March 09, 2004 10:00 AM
· Call to Order
Chairman Bill Deal with the City of Charlotte welcomed everyone to the meeting. Group introductions were made.
Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved with one correction.
* Old Business
a. Treasurers Report . George Glenn reported the current NCUCC balance through February was $5,714.20. Two deposits have been made in March totaling $3,510.00 and one payout in the amount of $100.00 was made to Randy Hawse Bluegrass per David West. The up-to-date balance is $9,124.20. There are no outstanding checks or invoices.
b. Volunteers to host the 2004 NCUCC meetings.
1. May 19, 2004 - NC/SCUCC 2004 Joint Seminar Wilmington, NC
2. July 13, 2004- Progress Energy Ashville, NC Paulette Warren
3. September 14, 2004 Duke Power Hickory, NC
4. November 09, 2004 Piedmont Natural Gas Teresa VonCannon
Nominating Committee.
The nominating committee members are Adyren Flowers, Steve Nichols and George Glenn.
Aydren Flowers submitted Lola Ausby with Dominion as Chairperson, Sandra Johnson with PSNC Energy as Co-Chairperson and Teresa VonCannon with Piedmont Natural Gas as Secretary. The nominees were voted on and approved.
c. Committee Reports.
Lola Ausby reported on the NC/SCUCC 2004 Joint Seminar. This event will be held May 19, 2004 thru May 21, 2004. The committee agreed that registration would be $50.00 in advance and $60.00 at the door. If you bring a guest this would be an additional $40.00. The vendor tables will be $350.00 by March 2004. After this date the cost would be $400.00. The registration package was sent out in January 2004. We have four paid vendors at this time. The agenda committee has met and the agenda is 99% final. Paulette needs the decal from Bill Deal for the agenda before it goes to the printer.
Bill Deal presented three shirts for us to decide on. A decision was made on one style. Bill suggested the shirts have a decal that outlines our two states. Also, add Annual Joint Conference on them. Bill hopes to negotiate a deal with the company that’s supplying the shirts. Bill would like to trade a vendor table for the cost of the shirts. This committee needs to meet after this meeting.
* New Business
a. NC DOT - Aydren Flowers reports that the Utility Industry helps DOT meet their goals. DOT let 1.2 Billion dollars in projects last year. DOT is letting 800 to 900 million dollars in projects this year. We have had a few problems with the NC Moving Ahead project. We have the turn lane projects and bridge projects. You can go to ncdot.org for information concerning NC Moving Ahead Projects. DOT will not be letting as many projects this year as it did last year. These projects will be handled in the local DOT offices. The design Bill projects are moving forward. Design Bill firm will be responsible for environmental permits
Adyren reminded us that George Glenn encouraged members of the DOT to attend the local UCC’s. Adyren has requested the DOT people to attend the Wake County UCC meeting. In some other areas, the local DOT is already attending the UCC meeting.
Neil Avery with DOT states that his group will continue to install communication lines for traffic signals.
Aydren thanks Kevin Hisman with CLS for his help with the Capital Blvd project.
David West reports that DOT is working on a statewide request form for endangered species. We are trying to eliminate one of the old forms. The obligations are still there. We are trying to improve the form.
NC One Call Center – Wendy gave the report from the NC One Call Center. The total tickets received YTD are 167,303 and the number of transmissions YTD are 895,720. The January 16, 2004 Annual NC One Call Board meeting had a great turn out. We celebrated our 25th Anniversary. We had more people turn out for this board meeting than any other board meeting. We then held open house at the NC One Call Center. We developed two new pamphlets, The Homeowner’s Guide to Dig Safely and The Overhead High Voltage Guide. We passed these out at local UCC meetings. The homeowners were not getting Dig Safely information. The local UCC’s pass them out to homeowners. We ordered 2500 Overhead High Voltage Guides and they are all gone. We will be getting more in right away.
Brad Ferguson would like to know if you have these brochures in Spanish?
Wendy responds not at this time.
The 1St Quarter NC One Call Board meeting will be held in Atlantic Beach on April 16, 2004. This will be held at the Sheraton of Atlantic Beach.
Power Companies- Paulette reports that she does not have a speaker for the NCUCC meeting on July 13, 2004 in Ashville, NC at Progress Energy. If you know of someone that would be interested, let Paulette know. George Glenn suggested the local water department in Ashville.
Gas Companies- Tom Ward with PSNC Energy reports that PSNC Energy has a Cast Iron Replacement project. The areas involved will be mostly downtown Raleigh. Part will be downtown where Progress Energy is located. We do have local people involved in this project and we have some out for bid. The meetings with city officials and local people have gone very well. Durham and Ashville will also be involved in cast iron replacement.
Bill Deal would like to know if PSNC Energy has a web site to post projects on? Tom Ward says “no not at this time”.
