MacArthur Dr. May Become Lighted
The City Council of Pinehurst approved the ordinance prohibiting parking on specific streets in the city on Tuesday. The ordinance has been on the books since 2019, but now will be enforced for the first time.
City Administrator Jerry Hood has spent the last few weeks measuring the width of streets especially in the Camelot area of Pinehurst. He presented a handout showing 25 feet is the average distance from curb to curb on those streets.
Vehicles parked on both sides of a street that width reduces the area for an emergency vehicle to get through to nine and a half feet. The Pinehurst fire engine is 9 feet, 7 inches wide. Fire Chief Eddie Castillo said vehicles parked on streets that narrow are a hazard and an incumbrance to his department fighting fires.
Hood indicated he is looking at other streets in Pinehurst that may be added to the list of streets that will have parking prohibited. Currently the 3400 block of Lark, the 3200 block of Lancelot, and the 3500 block of Raven have no parking allowed signs erected.
Violations of the parking ordinance will be treated as a misdemeanor offense. If found guilty in municipal court the person violating the ordinance will be assessed a fine of not less than $10 or more than $500 for each offense.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is planning to install street lights on MacArthur Drive. The lack of lighting on MacArthur has been cited as having caused several fatal auto pedestrian crashes.
Kenneth Wiemers with TxDOT spoke to the Pinehurst City Council on Tuesday about the department lining MacArthur Drive on both sides with lights and sidewalks. TxDOT is seeking cooperation from Pinehurst, West Orange, and the City of Orange to pay the monthly electric bill to operate the lights. The estimated cost would be $1,300 a year.
The City Council awarded the contract for upgrading the electrical control room of the wastewater treatment plant to Dowdy Construction at the recommendation of Schaumburg & Polk. Dowdy submitted the low bid which was still double the projected cost to do the work on that portion of the larger $6.8 million Texas General Land Office project.
Susan Stover with grant administrator Waxman and Associates suggested awarding the contract on just the base bid of $1.8 million. This would leave $138,000 to address any change orders for all three phases in the project which also includes sewer repairs and street repaving.
Liz McKee with TK Insurance Services provided the proposed rerate agreement with TML Health medical insurance benefits for employees of the City of Pinehurst. She said the projected increase from last year would be a little under six percent.
McKee will go out for other quotes to see if any are close to that of TML Health. The renewal date for the health insurance with TML is October 1 by which time McKee hopes to have a recommendation for the Pinehurst City Council to approve.
The interlocal contract with the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission relating to the 9-1-1 Service was approved for renewal by the council. Police Chief Jimmy Leboeuf told the council the agreement with the 9-1-1 Service through the regional planning commission is very important to Pinehurst during times of emergencies.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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