ccswks 10-10-1988
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 1~, 1988
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The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session,
Wednesday, October 10, 1988.at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room
of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas.
The following members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer,
presiding; Earl P. Hartzog; Hal Baldwin; Ray Stanhope; Adolph
Aguilar and Ken Greenwald. Staff present were City manager Kerry
R. Sweatt and City Secretary June G. Krause.
fll HEARIlIG OF RESIDmrrs: None
12 Mr. Art Henson of Southern Pacific to discuss with
Council speed lla1ts of trains.
Mr. Henson said he appreciated the opportunity of visiting with
Council, to give a little background on the railroad. He said
their railroad is maintained by FRA standards - 70 miles per hour
for freight trains, 90 mph for passenger trains. While they
maintain 70 mph for freight trains, there are very few freight
trains that go 70 mph because of all the internal restrictions.
Loaded empty trains are rated 55 mph, the rock trains are
restricted to 40 mph, any trains with any type hazardous
materials by Federal Law is restricted to 55 mph. Mr. Henson 0
said that basically they have about one freight train per day
that could run 70 mph if he had sufficient power and good enough
cars; otherwise they run about 40 to 55 and maybe a couple at 60
mph. OVer the last several years they have spent great sums of
money in provided electronic devices, to detect situations that
are occurring with trains or stress areas of trains. On each
side of Schertz and about every five miles on across the railroad
they have what is called training equipment detectors. They will
detect any equipment that is failing. These are electronically
activated through the signal system and the radio system - as the
train passes over it, it can detect any failing and pass this on
by radio to the engineer. Also have .hot box. detectors and
wide load protectors, which will detect shifting loads as well.
They have taken many many precautions over the last few years to
enhance the safety of the railroad. They have ongoing programs
to continue to maintain the high levels. They are heavily
regulated by the FRA.
Mayor Sawyer asked who controlled the speed limits inside our
city limits. Mr. Henson said no one, unless there is a City
ordinance and San Antonio and Cibolo have ordinances.
Answer ing questions from the audience and Council, Mr. Henson
said that all the track through Schertz is maintained for 70 mile
per hour freight trains. Mr. Henson said he was not sure what
the concern was - is it because of crossing accidents. He said
he wanted to point out a few things in talking about speed.
Where crossing accidents occur, 60% of accidents occur at 30 mph,
30 to 50 mph 33% occur and at 50 to 60 mph about 5% occur and
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above 60 2% occur. So what you do when you slow trains down is
invite people to Qet impatient. invite them to run out around the
Qates in front of trains. Every crossinQ throuqh this area is a
gated crossinq, with the exception of one in Cibolo, and if you
lower the speed, people just will not wait. He said he was
quotinq Federal railroad Administration statistics. There has
not been a crossinq accident in Schertz in over five years. He
said they will be qoinq to Cibolo to see if they will increase
their speed. You create problems in a trains dynamics when you
start slowinq the trains. Every car has 6 inches of slack action
and when you increase or lower speeds, the more chance there is
of problems.
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Mr. Henson then went over some of the items he had already
addressed in answerinq citizen questions. With reqards to the
old bridqe throuqh town, it was structurally unsound so the
trains had to slow down. With the new bridqe, they do not have
that restriction. Mr. Henson said to remember that the only
trains that would qo throuqh Schertz at 70 mph would be the
passenqer trains that qo throuqh about three times a week. We
have an averaqe of about 2S train movements throuqh Schertz a
day. The sensors that drop the crossinq quards are based on the
highest speed trains that could operate throuqh the area. These
are set on a nationwide basis. Mr. Henson said the detectors are
inspected every day if the detector does not talk to the
enqineers, they have to assume they are defective. He said that
in 1986, 1987 and 1988 Southern Pacific has the number one safety
record of any Railroad company. He said they take safety very
seriously. Mr. Henson said they are equipping all trains with
tapes that show the speed at anyone time or place. And when any
excess speedinq occurs, that man is fired. He said they have
very strict efficiency testinq.
Mr. Henson then answered questions of Council, clarify some of
the points he had covered. He said they ultrasonically test the
rails every six months for any flaws that may occur. Mr. Aquilar
asked if the throttle was manual or computerized and was told
they are manual.
