keep programming their seasons the same
way that they do. It is giving us more weekday space
, in the main hall or the reception hall if they use that
as rehearsal space.
>> weekdays, you made it is not going to be
and sunday, it will be weekdays, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday?
>> it will be most weekdays unless the resident
companies change how they program or how many shows they
produce each season but on track for the past two years, they
have been producing the same amount of
shows, so I am expecting they will continue to do that method moving forward.
>> okay, so the weekend availability
will not increase much?
>> not much, maybe a little bit here or there. Let's say
one year the corral did it shows and then last year they did
11 shows. So there's a bit of flexibility in that and also with
how many shows we present , last season we presented
13 titles, this upcoming season representing 19 titles.
>> if we follow this recommendation, the availability
will increase the theater, right?
>> majority of the availability will open in
openings in the main hall, majority of that opening will
be primarily during the week.
>> I also agree
that we need to increase the available hour so we need to create
more mentally of people in the main area. That is
the revenue , we can look for
the available streams. I know we have three theaters there. The
other is not completely three different spaces?
>> the third main spaces the reception
hall which is a multipurpose space.
occasionally the resident companies will use that
reversals or workshops or summer camps
, there space in those areas are smaller compared to
the space in the actual theater performance spaces.
>> are you proposing any changes to the camp days
that the corral have?
>> the proposal for operations is, each group
could reserve up to six bucks a year for
shows and they can block up to three weeks for camps and camps would
be considered monday through friday. Which is more than
any of the groups have done previously.
>> it looks like they were doing a week or something like that.
>> could you talk about how far out right now you're having to book the
shows?
>> yes, so I am already currently in talks and negotiations with agence
to start booking that 24/2025 season. Which is
normal in this industry that you will look that far ahead
so that the agents can route those shows.
what I do at this time is I look at the
past calendar to see where the resident companies
have placed their shows and try to work with these booking agents to
place the shows not on those days, occasionally
I will run into a hiccup where the show can only come in through texas
this week and if you want it you have to have it on this friday. That
is where I start conversations with the resident companies.
resident companies, for their submittal of
dates actually starts on october 1st.
they will submit their dates for 2024 to 2025 between october
1st and december 31st.
then my staff compiles it onto our calendar, we identify conflicts
if one resident company group asks for a show
on the same day, we resolve those conflicts and then we also work
with the conflicts of the presenting shows. At the same
time as that spins, we have private rental inquiries
coming in because people like to book a year in
advance. Right now we have inquiries waiting on our answers from
us for october, november and december of 2024
and we told them they have to wait on hold until we
can get some of our calendar built first.
>> you finish?
>> thanks for getting
to the intricacies of explaining the arts center or how it works
and everything. This may have come out before, to the resident
companies pay any fees now for rental when they come in to do a performance?
to the pay rental for their space?
>> right now, the resident companies, the only thing they pay
is if they need above basic services. We have the
market rates and they pay 10% of those services. It
is not for every single service that a third party rental would pay either. They
have a specialist of basic services that they pay. So
if they need more than four microphones, they
pay about six dollars per microphone.
the only fees they are currently incurring from the arts center
and if they need extra labor to run their
shows. And we have to hire extra labor, whether
it is our staff or contract labor, they do pay for that and that
they have to pay the regular standard.
>> okay.
just to clarify, the $30,000 on here, that
is basically 5% of
what they would be paying if they were paying market
rental rates , am I saying that right?
>> is, so the
$30,000 there is based on past usage.
what it would be is it would be 5% of the market rate
that a third party rental person would pay for
the building.
the resident company would pay. So essentially, the resident company would pay $250
to have a show.
that is 5% of the market rate.
>> okay. All right.
>> quick question and follow-up to that, that is not
unusual in the market?
right? I mean, that is within I
guess the market rate? I don't know how to say that, but
--that is what others are doing in their performing facilities?
>> yes, that is correct.
>> so, am I seeing that right?
that that would be the equivalent of $600,000 of revenue
if you are going to rent out the space ?
>> it was a 32 according to divorce, with the value
they are used too.
>> 832?
>> it is even less than 5%. >> it is a little bit less.
>> that is what the survey had in there somewhere.'s
based on usage.
>> that is based on the current
usage for they have been 100% rehearsing in
the facility. That is the other thing, if they --
the days when your usage days would go down, to listen those costs about 5%.
>> samudio had a hand up. I am sorry,
I thought it was somebody down there. John?
janine?
>> as far as the, I guess the request that
comes in for the
--the performance or whatever it is, is it more
of, for the weekends? Or is it more toward the weekdays
that they are requesting time?
>> are you asking about the
resident companies or third-party entities?
>> third-party.
>> third-party rentals right now if I am talking about things coming in november
and december of next year, it is more parties because they want parties
and they want to get those a year in advance
but we are seeing more corporate entities coming to us for weekday conventions. That
is in more of that.
>> what about performances?
>> at the moment, we have a lot of dance schools I want to come
in and do performances. We have not really entered the realm
of promoters coming in and asking to do shows. We have
had I think about three or four stage readings come through and that is
something else that we can open up and do, that is
just another type of contract we set when you are working with
a promoter.
>> any other questions?
>> so, when we are looking at this, altogether, we are looking at
--in the million dollars upfront for the renovation of the hangar , plus
yearly maintenance and operations , to then potentially make
x amount each year ,
in perpetuity, right? So, I mean, it starts to make
sense and , you know, I was a little bit concerned, janine, when
we were first talking about this, that,
you know, resident companies would not have
an opportunity to rehearse in the actual space, but the way
you explain it, they have time before each performance
, that two week period , that they can become
accustomed to the acoustics and the space and where
all their sets are going to be, so , you know, I am
not so opposed to it. As I was before.
because there is that opportunity . It is not like we are kicking them
out completely. But we are trying to free up a
little more space.
