Cross-Timbers Gazette has the story.

Flower Mound residents Virginia Simonson, board member of The Flower Mound Defense Fund, and Prakash Parameswaran, a homeowner in Town View Estates, are represented by Attorney Robert D. Hemphill. The suit was filed in Denton County on Friday.

“Plaintiffs are requesting the court to determine whether the Flower Mound oil and gas ordinance conflicts with state law and the town’s own zoning ordinances, both of which require notice and opportunity for public comment prior to zoning changes. Plaintiffs contend that the town’s current practices effectively enable oil and gas development to occur without citizen input and other protections required by state law,” Hemphill said.

I made an announcement shortly after Memorial Day weekend, that I would be putting my home in DISH on the market. This decision was made by my family after several instances of both of my children having nosebleeds during the night. These nosebleeds correlated with strong odors and spikes in the chemicals being emitted by the natural gas compression station a quarter mile from our home. We are still planning on putting our home on the market by the end of August. This is a tough decision, but to ensure the safety of my family, it is something that I will do.

A year ago, you essentially could not be outside for more than a couple of hours without being forced into your home by the noxious odors. In the few months prior to Memorial Day the odor events were limited to the late evening/early morning timeframe and happened a few nights a week for a couple of hours. After the Memorial Day incident, the TCEQ brought a canister for me to keep at my home for instances of the strong odor, I still have this canister. There have been periodic odor events over the past couple of months; however, they now only last for a brief time. By the time I get the canister ready to take the sample, the odor is gone. Unfortunately, my air conditioning system sucks the odor in the house, and the odor sometimes lingers longer inside than outside. So over the past year, the situation has improved tremendously. Is it enough? I am not sure.

Looking back through some of our posts on Oil and Gas, I realized a couple of things:

1. We have some really old, out of date posts that still get a lot of hits and comments.
2. We did not have one main page to tie it all together.

So here's my attempt at putting together a page with the history and status of Lewisville's oil and gas activity. You can bookmark this if you want, and I'll do my best to keep it up to date. I'm sure I'll still have blanks to fill in though.

Please feel free to post comments if you want something added or corrected, or if you have questions.

Map of Current and Proposed Gas Facilities in Lewisville

Status of Gas Wells in Lewisville

I just got back from a week in Scottsdale, AZ on business with my company. One of the things I learned this week was that my company has decided to replace the two programmers my team recently lost with four programmers from India. I am really not happy with that, nor is anyone on my team. It's a corporate edict we have to live with, so we'll do our best to make it work, but I just think it's wrong to do such a thing when Americans need jobs.

School Board Meeting
I hate that I was unable to attend Thursday night's LISD budget meeting. We normally shoot video of those, but we had no volunteer step forward and do that. Luckily, Wendy Hundley with Dallas Morning News has more about the budget and approved pay increases for LISD.

LISD earns "Recognized" status
Lewisville ISD retained its Recognized status. Wendy has that story too. We'll take a more in-depth look at the ratings soon. There has been some controversy surrounding the ratings system, specifically with regards to the Texas Projection Measure - sort of a fudge-factor that gets applied to schools that may not meet the criteria, but show some progress.

More Drilling Permits in Lewisville
This past week, Williams applied for 12 more gas wells in Southern Lewisville, adding a new pad site for the Cobb Unit and Ace Units B and C. I've added a map of all Lewisville proposed wells and natural gas facilities to the History and Status of Natural Gas Drilling in Lewisville page, and I'll have a post or two coming up on the topic. No new permit applications were received by the City of Lewisville this week.

Mosque / Islamic Center Near "Ground Zero"
Since it's hard to find any objective reporting on this issue that has caused right-wing outrage and countless email fear-mongering campaigns, I wanted to pass along this link to a New York Times story on a proposed Islamic center two blocks north of the former site of the World Trade Centers.

My question for those who want the government to stop this: What do you want the government to do, suspend the constitution and violate the first amendment by denying their plans on the basis of their religion? They bought the land, and are paying for the center. It wasn't Islam that brought the World Trade Centers down; it was radical fundamentalist extremism and pure evil terror.

