Pipeline opposition vote expected
A resolution on the Permian Highway Pipeline and decisions on the use of drone technology are highlights of tonight’s San Marcos City Council agenda.
As part of its consent agenda, the council is slated to vote on Resolution 2019-47R in opposition of the routing of the proposed Permian Highway Pipeline through Hays County. The resolution also requests “immediate action from the State Legislature.”
The natural gas pipeline, to be built by Kinder Morgan, is currently routed through the Texas Hill Country and Hays County. The route has met with strong opposition from property owners and environmentalists.
The resolution states, in part, that the city of San Marcos opposes the pipeline and requests “immediate action by all members of both houses of the Texas Legislature to protect landowners, landowners’ property rights and communities from the negative impact of PHP and other potential oil and gas pipelines.”
State Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) has filed legislation that would require an environmental assessment before natural gas pipelines can be built in Texas.
In other business, council will consider amending the city’s budget to allocate up to $65,000 of State Seized Asset Funds to purchase unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, technology and supporting hardware for the San Marcos Police Department’s unmanned robotics team. If approved, the expenditure will get the city four UAV aircraft, miscellaneous spare parts, cameras, a toolkit and other hardware.
“Approximately three years ago, the police department acquired a very basic drone for the purpose of assisting our collision investigation team with the documentation of fatal and serious injury crashes,” the agenda states. “Since that time, the use of drones by municipal entities including police departments has become more commonplace, and we have seen how this technology can help us deliver a higher level of service to the community without incurring the costs of a true aircraft division.”
The Hays County Sheriff’s Department has begun expanding their drone capabilities and has approached SMPD about forming a cooperative Hays County Unmanned Robotics Team. The formation of the team is one of the items on council’s consent agenda tonight.
“These aircraft will allow specially trained and federally licensed members of the Police Department to support our operations in ways that previously would have required assistance from manned aircraft from neighboring agencies,” the agenda states.
Council will meet in the council chambers at City Hall, 630 E. Hopkins St., at 6 p.m. City council meetings are televised live on Spectrum Ch. 10 and Grande Ch. 16 or 123-16 and streamed online.