>> so, don? >> I will just say one thing, and this
once again is more philosophical, but to your point, it may be a
zero-sum game by the time you renovate this and maintain this and all that
but I just feel like you are really utilizing what I would
say is a gem of a lot of our facilities,
to the best of what it can be, or we don't
even know what it could be for sure. It is like, what can
this asset be in the long term?
you cannot know unless you have it available to utilize this way. So you
are right.
it may be we are switching off one pocket into another as far as
cost goes but you are really highlighting what I think was
envisioned for this thing, even he worked for years to
get an arts center or a performing arts center or something here, and now
we have this great building to utilize, so we should be
able to --we should raise all votes by utilizing this as best
as he can and generating as much revenue as
we can.
>> kevin? >> I just want to also point out that
janine and her team, what they have done with
the current inventory they have, they have already exceeded revenue
projections by a pretty decent amount from what I
understand from last report. Opening that up even more, we are just giving her
fuel for the fire, if you will.
as you stated, we don't need to know
what the thing can do.
to me it just reinforces when she asks for additional staff,
go see what it can do,
that is all we are doing is continuing that mantra
of, let's go see what this thing can do.
the success we have seen from the availability there
is now, what new heights are able to reach
from that? That is what I am very excited about and
I don't want to put our resident companies in the cold, I want to give them a facility
that is respectful of them, they are, as you point out,
they are taxpayers, citizens, they are our neighbors. They
deserve the opportunity to have a nice space to rehearse in but also understanding
they are a part of a larger picture of what we are trying
to build. I look forward to it.
>> go ahead. >> I was going to say that
if we give them the space they need, if we have the space at our center,
in the long run it
will make more, because we have more spaces throughout,
revenue. I think we talked about the cost that
the place we are going to renovate is
--the maintenance is nominal?
>> it is a normal
cost.
>> red, the initial cost will be there but in the long run we
already would have used those spaces.
that will give better return.
>> so I think I want to make sure, do we have a consensus
on the philosophical plan on the arts center to free up the
space?
okay. So, on the --go ahead.
>> oh, to free up the space. Go ahead.
>> on the fire admin building,
are we good on that one? The two kind of go hand
in hand.
>> this is the hangar? >> the hangar, yes.
>> [ laughter ]
>> the only other one we were debating, it was a $30,000.
so, let's come to a decision on that one.
we can call the discussion good.
>> I will say, I am flexible on a lot of things, I know what kevin stated
in some of the others have stated about not
wanting to worry about the $30,000 for resident companies. I do like
the idea that it builds in some level of
discipline into scheduling and it is raising all
boats, everybody becomes a little more professional
in the process in the scheduling, I do like that aspect of
it knowing that we may still fund it.
they would have to come up with the funding source to
make that happen.
I like the concept of them having to
have a little more skin in the game from
a scheduling standpoint knowing the funding has got to come probably
from us in the long term but I am flexible to this one.
>> mark.
>> you know,
I don't think they should have to pay anything. I think they have enough commitment
to their craft and to janine because if they do
not get their requests and their schedules
at the end, and all their dates set, then they are out of luck. So
they have already got skin in the game.
the question is, you don't get it done, you are
left out in the cold. The $30,000 we potentially generate, I don't
think we need to pass onto the resident companies.
>> yeah. I am with mark.
>> okay.
>> go ahead.
>> you sure? >> okay.
>> if you
like because they are the residents, a big part of the reason we built this place was
to further the arts to coppell. I
think the discipline and scheduling, they found out , now we
have got to have the entire annual calendar of events, not all
of them were used to doing that and so if
they do not get booked then they do not have that event, so I think
that build enough discipline and scheduling
like that into it . I also think
it is a little silly that we can charge them
$50,000 in fees and the next year they come back and say now we
have added $50,000 to our grant request for
>> we need 55,000. >> I don't really care to go through that kind
of theater. So, I would rather just
accept that the resident arts companies,
the music facility recognizing this hangar is going
to accomplish what I thought was part of the purpose of enhancing the staff at
the arts center which was a recent decision and really kind of freeing
it up to go ahead and, sometimes
janine will get a call for an event, we are going
to be performing in dallas, would you want to have us pop up there? If
it is already booked for rehearsals, you know, then we
lose that income generating opportunity, yes, but we
also lose the opportunity to bring a show in
that folks in town would want to go see.
no one is going to go see the rehearsals, that is not a performance opportunity
or entertainment opportunity for the
citizens of them are paying shows that
we can bring in, even some that are on short notice, I think the
better off we all are. I am in favor of doing the
hangar to accommodate maximizing the usage of
the arts center and I don't really see the fees for the resident
arts companies is having much of a significance in any of that.
>> a, mike.
>> a, john.
>> similar yet different, yet , we charge our
sports associations to use our fields, right?
>> jessica, you want to talk about the relationship
between the sports associations?
>> I'm trying to figure out, don't get
me wrong, I hear what you're saying, here what everybody is saying. I want
to look at things from the standpoint of how
our residents are using all our facilities and our things,
so can you help me ?
>> the sports association, it is played per player. The associations collect
a fee per player. Part of that gets passed along
to us.
>> so we maintain the field?
>> we maintain the field, it is definitely not an offsetting
cost by any means but it is a --there is
a cost there.
>> yeah, okay. I'm trying to think of
that because they are our residents, on the flipside
of that, I do feel like we are going to get the increase in requests
for grants, so there are the pros and cons.