I get a lot of calls, emails, and visits about what is going on with LISD's financial situation. What I find interesting is that even my liberal readers and friends find that they have a hard time going with a tax rate increase for LISD when they think the district is wasting money. For instance, we've discussed the $300 per square foot price on the construction, and we still don't know exactly what goes into a cost like that.

At any rate, if you want to send or post what you've heard about excessive spending within LISD, I'll see what I can do to look into it and get the facts.

The first two rumors came in July 13th - and keep in mind these are RUMORS that may not be true. I think our readers are smart enough to handle that distinction without assuming they're true, or that they make a big chunk of our deficit. We won't mention names here at this point.

Rumor #1 is that some highly-paid district employees drive district-owned cars. We have asked LISD to provide a list of employees driving district-owned cars, and the type of car. Car use can sometimes be justified, depending on the nature of an employee's job, but it can also be a way of hiding a fringe benefit to someone who can easily afford their own car.

Update: Based on information received today from LISD, it seems there is nothing of concern. Only two district employees have use of district-owned cars. The Director of Career and Technology Education and the Energy Manager both drive 2005 Chevy Malibus, cars that are far from extravagant.

Both positions, would seem to justify providing a car rather than paying mileage expenses, since they involve frequent travel between campuses. Although we invited the district to provide justification if they wanted, none was given. Personal use of LISD vehicles is prohibited by policy, and only designated on-call employees may drive the vehicles to their residence. View LISD Vehicle Policy.

Rumor #2 is that Board and Admin staff have spent excessive amounts on travel, meals, and accommodations. Actually, we've heard this rumor multiple times, from multiple people. Board members and administrative staff often have to travel to conferences for training and so-forth. We've heard various things, and they mostly will come down to a judgement call as to whether or not it was money well-spent. Some of the trips were reportedly athletic trips, where non-athletic personnel came along at district expense. I can tell you that the private sector has pushed way back on travel. We've requested info from LISD on this.

The point here is not so much to rake muck, but to see if we can root out any waste and discourage it for the future, so that the public can feel assured that the district is operating lean. We may well find the above to be false or overstated.

Update: We are working with LISD communications to find a cost-effective way of getting the expense report data we would need to make a judgement call on this.

Rumor #3: The district bought expensive activity busses that will only benefit a few students. See the discussion in the comments below.

Update:
The busses are like charter busses, in that they have nicer seats and more comfort amenities than the yellow school busses. The busses were actually purchased by Durham transportation at the request of LISD. Durham provides the busses to LISD for a charge, but that charge is less than the prior cost of renting charter busses, and with a greater assurance that proper maintenance is being done. The busses are used for long distance travel such as football games and band trips. They don't have lavatories, so regular stops are still made for bathroom breaks. At least one teacher has stated the busses are available for academic teams as well.

Rumor #4: Inappropriately pressuring district employees to "donate" cash to a non-charitable cause to the enrichment of a superior..
I don't even want to elaborate on this one until I can get more corroboration. This doesn't really relate to spending, but since it's a rumor, I'm going to acknowledge that it is received. If you know what I'm talking about, email me: ses@whosplayin.com

By the way, on posts like this where we only have part of the story, it's a good idea for readers to check the notification options at the very bottom of the page, so you'll get an email or private message if there is an update.

This week, I'm in Scottsdale, Arizona on business. Luckily, it's been a little cloudy, so the temperatures have only been in the lower 100s.

Bronze Goes to Lewisville
Lewisville is getting a 3 ton bronze cowboy statue to display. We're not paying anything for it, just basically acting as a consignment lot for it. I'm happy to see it happen. I'm a big fan of public art. (Photo is by T.J. Gilmore, Sculptor is Herb Mignery)

If you're interested in buying the sculpture, please email me. I'll get back to you just as soon as I can figure out how to get a commission off of it. ;)

Fire at DFW Landfill
There was a fire on Saturday night on Mount Lewisville (The DFW Landfill). Unlike the big fire from several years back, this one was quickly put out with just a couple of tanks of water. Firefighters from Lewisville Fire Department Station 5 were dispatched at 7:53 p.m., and arrived to a locked gate, which they were able to quickly cut and enter. A brush truck from station 6 also was called. Waste Management's on-call person got there in 10 minutes and jumped on a bull-dozer to help the fire department ensure the remnants of the blaze were covered. The fire was only about a 10 to 15 foot circle, but the smoke could be seen from Chief Rick Lasky's house near Memorial Park.

