City Council News - May 2009

City Council News - May 2009

By Robert Bell Friday, 15 May 2009

Council honors CPFD

The Cedar Park Fire Department and Fire Chief Chris Connealy recently received a Class 1 rating from the Insurance Services Office. The office, which supplies statistical, underwriting and actuarial information to insurers, completed its Public Protection Classification survey on Cedar Park in April 2008.

This resulted in the overall fire safety rating being upgraded from a Class 3 to a Class 1, the highest possible rating. Council presented awards to the chief and other members of the department, noting that Connealy had also brought Houston to a Class 1 rating during his tenure as that city’s fire chief. Paul Maldonado, state fire marshal, said Connealy is the only fire chief in the country to oversee promotions to a Class 1 ISO rating in two cities.

“He won’t get a third one because we’re not going to let him go,” Councilman Scott Mitchell said, half-jokingly.

Cedar Park Center progress report

Rick McLaughlin, president and general manager of the Cedar Park Center, gave Council a progress report on the center. He has hired 23 full-time employees, and said by the end of May he could have as many as 30.

The center is also in the process of hiring its operations staff, has confirmation for hosting the LISD graduation ceremonies for 2010, and has a verbal agreement with ticketing agency Ticketmaster, which involves a five-year deal.

McLaughlin said Ticketmaster would likely contribute about $100,000 worth of equipment to the venue. Councilman Matt Powell said many of the city’s firefighters have made numerous visits to the Cedar Park Center and know it inside and out, so in case of an emergency the department will know how best to respond.

 

Council approves design-build contract for Fire Station No. 3

Council approved a design-build contract for construction of Fire Station No. 3 with Jamail & Smith Construction. The station — which will be built next to the police station — should be completed in a year, and its cost should not exceed $2.9 million in bond funds voters approved in 2007.

Council members address water loss

At the request of Councilman John Perez council discussed the amount of water lost in Leander. Perez has suggested the city hire a firm to find out where the leaks in the water system are, citing what he described as unacceptable amounts of water loss. Other council members, as well as City Manager Anthony Johnson, said the water losses, which on average are less than 10 percent, are well within the acceptable range, and are much lower than some of the other cities in Williamson County.

Johnson said that the issues relate not only to leaks, but also metering devices, which aren’t always exact. He added that a loss of less than 10 percent is considered to be as close to zero loss as possible.

“We have an extremely good system, especially compared to neighboring cities, because our water system is young,” Johnson said.

 

Court considers propane

The Williamson County Commissioner’s Court voted recently to approve an application for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program based on the possibility of incorporating propane as a major fuel source for several Williamson County entities. The Court discussed using the grant money to build several propane filling stations in the county to possibly be shared by emergency vehicles, school buses and other large, primarily diesel-fueled transportation, but commissioners did not make any final decisions regarding the fueling stations and which entities would use them. According to the Texas Propane Educational and Marketing Foundation, a switch to propane fuel would save the county money and produce cleaner emissions than gasoline.