I think where I am landing is, you already have
the four around the table. I will leave it at that so I
don't know that you need my yes or no but I think I am okay
with forgoing the 30,000 , but I
would look , janine, to you and stuff and your team from the
standpoint of , if at any point we need to revisit this,
right? And what that looks like. But I think
right now , we have got this facility, you are having
to work with scheduling, we want to
encourage the arts in our community, I understand resident companies are
5013c so funding is an issue, or not an issue but it
could be an obstacle so looking at that but being mindful of
, we may need to tweak at some point along the way.
>> just a reminder, this has been a tweak
from the day we got started.
>> I know, and we continue to
tweak.
>> you know, we are going to get better as a result of that.
>> absolutely. >> done? >> what is the norm in
the market, what is the market for resident companies? Do they pay
some subsidized amount?
50%, 5%?
>> talking with brett, and knowing the center and everything,
what we propose, the 5%, was even lower than anything brett had ever
off the table. The norm is a resident companies pay something
to have stake in
the game, by in, but also responsibility in , I have booked these days a year in
advance and I am going to pay for them and if I council on
you , then I still have to pay for them because if
I council on you and then I have to buy a show and put it
around that, and they council four months in advance,
I could put that show on a prime day, and there is
no repercussion, so that is why , typically there is some kind of
nominal charge, not a charge that would ever endanger
the organization to go bankrupt. But something that helps hold
them accountable more than they are worth.
>> and that is my concern.
>> the market is, there
a hill up and down, to your point this is a process, it is not
an event. This whole arts in coppell is an evolving thing.
but I think you already have your four votes for whatever
, not charging the resident companies anything but I
do think it is a good idea.
>> john? >> I just want to clarify,
the $30,000, the 5% you're talking about, it could be more, right? If
they caught requested additional things
they need?
>> it could be more or less. It would all be dependent
upon their use.
>> is there a cap?
>> I will give you a cap, is theater channel and,
if they booked six shows, 29 days for
each show, that puts them at $16,400 a year
that they have to pay us.
if an other group uses the main hall for six
shows a year and he is a maximum of eight days,
it is $5700 a year.
so, that is with the new blocking set. It
could be less because if they do enough they are not paying
for eight.
>>!
>> a, mike.
2 just for a point of clarification, earlier, while
you are having this discussion, we hear what you're saying but janine did
mention that this is 5% of the market
along those lines. What they are paying for now, I want to make sure
, excuse me for saying this to the resident companies, we are
not writing a blank check. They are still going to
pay for the additional whatever above and beyond or whatever the basic is,
I just want to make sure it is set.
>> sure. >> I do not want us walking out of here with any misunderstanding, no,
the council said we are not going to pay anything.
>> the extra microphone will be switched out.
>> I thought you meant in frequency which is how janine answered.
>> even with frequency, right? If they ask
for more could it be more than what they are actually doing
right now?
>> it is all dependent on usage and
what type of show. So if they do a show where they want two operators, a soundboard
operator, a video operator, a curtain operator,
that will be an expensive show because you have to pay for all
that extra labor unless they have volunteers that can run certain positions.
>> is there a cap? >> the cap is, it is 5% for space on
all the space rentals and then for the equipment
that they use , is 10% of the
market rate. It will make everything 5% of the market
rate to make it easy but there isn't a cap,
it is about how much they use.
that is a traditional, normal way. You walk into a menu and they
are going to charge you for tape on the floor and they are going to
charge you for an extension cord. We don't do those charges
with the resident companies because it is not thoughtful and
it's not meaningful to have them
incur those costs. Once they go over four microphones, yes they pay for
a microphone.
>> mayor? >> can we have a cancellation problem?
>> we have had one resident company that counseled,
we have had issues where we have had to move a
lot of things.
we have more issues than they have been better about getting
information to us so we can get it published online in time so
that we can try to sell the most tickets we can further companies and it
is a learning has improved on that, we
are not 100% there yet but it is still on our
side, as a center we are working to make it better and it seems like the
resident companies are working to make it better
as well.
>> I believe you said earlier,
this is an evolving relationship, just because
we say something today does not mean we can't
be at the table here in a year. Seeing if we need to continue
to evolve that relationship. Thank you for that approach.
>> breanna first. >> just to follow up on
that, I think that is janine, what I would look to you for and your
team is a fact of, if we do end up seeing issues that we can then find ways to
have a win-win and let's figure that out at that point.
>> marks?
>> why couldn't we have a 5% cancellation fee?
>> that's what I was thinking, another
penalty of some sort for canceling.
>> cancellation is the
big issue, then let's charge them a cancellation fee.
>> that is the skin in the game.
>> yeah.
>> refunded if they actually have the show.
>> put up the money upfront so there is some
skin in the game and if they have the show you refund the
money to them. That probably gets too much bookkeeping.
>> yes. >> I would rather us not do that.
>> I would rather it be -- I would rather
it be what mark is saying, they have to pay and then
maybe as , unless you pay you are not going to get to rebook with us
and so , right? There has got to be some skin
in the game, building of trust and relationships across
the board.
>>
>> if you would be okay with that.
>> as don pointed out, I think we had four hands go
up for the --
for getting the 30,000.
>> I did. >> I like your idea of charging for the cancellation.
>> all right.
I tell you what, --kevin clack
>> I think that is something janine and her
team --
>> that is an operational thing we need to let her figure out how to
manage it. I think that is what we are here for to
set the direction which is what you guys have done. We have given them their
marching orders from a philosophical standpoint and I think our job is done here.
>> all right.
>> jim, since he is just a few minutes late, is there
anything on the agenda now, thanks to you and your staff,
all my questions were responded to.
>> I just wanted to make sure.
since they were there an hour before you got there.
>> assignment 7:24.
we will move to the city council chambers at 7:30.
>> calling all city council .