Mr. Stanhope asked if they were qoverned by the Federal
Government as to how many hazardous waste cars they can have in a
row. Mr. Henson said they were not excepted on what they called
an excepted track, which means one that is deterioratinq and then
you can only have five in a row. He said the tank cars have been
redesiqned. They have both bottom and top couplers, which means
they cannot separate, and have insulation. They have come a 10nq
way to protect from a liability standpoint.
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Mr. Aquilar asked if they had a limit on 1enqth. Mr. Henson said
they do not run 10nqer than 8000 feet; their sidinqs are equipped
to accommodate 8000 feet, these are mainly what they call "stack
pack" trains.
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Mr. Hartzog asked what is the anchoring process on the stack pack
cars, especially those on the top. Mr. Henson said they have a
rod that goes up and each one is sitting inside a steel point at
all four corners. There is a long formula you have to go through
to come up with speeds of different types of trains.
Mr. Henson said all through this area is called centralized
traffic control. All the switches are operated in the San
Antonio office. The office gets a printout of the time and
speeds of trains as they cross any of the switches to tell if a
train is going too slow or too fast. Mr. Hartzog asked what type
of discipline action is taken. Mr. Henson said it depends on the
man's record and how much he was exceeding the limit. He could
get demerits, suspension without payor if serious enough could
be fired.
Mr. Hartzog said he felt the railroad had done an outstanding
job of cleaning up after the recent construction even thouqh some
people were upset because they removed a historical monument.
Mr. Neller asked how long it would take to notify the local
people, in case of an accident, of the type of hazardous
materials on board. Mr. Henson said the engineer has that
information on board and would hand it over immediately.
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Mr. Greenwald asked how often the road bed is inspected. Mr.
Henson said they are inspected three times a week visual 1 y and U~
periodically they are inspected by the systems engineer.
When asked why the cabooses are oone, Mr. Henson said mainly
because they cost $80,000 and with the new sensors all types of
things can be detected immediately without the risk of accidents
to the people.
Mr. Henson was asked about putting in two gates so there would be
no way someone could go around the gates. He said that the type
of crossing guards was dictated by the State.
Mr. Baldwin said he appreciated the information received and he
felt a lot more confident and comfortable about the trains even
though he was still not too enthused about freioht trains going
through Schertz at 70 miles per hour. Mr. Henson said there are
very few trains that would go that fast.
Mayor Sawyer thanked Mr. Henson for coming out and Mr. Henson
said anytime Council had any questions, he would be glad to come
out and talk to them.
'3 Consideration of seal coatinG bids.
Mr. Sweatt advised that Mr. Ford was present if Council had any 0
questions. Also Council had a recommendation from Ford \
Enoineer ino on the bids. Street maps of this work will be
distributed before work starts.
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Mayor Sawyer asked if this list consolidates all the streets that
were on the original plan. Mr. Sweatt said it does. There are
, some intersections that we may 0'0 back and redo. The apparent
I low and best bid is from H & C Construction in the amount of
$49, 130.58. The original estimate on this work was right at
$87,000. This is an extraordinarily good bid, we are elated with
the price and will look at any additions through change orders.
I Mr. Ford said he discussed the price with them and they said with
the volume, they were able to get good prices and knowinO' the
area helped. All the other bids were real close, making this a
very competitive bid.
Mayor got Council concensus to have this item on the next agenda
for vote.
Mr. Hartzog asked the construction time and Mr. Ford said they
have 30 days to move in but should complete the work in three or
four days.
Mr. Sweatt said we will need help in prenotification of people -
it is going to require coordination and cooperation from everyone
involved.
Mr. HartzoO' said the street bonds were passed over a year ago and
Council was told the delay was because of the weather. Mr. Ford
said actually the weather is better right now that it was in
July.
#4 Consideration of a resolution setting public hearings on
the proposed annexation of 30.63 acres of land out of Co~l and
Guadalupe Counties.
Mayor Sawyer advised that this land is the one the City was
involved in court with Green Valley and is located on FM 1103.
I Mr. Hartzog asked what this is going to cost. Mr. Sweatt said we
will develop a service plan and will have some estimate by the
public hearing dates. There will be a small amount of extra
mileaO'e on patrols. The direct cost of water line will be
recouped. Generally there will be no long time costs to the
City.
Mr. Hartzog asked if there were people in this area being served
by Green Valley. Mr. Sweatt said the only customer being served
by Green Valley would be dropped by them and put on our line.
Mr. Aguilar said that by annexing we would have some control over
what O'oes in there.
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#5 Consideration of PAZ rec~ndation on reappoin~nt of
meabers and appoin~nt of officers.
