CITY & COUNTY
News fromMontgomery County, Oak Ridge North, Shenandoah and The Woodlands
Shenandoah budgets for power lines, plans to file complaint for outages SHENANDOAH Shenandoah City Council agreed in August to budget , for scal year - to replace overhead lines in parts of the city to address frequent electrical outages. said he believes the outages are ulti- mately Entergy’s responsibility. “I still think we have an overall maintenance and power issue,” McLeod said. “I would like to see Shenandoah considered two options to begin addressing power outages in the city. ENERGY ISSUES
some creative solutions, but this is an ongoing problem and I don’t know how much the city should be involved when we should be holding Entergy responsible.” McLeod suggested the city le a formal complaint against Entergy with the state Public Utility Commission as part of its Aug. agenda. Mayor Ritch Wheeler said he wants to get underground power to home- owners who believed they were get- ting underground utilities when they moved to the area. “We should have held the develop- ers responsible at the time,” Wheeler said. “I get that only xes a handful of neighborhoods … but I think this benets our city as a whole. The right thing to do is for our residents who thought they were getting something when they bought a house.”
$160,000 The city would run lines down Wellman Road to connect several developments to a nearby substation.
Oak Ridge North looks at upcoming projects on Robinson Road OAK RIDGE NORTH Oak Ridge North infrastructure projects are moving ahead on pace, with the city in the closing process on right- of-way purchases for a Robinson Road improvement project, o - cials said at an Aug. meeting. The . million project to redesign the Robinson Road interchange at I- will be funded mostly through a Montgomery County road bond. Montgomery County Precinct is cleared to begin its share of the project, according to a report from Joe Sherwin, the city’s director of public works. Council members also discussed the city’s plans to add a le-turn lane into Commerce Park east of the intersection of Hanna and Robinson roads. Council Member Tom Coale requested a review of the turn lane project and its estimated , cost before moving forward with development. the Shenandoah Valley. Peart said Entergy explained outages would be much shorter with this system. Council Member Michael McLeod Council considered two options at its Aug. budget meeting to address the problem. The approach it chose will consist of running power lines down Wellman Road, connecting Silverwood Ranch Estates, Malaga Forest, Lily, Tuscany Woods and Wellman Manor developments to the Metro Substation, Public Works Director Joseph Peart said. Peart said by doing so, the city will provide more reliable energy and theoretically reduce the number of outages in those neighborhoods. The second option, costing an esti- mated ,, would have provided a dual feed power line connection to
$500,000 The city would provide for a larger
switch cabinet to establish a dual-feed connection to the Shenandoah Valley.
SOURCE:CITYOFSHENANDOAH/ COMMUNITY IMPACTNEWSPAPER
Residents who attended the meeting shared their frustrations with Entergy and the power outages. Some resi- dents said they had spent hundreds of dollars on generators or had to leave their homes during an outage because of the heat. Council agreed to continue talks with Entergy to address the issue and to le a formal complaint against the company.
The Woodlands Township board of directors increased pool fees for nonresidents at township pools.
NEWRATES FOR DAILY PASSES:
nonresidents
residents
Mon.-Thu. Rob Fleming Aquatic Center $20 $30 $15 Fri.-Sun. and holidays Fri.-Sun. and holidays
TheWoodlands village pools:
$12
LAKE PALOMA TRAIL.
Township pools closed for the post- season Sept. 8.
N
SOURCE:THEWOODLANDSTOWNSHIP/COMMUNITY IMPACTNEWSPAPER
The Woodlands raises fees at Rob Fleming pool THEWOODLANDS TOWNSHIP
raise the price of passes. Nonresidents are charged a higher rate because they do not support town- ship facilities through property taxes, board members said during meeting discussion. Township attorney Robin Cross said her recommendation has been for non- resident fees to be up to twice as much as is charged to residents at public facilities. Board members also decided to raise resident daily pass prices for the Rob Fleming Aquatic Center to so the increased nonresident rate of would be twice the resident cost. Vice Chairman John McMullan voted against the proposal because he said he was not completely certain the fees were within an acceptable legal range.
Prompted by public complaints that The Woodlands Township pool at the Rob Fleming Aquatic Center on Creekside Forest Drive was crowded with nonresident users, the board of directors voted - to raise pool fees Aug. . Board of directors Chairman Gordy Bunch said at the meeting ve times as many nonresidents use the pool as residents on weekdays, and the number reaches eight times as many on weekends and holidays. “There is a majority [of nonresidents] in every pool,” Bunch said of the town- ship’s pools. Bunch said the township cannot ban nonresidents from the pools, but it can
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