>> good afternoon, everybody.
the sign --time is 7:32 p.m.
we're moving into the regular session of the coppell
city council.
as a reminder, persons wishing to speak during the citizens appearance
need to register outside the chambers and list your
home address.
and I am going to apologize for the name here, I'm going to get this
one very badly.
I'll take it.
with the allies in the community interfaith
group is here to give the invocation . At which time we will recite the
pledge of allegiance. Please remain standing.
>> respected mayor and city council and everyone
on the floor here, it is my honor to represent
the interfaith organization to offer a couple of
prayers this evening. The first one is dedicated to
popularly known as the elephant god.
>> [ speaking non-english]
>> lord with the curved trunk, one with the vast body, one with the
radiance of 1 million suns. May you always remove all obstacles from our
inter-verse. The next one is a piece prayer.
>> [ speaking non-english]
o lord, lead me from unreality to reality of eternal self. From the
darkness of ignorance toward the light of spiritual knowledge
. From the world of mortality of material attachment
toward the world of immortality or self-realization .
peace ,
peace, peace. Thank you.
>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america.
one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> if I could have members of the police
force that are going to be participating in this
and any of our citizens on patrol that
are going to be participating.
ladies and gentlemen,
sponsoring the 40th annual edition of the
crime and drug prevention event on october
3rd, 2023 called national night out.
the annual national night out provides a
unique opportunity for the city of coppell to join forces with thousands of
other communities across the country and promoting cooperative
police and committee drug prevention efforts.
celebrating the 32nd anniversary of this great crime watch prevention program.
whereas, it is essential that all citizens of
coppell be aware of the importance of the
programs and the impact that their participation can
have on reducing crime in coppell
neighborhood awareness and safety and cooperation are important themes
of the national night out program.
now, therefore, I hereby
proclaim tuesday, october 3rd, 2023 as national night out day in
the city of coppell. I set my hand for this to be fixed this day of
september in 2023.
>> good evening, first of all let me say thank you to the mayor
and council for letting us all be here.
nno is a special opportunity bringing residents of
coppell together and with the police department.
on behalf of the city of coppell and
the coppell police department, we want to
thank all of the residents for their participation in this event for
over 30 years now.
I also want to give a special thanks to officer kelly luther who was the
main organizer of this event for our police
department and handles all the coordination.
I want to give thanks for all the support of several other city employees
who have helped kelly along the way. Kelly continues
by hosting the block at our
safety facility. Unfortunately she isn't able to be here tonight as she
is over there. We have over 75 block parties lined up
next week. She is providing each of them with several instructions and special
nno apparel. And again, thank you all
very much for your support. We can't wait to see you
out in our neighborhoods next week.
thank you.
>> thank you very much. From personal, when we
first moved into the city of coppell, we did not know any
of our neighbors.
we felt like we were alone until national night out
happened and then our entire block turned out and we have been
deep friends and close friends ever since. I contribute that
to national night out. Anyway, thank you very much. I saw
a hand.
>> thank you, mayor, I also enjoy national night out, getting to know
our neighbors, traveling in a cop car, it is always fun.
I support our citizens police academy, I
have been a member of the academy for a number of
years. I also support citizens on patrol.
I also want to thank our police force. They did an awesome job finding
a missing teen today. I want to thank them.
that is all I have.
>> for what councilmember matthew
just said, the same time I know we have abundant volunteers but at the
same time, we see you always out there
at events and also patrolling the city to
make sure that it is safe.
we really appreciate all of the time that you give to
our city . And just for the safety aspect . We thank you for your
we ask that everyone come to national night out and like
matthew said, we go out and meet and we would like to meet you. We
would like to hear how your day went in just to see what
it is that you are concerned about. We hope you see
--we see you at the national night out.
>> [ applause ]
>> all right, item number seven is a presentation regarding the
power delivery in the city of coppell
. I'm not sure what your title is, but we really appreciate
you coming out tonight and thank
you for being here.
>> thank you, mayor.
we are effectively called area managers. Good evening, everyone.
good to see you, everyone. I want to
thank you for the mayor and council and allowing
me the opportunity to come share with you.
as well as help educate cities and residents
about what we do, why we do it and how we do it. That is our number
one goal.
perfect, thank you.
again, special thanks
to mike . Thank you.
all right, we will go ahead and get started. So, tonight these will be
some of the topics of discussion that we will
be talking about. We are going to be
talking about oncor, major causes for outages
, 2023 coppell outages. Next steps, oncor weather preparedness, and how to connect with
oncor. So, who is oncor? Here is a quick overview.
you can kind of see the market structure. One thing to know, we are
the largest regulated transmission and distribution utility company that
operates in texas. We are
regulated by the public utility commission of texas and we provide the transmission
and distribution services. We own the polls and the
wires that deliver electricity to your homes and
we do not own or generate, produce, or sell any electricity.
that is not our market, we just deliver the power
to you. The illustration on the right just
give you a snapshot about how the market is set up.
the competitive side of the generators.
the regulated side which is the competitive market, I'm sorry
the regulated market. Is the transmission and distribution which
is oncor. And also, we have the competitive market which are the retail
electricity providers.
where we serve , again another
snapshot of oncor. We service over 13 million customers here in
texas. We are in over 98 counties and more than 400 communities like
coppell .
we have over 141,000 miles advanced meters
. Over 4500 employees across the state.
so, how does oncor support growth in the lone star
state. I know a few of us have the chance to attend
the luncheon, he said something that blew my mind, texas is the eighth
largest economy in the world. That really sees the
growth that we have seen in north texas. That
is one thing we have made a commitment to. Really submitting
--committing to the support of the state. We have invested
billions of dollars to help upgrade and
operate a safer and smarter more reliable electrical grid.
