Wrote this yesterday, forgot to post it, got distracted lol.
So this dude from the gas company tried to call me at 8:30 am this morning and then left an email asking me to call him back in the next 30 minutes. Well I'm sorry, but I wasn't even fully awake and in no frame of mind to discuss this situation with this individual, I didn't answer the phone and emailed him back later. He's allegedly going to call me - any time now actually - this afternoon.
Meanwhile, my realtor has asked the seller to obtain counsel to attempt to rectify and issues that may arise from this gas company player. Well the issues are already arisen, I'm going to try my best to solve these issues without need of paying for lawyers. That's getting a bit ridiculous, in my mind, to have to do that before I even have ownership of the property?
Whatever the case, I'm fully awakened, caffeinated and ready for come what may from this gentleman, whether he wants to compromise or not remains to be seen. I invoked logic and for some reason it doesn't seem to register with this guy. I think explaining it over the phone versus attempting to write it out might work better. He asks questions and answers none of mine, which is what my main concern is. I remain hopeful perhaps we can come to an understanding today of
So, while I was awaiting that phone call, I decided to visit the city hall and talk to the man with all of the plans. He basically gets to decide what goes where or who gets what when they make requests. If you don't agree with his decisions, the only remedy is to take it up with the city council. Anyway, I told him about this property on Cooks road, are you familiar with that road? Yes, of course he is, I figured that. Okay, is that in the city or county territory? County. Ahh, ok, I replied, well I was curious because the Texas PUC map overlay shows that the city provides water service there.
Yes, we do and without hesitation or even asking what I intended to do with the property (thankfully) he gave me a list of contractors the city has pre-approved to tap the main underground line and install a meter. That's all I need. I don't need them to do any other work, that will likely cost me several thousand dollars as it stands. I can tell you right now that a saddle for the main line is at least $600 just for that. Then there is a special tool they use to place over the main line that seals to it. They can drill into the line without having to shut off the water to anyone.
So that one was easy enough. Swepco is the power company and lines running right cross the front of the land, I don't need to ask them, I have already discussed this before, they do the work and bill you. That is also merely an act of putting up a smaller pole, running a line to the pole that goes into a box and there it ends. After that, you do whatever you need with it.
So left is sewer and whatever objections this gas company is going to tell me about that particular setup. I would like to hear in detail what their concerns are. I'm trying to sound as tho I have their interests in mind - which I do to some extent but not to the exclusion of my interests - and what we can do to meet in the middle. Again, I'm sure these people would rather I just go away, but unless this problem with them becomes untenable, my plans are to move ahead with this project regardless. An RV park is not going to work without a sewer system, whether city supplied or a septic system. There's just no way around it, I have to have it. A modern RV park requires it, very few will want to come if they don't have any reasonable expectation that they can dump their tanks. I suppose I could install a several thousand gallon holding tank in the ground and have a dump station, but then I incur recurring costs to have a truck come out and pump it out.
That isn't really a good answer. It is an answer, but the costs to have a truck coming every week or even more to empty it out would eat into profit.
Regardless, I do have answers to my question about the diameter of the mainline pipe going into an RV park. One person stated he had 2 inch main on a 100 site park and had 65 psi all around it. That's great, the smaller the diameter the less cost both for the access to the mainline - they make the saddles in sizes starting at 1 inch and going up from there, the bigger, the more expensive, obviously. CPVC is not cheap piping, either, tho I think I can get it cheaper with my connections to the waterworks industry.
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Update. The gas company man called and we discussed this situation at length. The compromise is that I can use "their" road but they don't want the gate to be moved. I countered that gate would be an obstacle to me being able to run my business. I can't have a padlocked gate that people have to somehow open everytime they want to leave. Although I don't want to spend the extra money, I didn't want to argue with this dude and open up potential legal issues that will cost even more in court. So I offered an automatic gate with a keypad. You push a code in to open it, you simply pull up to it go get out. RV's would not go in that way, I already planned they come in through the road I will have to build on the west and exit out that way.
That keeps them from heading directly towards the gas well operation. They will loop around at the rear of the property and onto the existing driveway and off the property.
The thing that took me by surprise is that the man told me that that other setup on the pad? Is a different operator! They have an easement coming from the east and then going south. It rises above ground for unknown reasons - but it is not a gas well operation. It's just a pipe running through the property.
Things appear to slowly be coming together here. I make no assumptions about anything, but the other gas operator shouldn't be telling me anything beyond a 25 foot easement. That works. the rear of the RV park will be a turn around. Their operation is on the pad behind there, then a row of trees to keep people from running into an exposed gas line (or even seeing it there for that matter) and then at least 15 feet width for turning around larger rigs. Maybe 20 feet. I lose some area for that but it's just the nature of the beast.
Now, I'm nowhere near doing much of anything even when I sign on the dotted line and put the money down. These are things I had to know about before sinking any money into this project. Build a park and have it contested in court after the fact? No thanks. I dunno what the next door neighbors are going to think, if they don't like it they can put up a fence along the driveway is all I can say about that. It's county territory and the county has few restrictions on much of anything. Only the state rules do I need concern myself with and that's not much.
