Pearsall Mayor Ben Briscoe is urging councilors to consider the merits of continuing to invest in a natural gas system after learning that routine maintenance to the line will cost $16,000.
Councilors have learned from Public Works Director Hector Gandara that a 2.2-mile section of the gas utility line will be turned off temporarily on Tuesday, July 25.
“It will allow West Texas Gas (WTG) contractors to pressure test their portion of the transmission line,” Gandara told councilors on Thursday, July 6. “This is something that has to be done every five years.”
Gandara added that the WTG line is located on Radio Road and FM 1581.
“The option here is to not let our residents lose gas,” the public works director said. “The best case scenario is 72 hours for West Texas Gas representatives to reset their lines.”
City Manager Fred Reyes said the anticipated cost for the line maintenance and the purchase of compressed natural gas would total $16,000 for three days.
Briscoe said the contract with Certarus has $4,100 allocated for the purchase of the compressed gas, but the cost is offset.
“We will sell the gas to customers and it will offset the cost some,” the mayor said. “We have nine hundred gas customers and the Railroad Commission mandates a certain amount of maintenance to the lines each year. If you look at numbers, you can see what it is costing. It should break even, but we need to consider what these other communities have done and sell off the gas system.”