also, oncor has
a plan that is committed to investing 19 million over the next
five years. And the capital expenditures are expected to be used in advance
and --investment in transmission and distribution.
there are many external factors that cause outages. The major causes
as you can see, trees, lightning and wildlife. You would really be
amazed at how much wildlife really plays a part in outages.
when it comes to down
lamps that fall on our lines, also we have lightning
high winds and thunderstorms, we are going to feel that because
it is going to blow those lines and blow the vegetation
and cause a fall.
also you will see up here, wildlife. You will be
amazed at how much wildlife plays a part. Squirrels, sometimes they
will start chewing the lines, we deal with snakes and other
different types of rodents were trying to seek shelter.
as I said in the previous slide, trees and vegetation
are one of the major causes for power outages.
this illustration finally gives you an idea of
how it can really impact a delivery to your home.
one tree can cause an electrical fault that can
interrupt an entire circuit from the substation. That of course interrupts
the power to your homes, schools, traffic signals,
whatever it may be. I really feel like this illustration shows
you how the power is fed to your homes.
all right, now we are down to the
important parts. Coppell overview. I really
want to provide just a coppell distribution overview. You can see here that we
actually serve 18,845 customers in coppell .
coppell is fed by 16 feeders. The total miles are 299.69
miles of mines.
there are 52.28 miles of overhead lines and there are
37.59 underground miles of lines.
a majority of these feeders do have
automated devices on it.
let's just say, if you are an automated switch, we do have we have the
east distribution operating center in irving. We have
the capability to really look at these outages.
if there is a way that they can use the automated
devices that are on these feeders to switch over some
of that load from a feeder outage,
you may have 3000 people on one feeder but that they are able to switch
that over and isolate the particular problem, it
may just end up impacting 50 people compared to the 3000. We have those
capabilities. It is something that we really utilize a lot.
just a point to touch on. I know that we had
spoke on this before, there was a question about
couples reliability there are a few numb bowls
--numbers out.
there is a system outage interruption
index. The average , it really lines up at
51.63. Even coppell is below our average and all of the surrounding
area just to bring a little context to it. It is over
one hour and 50 minutes. We are looking better, of course we are
still growing and still working. Let's go
to this next one.
so, we are still in the overview. I wanted
to give a little clarity.
with these outages they have impacted a large
number of residents. I want to bring clarity to
some of these outages.
I really want to make sure that it is understood that these are
not all related. They are really all isolated incidents that
have occurred.
I will go through each one. Feel free to ask me any questions.
but even when we start in january, there
was a transformer replacement. Of course you can imagine external factors
play a part with our equipment. When you have cold weather, hot weather,
anything external he can play a part. We had
to replace that. In march, we had failed equipment which was a failed insulator.
that provides insulation between overhead lines and cross arms. In june we
had vegetation .
that caused an extended outage. All extended outages which is why I have
been giving reasons for it.
in july we actually had a car hit a pole. We did have another
car hit a pole, that first one did not impact as many people
, we were able to do a lot of switching, but the second one it hit two poles
and it was about a 12 hour restoration time.
a lot of residents were very upset and impacted
by that.
that takes multiple crews to come out and
really make the repairs.
in august, we had a transformer replacement.
we have to continue to remember that in july
and august we had record high temperatures that we had never really
seen before.
you can imagine the strain that that will cause on anyone's system.
and the next day we had a splice in a pole box
. You have to get in and repair that.
I think it caused a lot of heartburn with some of our residents, the july
and august, when the car hit the pole, it
affected the same feeder. Some of those customers were impacted
twice. I can understand going to a 12
hour outage of the pole replacement and then having
this other one happen with
the transformer replacement. Just to bring a little bit of clarity when
we are talking about even just the transformer replacement,
some questions have come up with the estimated time
of restoration.
if you sign up for my oncor alerts, you will get a notification
that says hey, your lights should be on at this time. I have heard complaints
and great things about this.
sometimes it is one of those things.
just to give clarity about how we do it,
there is a system generated that is produced as well as a time
and really our system is looking at, okay, I believe it is this type
of problem. I believe that it get someone
out there. He tries to troubleshoot it if you can,
if he sees that he can get the work done within two hours, he won't
update the time. If he sees that he cannot and it is going to
be maybe even four hours, he is going to input that
time into the system.
sometimes they are correcting a false and then another
thing faults. So that means they go back and they update
that line and then you see your extended time
pushed out even more. Unfortunately we are kind of dealing with it
and dealing with the issue of, you want to keep it updated but it
can be very frustrating when you are getting
multiple times. I want to give a little bit of information about
what is going on when they are updating that time,
they are not just pushing it out. There is somebody out on
site trying to make the repairs. There saying, I cannot get this done in
two hours. Or we are needing two more
crews that are coming. And then another crew to come replace the downed power
bowls. There are multiple factors that
and why you keep seeing those.
okay, so you have heard some of the causes
and all of the information, but you are
still asking, what are your next steps?
the great thing is that we had an opportunity to
sit down with my operations manager who is over at our service center
who really manages this entire area and
he plan on being here tonight but unfortunately we had some storms come through. I
think about our southern region, dallas
people have multiple outages so we have
been working in storms . I did not want to ask him to come here .
he is very aware and he is really looking into
what we can do proactively to address any concerns.
we do have 12 feeders that are actually scheduled for
vegetation maintenance trim work at the end of
this year and 2024, that is when you will see our
crews out there. I know a lot of residents don't really
care for it. This is another way that we can continue .
we are controlling feeders such as balancing load
on feeders.
and identifying additional opportunities.
we are completing equipment maintenance.
that may even include proactive change outs.