The interesting thing was that the landfill was closed at the time, and yet there was uncovered trash available to catch fire. Normally TCEQ rules require daily cover with soil. I'm not sure what the arrangement at DFW landfill is, but I'd bet the residents living next door to it and having to smell it would prefer it to be covered each day.

I was just reading through the proposed budget for the City of Lewisville for 2010/2011, and wanted to share with you this list of cost-cutting measures proposed. I'm really not entirely happy to see all of these, but I wanted to pass it along so that my fellow citizens can see how seriously the budget is being examined.

 Eliminating the tuition reimbursement program -$4,550.
 Reducing Social Services Agency funding - $3,250.
 Reducing outside audit services in the Finance department - $23,383. This is an
unfunded action step request.
 Reducing funding for firefighting tools, nozzles, hoses, power tools, maintenance of fire stations, firefighting foam and all non-mandatory training in the Fire department - $30,488
 Reducing uniform funding in the Fire department - $10,000.
 Eliminating all paper employee pay checks - $4,384.
 Eliminating Situational Leadership from the City's internal training program - $10,467.
 Reducing maintenance, consulting, computer replacement funding, and GIS mapping
costs in the Information Technology Services department - $25,000.
 Eliminating holiday lighting from the Non-departmental budget - $43,500. This will be
on the unfunded list.

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes Lois the corpse flower a restful and well-earned dormant period as it brings you this week's blog highlights.

WhosPlayin posted a document explaining the link between benzene and natural gas drilling and production operations, and examining a few recent air quality studies in the Barnett Shale.

The Texas State Board of Education helps their cronies out and undermines public education with one swift move to support Charter Schools with our money. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees hedge fund operators racking up the $$$.

Off the Kuff took a look at campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates and State Reps. Along the way, he answered the burning question "What kind of man subscribes to Glamour magazine?"

This week, Hank Gilbert continued to dominate Todd Sleazy Staples. See the latest at McBlogger.

Today, we're launching a new blog topic on WhosPlayin called "Lewisville ISD Notes". The topic allows users to see all posts primarily about Lewisville ISD with one convenient link. Readers who are primarily interested in what is going on with Lewisville ISD can go straight to the new topic and read through the archives without having to wade through our other stories.

Just a little over a week since the Lewisville City Council narrowly rejected a temporary suspension of gas well permitting, the Texas Railroad Commission granted Williams Production, L.P. permits for another four gas wells in Lewisville this Thursday. With the RRC permit in hand, Williams will now have to apply for a permit with the City of Lewisville.

The four wells will be called "ACE Unit A", to be located just about 1/4 mile Northwest of the Creekside Mobile Home park on Ace Lane in Southern Lewisville. As of this past Monday, Lewisville City Manager Claude King said there had not been any permit applications received since the vote. These wells would not have been eligible for permitting yet, since the RRC permits only came in Thursday.

Map: Click to enlarge. Pink lines represent horizontal runs from the pad site, indicated with a pink circle. (via Google Maps)

The horizontal wells will reach a depth of 8,500 feet, and be drilled generally to the North, but they will first drill to the South, outside of the 156 acre unit boundary line. The pad site appears to be about 500 feet north of Denton Creek, which eventually feeds into the Trinity River.

Plats for the pad site show five additional wells for a total of nine on the site. The additional five wells have not yet been permitted, but plans show them as "ACE Unit D". The absence of units B and C would could indicate even more wells planned, beyond the nine.

The primary mineral owners for this lease are ACE Lewisville Minerals, Ltd.; Red River Construction Company; and Creekside MHC, L.P.

The purpose of the proposed suspension of permitting was to prevent a rush of applications brought on by discussion about changing the city ordinance. If permits are applied for prior to an ordinance change, the operator is generally exempt from most changes in the ordinance.