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Gas compressor station gets OK to operate

By Joel Walsh - | Jul 12, 2007

A permit for a new gas compressor station protested by local residents was unanimously approved Monday by the Leavenworth County Commission.

COG Transmission, a Colorado-based gas provider that currently operates around 60 natural gas wells and 25 to 30 miles of gathering pipeline in Leavenworth County, now has the rights to operate a compressor and dehydration station for the lifetime of the site on the northwest corner of Hollingsworth Road and 147th Street, provided the company posts adequate warning signs, erects an 8-foot-tall fence and conifer trees surrounding the 10,000-square-foot property and installs a hospital-style muffler to reduce any noise created there.

Several of the surrounding landowners were present Monday to voice their concerns, which included noise, potential danger and a devaluation of property values.

Jay Haas, who owns 20 acres north of the proposed site, said a man who lives near the current compressor station told him, “It’s like having a tractor running 24-seven.”

Commission Chairman J.C. Tellefson, who also owns a home located near a compressor, said he thought increased traffic along Hollingsworth Road due to the Falcon Lakes subdivision would be more of a nuisance than noise created by the machinery.

As for the possible dangers associated with a compressor station, a COG representative assured residents that if a leak were to occur, a water retention tank on-site would be self-contained, so there would be no risk of contaminating groundwater.

Also Monday, the commission:

  • Unanimously authorized the reallocation of approximately $27,000 to keep a highly successful program called multi-systemic therapy (MST) run through the Leavenworth Guidance Center going.

The money would allow MST, which counsels delinquent youths and their families, to continue operating for about a month.

The program lost roughly $133,000 in funding when a state block grant was not renewed for FY08 through the state’s Juvenile Justice Authority.

.¢ Revisited the question of how to store old files for the District Court, the County Attorney’s Office, Community Corrections and several other county agencies.

Tellefson made a motion to go forward with the data preservation program with a revised cost estimate of up to $130,000, but, again, the motion was tabled for two weeks for further discussion.

“I’m just not convinced this is the way to go,” said Graeber.

  • Voted 2-0 (Graeber was not present), to sign a lease agreement for a water tower to be constructed on Sandusky Road just west of Tonganoxie.
  • Heard a quarterly report from Survey Department Director Dan Schmitz, who submitted a record of all surveys conducted in the past three months and informed commissioners about efforts to add global positioning system devices to current monuments in the county, so that developers might be able to do research online when looking at land in Leavenworth.
  • Heard a quarterly report from Bob Doyle, director of Juvenile Services, who reported on population numbers at the Juvenile Detention Center, income and expenditures and on a 17-year-old offender who “has been monopolizing a lot of (the JDC staff’s) time.”

On Thursday, the commission:

  • Heard a quarterly report from Planning and Zoning Director Chris Dunn, who reviewed all permits issued and projects undertaken since April 2007.