on corporations have identified two areas of opportunities to
focus on and we will utilize some of the above
a steps. We really want to kind of look at
that and see if there are opportunities to make any corrections. This is going
to impact the neighborhoods surrounding river terrace golf club and
andrew brown park east. These are currently
under review.
we are slowly moving through different
areas that we have identified. I at least want to let
you know going forward that we do have a plan and that we are reviewing
and seeing if there any opportunities that we can do for maintenance.
so, as we approach the fall and winter months, after record
high summer heat, they plan and anticipate a variety
of potential season impacts the summer and winter preparations
before the hot and cold seasons arrive.
main feeder lines undergo thorough inspections to ensure that they are
ready for high demand and cooler temperatures. They
are utilizing forecasting contingency plans
, they
material inventory resources.
we submit annual winter weather readiness reports.
we are in compliance with the 2011
recommendations. We work with the city and the review process, after the
winter storm , they prioritize strengthening communication
channels with additional customer tools.
as I stated, oncor has focused on strengthening
our communication channels with our municipalities and
customers. We do understand that times are changing and we have to be innovative
in order to reach across generations when it comes to customers. And
so we have the following tools that are ways
to connect. You can call us at 888-313-4747
. I always encourage people to enter our text program. You
can text out to 66267 . You can download the my oncor app. I
really like having this right at your fingertips. You are able to
see if you have an outage or if you are able to report an outage. Like
everything, socialize with us on social media.
that is where we first go to give a lot of our updates where we can
reach people immediately in the
midst of major storms or events. We also do have a new virtual assistant
named sarah on our website and she will
be able to answer some of your everyday questions that you may have.
and like I mentioned, the oncor outage storm center map, it is a very
good tool to really see how many outages are in my area.
in the midst of having an outage.
while I know it's not the most ideal situation, understanding
that you are not alone in the outage
, it gives you a bigger picture of what
you are impacted by. As I stated, oncor does
work with the city of coppell regarding the annual critical load
. I want to make sure that they understand the critical
load process.
provides that certain customers may be eligible for designations
as critical care or chronic condition customers that is residential or critical load
public safety or critical load industrial customers
that is non-residential.
we ask customers to make other arrangements for
on-site backup or other alternatives in the event
of electricity loss.
please note that this designation does not guarantee
an uninterrupted, regular, or continuous power supply. Customers must contact their
retail electricity provider in this situation. They can easily go
there and just read the application to know what is expected.
if you want to be critical care.
join the conversation, these are really good tools to really see
where oncor is at the moment in the midst of major events. We do have
the oncor newsroom, I've sent the proactive
notifications, we go and update that just like the oncor
newsroom.
we're letting you know what is going on and where our crews
are. Even for residents I recommend that as a good resource.
and now we are to questions.
I know that mayor and I spoke about some specific questions
, I believe that a lot of us did answer, how we are managing
our grid . Where we are with that and so I
have been definitely working with some of my contacts ,
I am definitely open to any questions
that you may have for me.
>> counsel, any questions?
>> thank you so much for coming tonight. It is important
that we communicate with oncor. We have had
a lot of our citizens communicate with us.
I have downloaded the app . It is a helpful tool.
it is good for notifications.
I do encourage everyone to take a
look at that. When there is a discussion about feeders, I think you said that there
are about do
you know what types of feeders are being used?
>> I don't know right off, but I can
give an answer after this, I don't want to misspeak.
>> I'm sorry that he couldn't
be here too. I think we still suffer .
we still have rural postal delivery
for example. Radio feeders would be something more can to
coppell , they are the least expensive form
of feeder . If you have a single fault on a
radio feeder, you are going to take out on a large area. That is
the experience that we are having. So, you can't control
polls getting run into, but the type of feeder that is servicing the
community with respect to those distinct poles,
in a larger area, you don't know whether
it is possibly being upgraded , are you upgrading to a parallel
feeder?
do you know?
>> if we see switch gears that need to be
replaced, transformers , anything that is on our lines that we
can look at proactively, the great thing about
overhead, it is easy for us to write down that line and see okay, I
can see that there is an issue , they can proactively change
it out.
>> as things stand today with respect to
the feeder system , you're not aware of any plans to upgrade
from a radio system to a parallel system?
>> no sir.
all of these are pretty much with every city, it really just
kind of depends on how , I am not
finding the right word the
feeder is kind of like, a spiderweb, I kind of talked about
a tree where it is kind of tell him coming
out of that transmission. We are talking about upgrades
, we have a lot of automated devices on the feeder
that can help us to switch and go out there.
>> long-term plans
they might be in place with
the radio system, that is why we are particularly in a single fault
, the one they would expect and remain , that would
be fine tuned usually a much
period or of time , I'd have an interest in having
that kind of discussion if we could.
>> one thing to remember is that we are
governed by the puc .
proactive change outs and upgrades at
the same time, I will definitely follow up with you and just get a little
bit more clarity on that.
>> thank you, very insightful getting this information.
can you go back to the metric that you mentioned,
I don't remember if it is something along those lines, I think
you said the average was 60 something
and we are 50, just for clarification, is
that number of minutes before back on?
we are actually ahead of oncor, it was
also head of the national average.
that is helpful. That measures how long you
are out, are there any metrics about frequency in certain areas or anything?
that is the interruption frequency index .
it is about .73, the national average
is at 1.10 .
we are still ahead of the average even on frequency.
so, that is helpful.
it seems like it happens a lot and it takes a
long time. That is great perspective.
part of the presentation you mentioned river chase being areas of focus,
do you know why or how
, is it number of outages or having more and more trouble in
those areas.
>> these were two feeders that stuck out
to us. We had a couple more outages that we preferred.
that is why it is a focal point.
let's see if we can find out if we need to change anything
out. We will need to focus on all feeders at that time.
that is why the operation manager wants to
do that's.
>> that is helpful.
this maybe putting you on the spot a little bit.
are there things that from a city council standpoint that we could be focusing
on or looking into to improve the grid here ? Are
there other things that we could assist with or help with?
comes down to assisting with us, when
we send out those notices, they fall on deaf ears I think we learned
to just do our part. The other part is what we
plan to do as far as the vegetation maintenance. Management
coming in for the next two years, that can really make a big difference
when you really get out there and clear
those lines. We have spoken about ,
the city can look at other options for power
but I wouldn't say that that is something
that the city can overall do to ensure reliability. We
are trying to proactively do what we can
to ensure that we address any issues of
concern that we see.
>> continued communication with oncor
.
>> actually downloaded the app a couple hours ago.
it's a pretty good app.
>> how often , I
know you guys talk about how you drive down . Such as transformer
, are there any others that you expect to replace
any time ?
>> pretty much after every outage my operations manager
and I , we look into every single outage
and we find out what the cause was . The majority of time
that you are out there they repair that cause.
whatever it is as far as a false in the cable
, they are going to repair it right there. If it needs
to be replaced they are going to do it. They don't just put a band-aid
on it, a lot of times we address that
situation right then and there . While we can't be proactive on everything because
we have over 400,000 miles of lines, we
try and really , you're
watching some of your voltage, your watching your outages the frequency of
outages on a feeder and
at the same time we are going to say okay, is there additional work that
needs to be done.
pretty much after every outage, our guys are going
to pull back operations wise and really look and see okay, is there something bigger
that we are not seeing if we can address it?
>> thank you for the presentation. Could you please
go back to page 28?
>> I just wanted to point out from the other
side of 121, I just want to make sure
people were looking at the map, that part
is not served by oncor . Second question I have here is, a
few years ago we had the freeze, during the freeze
we came to know that the fire station lost power
and we didn't have it connected to the right grid or whatever
that may be.
we won't lose power if it happens again.
>> if
it wasn't connected to the right grid -- I am not following you.
>> at that point we lost power to the
fire station. It was not connected to
the right grid or right transformer my question right now is are they
connected to the right spot so that we will not lose
power in the future?
>> well, we can never guarantee that you
will not lose power at a fire station.
we have had different events that impacted a lot of different businesses
. As far as if it is identified as a critical load or if it's identified even
as a favorite, that is something that
I look for in the city when we do the critical load annual
review that they have that identified.
I know that mike and the staff, we have made efforts
to provide tools for the residence as well
as cities to make contact with us, they're able
to look directly all critical care and really get a
big snapshot of how many outages they have.
really use that just for the staff
just to kind of make sure they know what is going on in the city. That
is something, I guarantee the
fire station is on there. I will definitely double check.
in my stating correctly the city manager, are we connected
to the right load?
>> I know we had followed up with oncor,
can I answer the question are we connected ?
I can't answer that question I don't know if
kevin can answer the question, they are notified of what our critical
we have done everything we can if that is the question at the time
, we had to go back and relook at the list
to make sure that everything was on their we had stations all over town,
it wasn't just all over town.
to her point I would say , given what has gone on at the
time that we would have lost power.
>> that even goes back to the critical care, just the designation
alone does not mean you will not lose power, the critical load with
process, that will be factored into it.
we try and get the biggest feeder on it. Get as many people
as you can and then you start to get down to your critical
loads, I can't guarantee that you won't lose
.
I definitely again will double check the fire
station to make sure that it is on there.
>> thank you.
>> thank you so much for being here tonight.
incredibly important I appreciate you being here to not only
address us but also the community. Just a couple of questions about
the age of our community. They really
saw a big population
my question really evolves
around the average lifecycle
of the type of --that is a broad range of transformers
and switches and all of the stuff. We've heard
the reports about all of this coming in
when there is a problem. They
come in and fix that problem right there.
I was wondering if you could speak a
little bit more to the preventative maintenance.
I heard you say in the presentation that you guys, you drive the lions
and you're looking for issues and stuff like that. Is there some sort
of structured preventative maintenance program where
you have text go out and say , I'm just going to hypothetically
say, maybe there is a grid system where
we are going to go grid up the map and make
sure that everything is in place and maybe
we replace something at this transformer is reaching average end-of-life. We are
going to go ahead and preventively go ahead and replace that,
what that preventative maintenance schedule
looks like and I know the question was asked by
councilmember carol. I've got to ask it again . I understand
that the oncor is exclusive , how can we work together more closely
to try to assist, if there are more financial
resources provided, could there be more
preventative maintenance.
just kind of curious about that, what does that look like?
>> that is a fair question.
if we were able to address every single area that we
saw, okay, proactively changing that out, we would. There is
one thing, we are regulated by the puc.
a lot of times when we are going out and answering an outage
, then we are trying to go ahead and correct that problem right then
can never tell when a transformer is going to
be out.
there may be some transformers that are 30 years old and still working
just fine. To change the amount just because the timeline
because of how long they have been there probably wouldn't
be the most efficient. If the data that we are getting
from that, then of course we will proactively --that preparedness plan.
we will look at those and see a couple of issues with that. I will have to
look and see as far as further detail if there
is any type of plan in place of proactive
change outs, I really
want to get a little bit more clarity on that. I don't
want to misspeak.
>> I had one more follow-up question. In the report of
the specific outages, there were several incidents
were a couple incidents that were like, automobiles
the striking polls and, there were vegetation
and all of that seems to indicate that having
suspended wires on poles, that could maybe
be prevented or mitigated if the power lines were underground
. Could you speak a little bit about advantages and
disadvantages of lines on poles versus burying lines,
I don't know if you could speak to that are not?