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Mayor Sawyer reminded Council they have P&Z recommendations and
he personally was glad these four people decided to stay on P&Z.
Mrs. Marsh has agreed to be Vice Chairman and Ty Brisgill greed
to take the Chairmanship. This will be on the agenda for vote
next Tuesday.
#6 Consideration of PAZ re~ndation on a request for an
exception to the zoning ordinance on a basketball backboard in
City right of way.
Mr. Sweatt advised that P&Z has recommended the request be
and that Mr. Malamisura either eliminate the backboard or
in a place which does not encourage playing in the street.
are two houses already on the street and one or two vacant
denied
put it
There
lots.
Mr. Baldwin asked if the backboard was placed in concrete and Mr.
Sweatt said it was. The primary concern is safety of children
and the liability of the City.
Mr. Aquilar asked if there was any way that the man that has the
backboard could be held liable. Mr. Sweatt said we could ask for
insurance covering it in the amount of $100,000 or more but he
fel t the City attorney would say we cannot evade the U
responsibility. 'i
Mayor Sawyer asked that this item be on the next agenda for vote.
'7 Discussion of joint land use study.
Mr. Sweatt said he and the mayor had attended a Randolph
Community Council meeting in which a number of topic were
discussed, the primary one being the development of a jOint land
use study to assure continued compliance, safety concerns as well
as noise restrictions. Schertz has been much more conscience of
these than some of the other cities. The proposed committee
would be a combined effort of the Department of Defense and the
cities to study any new Changes and make any recommendations on
long term plans in the area of Randolph AFB. They want to hold a
joint meeting with the cities of the RandOlph area.
Mayer Sawyer said this would be an update of something similar,to
the AICUZ - a joint land use study. Mr. Trembly of Live Oak is
getting particulars together for this joint meeting. Randolph is
concerned with the land use surrounding them. They want
ordinances to protect Randolph and most of Schertz' ordinance
already protect RandOlph.
'8 Discussion of landscaping ~ttee.
Mr. Sweatt
landscaping
advised that staff has developed
the Municipal Complex he would
an
like
approach to
Council to
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consider. Steve Simonson has secured the help of a nurseryman
and Ed Ford has agreed to work on this.
Mayor Sawyer said he would like to ask Mr. Stanhope to serve on
this committee. Mayor Sawyer said he would donate a couple of
trees.
Mr. Sweatt said the development of a plan would provide not only
for budget purposes but if anyone wanted to make a donation, we
would know what type of landscaping was best. This is basically
just a lonq term plan for landscapinq.
#9 Discussion of an audit co..ittee.
Mr. Sweatt said he would like for Council to consider two members
to work with the internal auditor, finance personnel and myself
in reviewing the details of the audit as it is being prepared.
Mayor Sawyer said the name that immediately came to his mind was
Hal Baldwin and that he would also like to work on this
committee.
#10, CITY MABAGER'S REPORT: A. Mr. Sweatt said he was very
please to say that we are within a couple of days of announcing
the name of a new Police Chief.
B. For your information the snake dance that was to be held on
Thursday the 27th has been changed to Wednesday the 26th.
C. Have received copy of letter from the Texas Department of
Health saying the hearings that were to commence December 5th on
the land field application, have been deferred to some later
date.
#11 ITEMS BY COURCIL:
Mr. Aauilar: A. In replacinq street siqns, how long does it
take after notification to get the replacement sign. Mr. Sweatt
. said we are ordering them from Dallas and Mr. Graham advised it
I normally takes about 30 days to get a replacement set. Based on
budqetary' restraint, it normally takes about 45 days to get in
place.
B. How much authority do we have to get citizens to cut branches
on sidewalks and easements. Mr. Sweatt said if it is considered
an obstruction, we would notify the people and if they fail to
remove it within a reasonable time, we have the authority to go
and remove the obstruction.
Mr. Hartzog: A. We were scheduled to receive information on FM
3009 and FM 78 from the Highway Department this month. Mr.
Sweatt said he met with them on this date. The riqht-of-way map
is being completed. There are 17 parcels to be acquired but the
total acreage is not very much. We would expect it would be from
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6 to 8 months from the time they hand us the documents until we
could acquire the parcels. They do have a tentative schedule for
biddinq in 1991. The desiqn work is essential I y completed and
the money is available. FM 78 is,at least a year beyond FM 3009
in desiqn. They have not completed acquirinq the riqht of way.