Sandra Johnson with PSNC Energy reports that PSNC Energy has been working with the local fire departments. As PSNC Energy installs gas mains into areas that have never had natural gas before, the local fire departments want to know how to respond to gas emergencies. Our team members are Glenn Flowers, David Dodson, Cody Barnes and Sandra Johnson .The fireman are concerned about responding to gas leaks and cut gas lines. Some of their questions are: Can we shut off valves or meters? Responding to regulator relief blowing, what’s the pressure on the gas mains and services? We educate them on the properties of natural gas and working safely around it. We let them know we understand that they are in command when they are on the site of a gas leak or cut gas line. Tim Wilson with the Raleigh Fire Department is with us today. We spent 4 hours with 3 fire units Monday. We thank Tim for asking us to help with their training.
David Jackson with Piedmont Natural gas tells us that Forsyth County Fire Department has purchased hydraulic pinch off tools. The fire department requested us to give them old pipe to practice with. We ask that they don’t turn anything off. We try to set up protocol and work together. We want to work with them.
George Glenn asked; who is in command at the site of a gas cut or leak?
David responds that the fire department is. We go to the incident commander.
George Glenn: that’s my purpose for asking. Get to your local UCC’s. Get people involved.
Teresa VonCannon with Piedmont Natural Gas explains that they tried to steer the fire department away from using the tools. They need training to use them.
David reports that the fire department does not know if the gas mains have a one way feed or a two way feed.
Bill Deal asked if Piedmont still does fire school training.
David says yes. Every Tuesday and Thursday. The scheduled dates for fire school training this year are October 06, 13 and 20, 2004.
Telecommunications. Jerel Hoffman with Bellsouth informs us that Bellsouth is in the process of buying Cingular Wireless. We will focus on wireless communication. Bellsouth will not automatically install telephone cable in a new subdivision. Some one will have to make a request for a telephone. We are placing fiber optic lines.
George Glenn would like to know if Bellsouth locates drop wires?
Jerel says that CLS locates drop wires for Bellsouth.
Alltel and Sprint also locate drop wires.
Catv - No Report.
Railroads – No Report
Contractors - Wayne Grindstaff with Utility Tech. Services reports that his company repairs locating equipment and also trains locators.
Glenn Flowers asked what kind of certification does your company give after the training?
Wayne explains that it is backed by NC State University.
Locate Companies- Kevin Hisman with ClS addresses emergency locate tickets. CLS had 14 tickets come in last night all requesting utilities to be located by 9:00 AM this morning. We will try to get to them. We talked to the company installing cablevision cable. I understand that NC One Call has to take these request. If we locate these non- emergency tickets, a contractor that has a proper 48 hour ticket might not get located. What do we do?
David with Piedmont Natural Gas says there’s also a cost involved when you get these non- emergency tickets.
George Glenn informs us that this issue is being addressed. That issue will be addressed in the Law.
Tom Miller would like to know what is a reasonable amount of time to respond to emergency tickets?
Bob Trott with STS,LLC informs us that one hour in the city and two hours in the Country. If we find that it will take longer to respond, we will give the company a call. Most states say one to two hours.
Teresa VonCannon tells us they had an issue when a water line was cut. The locator could not get to the site in time. The locator could not get in touch with anyone.
Local UCC’s - Kevin Hisman, chairman of the Wake County UCC, informs us that attendance has been down. We are doing our March meeting today with the NCUCC meeting. We are going forward with our sub committee to continue to educate the contractors in damage prevention.
Hank Baker, chairman of Lee county UCC, states that damages are down in their area. We are setting our site on a date for a damage prevention breakfast. There’s no big events in Lee County.
Teresa VonCannon with the Davie /Yadkin County UCC reports that they have had no reports of damage lines in three months. The attendance is up. Teresa is also involved with the Cabarrus / Rowan County UCC.
Lola Ausby with the North Hampton / Halifax County UCC reports they also have an issue with emergency tickets. No big events in North Hampton County.
David Jackson with Forsyth County UCC tells us that over 30 people attended their last meeting. Damages have been light, probably due to the weather. We are working on a breakfast. We have problems getting contractors to come to our meeting. One of our goals this year is to get contractors involved with our UCC.
Program – Brad Ferguson with Progress Energy gave a safety presentation involving working around electricity. Brad showed us the protective equipment that the Progress Energy crews and contractors use as they work with electricity. He explained the safe way to use the equipment. Brad also had photos of people that lost body parts when they came in contact with high voltage.
This was a very educating presentation. We thank Brad for sharing this information with us.
We then adjourned to have lunch provided by PSNC Energy.
Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Johnson
PSNC Energy
600 W. Cabarrus St.
Raleigh, NC 27603
919-836-2421