>> I do know that of course underground it is always
the best looking of course and of course people
kind of prefer that.
it may still have its own challenges.
it doesn't mean that you are going to have 100% reliability.
I think the pros
of overhead like I spoke before is that you are able to
identify that issue.
the amount of time that it takes for restoration, it is simple.
you're able to put your eyes on it.
when you go underground, you have those challenges
of seeing where that fault is.
somebody make it out on site and then we have to bring out
another machine to thump the ground.
that can also add a little bit more to your restoration time. I really don't
want to take a position on which one is best because
it does not mean that if you underground it is going
to automatically solve any reliability issues.
that is just a miss concept. When you are looking at underground,
you have other external factors of being in
the ground, the heat, if someone hits one of our lines when they're doing
work on another project, there are other factors that can play into it.
>> one final thing is, it is not just poles and wires that
are above ground, we have the transformer boxes above
so, one of those is struck by an automobile, that would obviously
take out the power in that area as well.
>> all of those even if you do go underground you are
going to have to have switchgear that is going to come up.
there is going to have to be one point of service above ground that is
still exposed.
sometimes everything may be underground but that one point may
be impacted by a squirrel or a tree limb or whatever it may be, there
is still a risk of exposure.
>> these are some of the things that I have heard in
conversations with citizens. Thank you so much I really appreciate you
speaking with that.
>> does anybody have any other questions?
>> is there any plans to
change the lights to l.e.d.s?
>> we actually do have a program in place where cities can
actively transition over to l.e.d.
once one fails, they signed that agreement then they can slowly start to have those
replaced as l.e.d.s. It just really depends on
the city's stance on how they want to approach it.
>> but not ?
>> no sir. Eventually the market is going
to that.'s and that is the only option you are going to have.
we started doing that maybe five years ago, preparing everyone
that suppliers are going to stop with the halogen lights
. They are going to start going to the l.e.d.s. That is pretty much
going to be our reality.
>> thank you very much for coming, we do have a little
future plan to have you back with your operations manager
. We will probably do that on the fifth tuesday work
session so that we can have a little bit
more interactive question and answer with you and him.
this is to give everybody a little bit of a taste of what she
can present and what we can go back and ask about. All of the questions
are good, I'd love to hear more about
that, we will be in conversation.
we are probably looking at several months out before we can get this
agile. It is nothing that you need to worry about anytime soon. It will
probably be next year before we can have a tuesday we can schedule.
>> one quick thing, I know we have received. I've talked to a lot
of residents .
a lot of times we've spoken about education.
it is really just letting customers know
what we do , why we do it and how we do it.
even one resident we just spoke about, she was asking question
about why are my neighbors across the street on
and I am out . What I'm going to explain to her
as you could be on a completely different feeder on
the person across the street from you, the person next door to you,
it doesn't mean that you have the issue, your
feeders are just impacted in different ways.
that is just one point I wanted to give to residents who are listening.
I can.
>> thank you very much.
all right, item number 8 is our citizens appearance, I
do not believe that I had anybody signed up to speak, we are
going to go to item number 9. The agenda
, these items have been previously approved through the budget of past counsel
actions. Any item may be polled and considered separately, full descriptions
are available on the screen. We do have a number of consent
agenda items tonight.
do we have any to pull from the agenda?
councilmember hill ?
>> I would like to make a motion to approve consent agenda items
9a through o .
>> thank you. And second from councilmember nevels
. All in favor?
>> motion carries.
>> thank you very much.
item number 10 is our sitter --
city manager report.
>> for a summary, we are moving forward to
the next steps related to fire station number five. Fired mason
-- fire administration building. We are
going to be taking a tour of the justice center. That covers the fire admin
building, not the justice center, the service center
and we are moving forward with the justice center.
>> all right, update, boardwalk 99% complete, if you have not been out there, it
is really cool. There are still some landscaping
and punchlist items that need to be taken care of. With the little
bit of rain that we had, wildlife is starting
to come back. There is going to be a ribbon-cutting scheduled for october
19th at 10 a.m.
the duck pond, 60% complete and with the
rain that we had we had pond levels up in some of the wildlife had returned
as well. The turtles hopefully are happy.
the project is about 90% complete if you have gone by
and taking a look at it, there are some landscaping and a
few punchlist items to address there as well. It was mentioned the southbound line
, the polls are being relocated or in the process
of interesting in the
email that she said they cut the communication line for the polls
. There's just this one line that will
not get moved. What they are doing, they cut
the pole .
the parkway pump station , the final testing is still
going on, hopefully before the middle of october we will be fully
operational, macarthur is open now, fairways closed
for at least the rerouting of traffic over there and then the reconstruction
working towards setting up a preconstruction meeting
with the contractor after that, the staff
will schedule the public meeting . That concludes my report.
>> thank you, sir.
item number 11, the recent
and upcoming events. We urge our citizens to participate in our local government
and give back to our community by serving one
of our boards and commissions. The city
is seeking passionate individuals.
future needs, regulations and more.
learn more . We have
kaleidoscope coming up very soon, this
is a festival of color, culture
and music. A celebration of arts and cultures is back for another year of
fun.
this year it is going to be held in old town coppell
on october 7th from 3:00 p.m. To
7:00 p.m.
the display of art, culture, music and more. If
you are interested in extending the days excitement, illuminate the
electrifying dance crew as seen on america's got talent in 2011 will
light up the night at the coppell art center.
purchase tickets for the show at tran07artcenter.com
do we have any public service announcement?
>> the old town coppell art show, they showcase between
10:00 a.m. To 1:00 p.m. On saturday, saturday september 30th.
>> thank you. Are you
putting a car in?
item number 13, there was no executive session and therefore
there was no action necessary. Item number 14, no business
before this counsel, we are adjourned at 8:29 p.m.