Mr. Baldwin ask if we have heard anythinq about the 1-35
overpass. Mr. Sweatt said they are within 2 or 3 months of
br inqinq back to us their final plans. The project will
apparently qo to at least Wiederstein Road - essentially it is
ready to qo. Mr. Baldwin then asked if there was any reason why
we could not qet them to put at least a temporary off ramp to
Schertz Parkway. Mr. Sweatt said he had talked to them about
this and they said no.
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Mr. Hartzoq said one of the thinqs mentioned by Mr. Henson was a
Beautification Aqreement with the railroad for maintaininq the
riqht of way. He felt this should be looked into because if we
maintained it we would have control over signs that qo in that
riqht of way and would qet the fees involved that miqht pay for
the aqreement. There are about 4 or 5 political siqns alonq
there between FM 3009 and Schertz Parkway. Mr. Stanhope said he
had asked about us maintaininq the riqht of way about 3 years aqo
and was told that we could not do it on account of insurance.
Mr. Sweatt said he felt the hiqhway and railroad would be willinq
to anree to us maintaininn it. Mr. Hartzon said he would like to 0
see ;ome cost fiqures on Vmaintaininq thisVarea, whether it would III
be done in house or contractinqto have it done. We are tryinq
to qet the businesses alonq PM 78 to fix up their businesses and
cannot seem to the the Hiqhway or Railroad to do it. We should
have somethinq on this by next summer at least.
Mr. Hartzoa: He had received a letter from a qentleman
questioninq the Guadalupe County Appraisal District budqet. He
asked if the City had received a copy of the budqet and do we
have to approve it. Mayor Sawyer said it was almost automatic.
Mr. Sweatt said the requirement is that the City and each entity
aqrees to participate and pay our pro rata share of the budqet.
If the City chose to object to the budqet, then we would have to
justify our reason. We have a copy and reviewed it and our
share is only a small percentaqe. Mr. Baldwin said we can refuse
to accept the budqet and if enouqh entities refuse to accept it,
then they have to qo back and reduce it to the level that the
cities would accept.
Mr. Hartzoq said he had two meetinq to attend this next week.
One was the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce Economic
Development committee meetinq at 7: 30 the next morninq. The
other is the Greater Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council Friday
at 10:00 a.m. in Austin.
Mr. Sweatt was asked to write a letter to the Chamber of Commerce
and invite them to a workshop and find out what they are doinq
for our city prior to us payinq the annual dues.
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Mr. Hart20q said he had notice a qrader on top of the landfill on
FM 3009 and asked Mr. Gutierrez if it was closed what was goinq
on. Mr. Gutierrez said first, the State is happy with the post
closure. Mr. Gutierrez said he has spent quite a bit of money on
I seed et~. and the rains caused erosion problems and he is now
I trying to correct that.
Mr. Gutierrez said he had talked to Council several times about
, donating that land for a park and he now has aqreement with
members of his family to consent to donate the land. In answer
to Mr. Greenwald's question, Mr. Gutierrez said it included 61
acres. He said he would like to see somethinq qood up there and
that he has to be involved with it for the next five years. He
said if the City has an interest in this, he and his family could
bring somethinq to them soon.
Mr. Baldwin mentioned that the police cars look really nice and
he is looking forward to the announcement about the new Chief.
Mr. Greenwald: A. PAZ members went to an APA conference in
Houston and in talking with some of the other cities, it seems
like we are 4 to 5 years ahead of other small cities. There was
some question about the legality of the Council acting as a Board
of Adjustment under new opinions. Council suggested we ask our
leqal advisor to look into this.
*12 IrEMS BY MA~R: Mayor Sawyer said he had received a
couple of complaints about excessive speed on Marilyn Drive and
asked that the police look into this.
B. Attended the Fire Convention and it was very nice.
C. Also went to the Guadalupe County Fair and thorouqhly enjoyed
it. Next year Schertz should qet involved in this fair. Some of
our citizens are already involved. He said he asked them to get
in touch with us prior to next year's fair.
Mr. Aquilar asked Mr. Sweatt to look at FM 78 and see how much it
would cost to decorate for Christmas. Mr. Sweatt said most
cities have a joint effort with their Chamber of Commerce or
Businesses.
* 13 ADJ~: There being no further business, Mayor
Sawyer declared the meetinq to be adjourned at 8:56 p.m.
ATTEST: