On Wednesday, July 1, the Gray County commissioners held their first meeting of the month, starting with comment from a gentleman named Rodney.
“I own the panhandle ariel spraying business for the Perry Lefors Airport, and the main thing I want to talk about is if the county wants to disband the airport board as it is, we’ve got a fresh group of guys who are willing to put the effort into forming a new board. We have a draft of bylaws that we drew up for review. We would like to still be involved with the airport in that capacity. As for hangar rent, those of us who have water pay 30 cents and those who don’t pay 15 cents, and that’s the way it has been for a while. It’s expensive to have larger hangars to have it at 30 cents by the time you get county taxes. I would also like to with the court’s blessing to talk to TxDOT about where our projects are and the funding. I don’t know if anyone has checked on it in the last six months, but I do know there is a new TxDOT representative. I would like to see how much of this we can handle in-house with a new board and if we have to go looking for a manager, we’d like to be very involved with that because the wrong manager can be really a problem to the airport. Thank you.”
Next was an update from Wildlife Damage Management Technician Jacob Woods.
“I know we are having some changes on our activity reporting systems, so if you have seen a delay in your reports, that’s what it is. It’s not that we’re not out here doing anything, we’re just having some trouble getting those activity reports logged into our new system and sent to all of you. Just to give you guys an update, we did fly last month and we removed 31 coyotes and 91 feral swine throughout the county, and we had about six and a half hours of total flight between the wind breaks during that time. We don’t look to have another helicopter in until the fall, so summer is going to be focused on fixed-wing activities as far as ariel help. I just wanted to let you know we are still working every day and we still have some traps out and moving feral swine out.”
Next items were to consider the minutes of the previous meeting, pay the bills as presented by the County Auditor, consider any line-item transfers or budget amendments, and to accept the County Treasurer’s monthly report; all were approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a change to the Gray County Investment Policy, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a change to the Gray County Game Room Regulations and Application, which included: requiring an applicant to print their own application from the website, requiring an applicant to make an appointment to give the County Treasurer the opportunity to have an armed officer with her during the meeting for safety, the granted permit having the Gray County Seal rather than the County Treasurer’s name, and requiring the applicant to disclose any other game rooms they own/operate/have a permit for on their permit application. All changes were approved.
Next was to consider entering a contract with Panhandle Plains Realty for the sale of the Lovett Building located at 1146 N. Hobart as is, which was approved. The commissioners then decided to set the price for the building at $499,000.
Next was to have a discussion with Xcel Energy concerning proposed power lines in Gray County, to which several representatives of Xcel addressed the commission.
“My name is Sean Frederiksen, the manager of Siting and Land Rights at Xcel Energy. I’ve got Lance and Tiffany from our team here too, along with Sam Reese who is our Community Relations Manager from the Dumas Office. I would like to go over the project description, project need, and just some background with you guys first, and then we’ll take any questions from there. Southwestern Public Service Company subsidiary of Xcel Energy is proposing to construct and operate a Potter-Beckham 345-KV electric transmission line to enhance electric reliability across the region. The project is a joint initiative between SPS and Transource Energy, LLC that will connect the new 345 line from the existing Potter County substation northwest of Amarillo to the intersection of State Highway 335 and US State Highway 87 on the existing Oklahoma gas and electric substation in Beckham County located approximately six miles southeast of the intersection of Highway 152 and US 60. SPS will own and operate the Texas portion, and Transource will own and operate the Oklahoma portion.”
“The Southwest Power Pool, the regional transmitter operator who oversees and monitors the power grid across 17 states, mandated that this project is necessary will improve electrical reliability and promote an increase in power deliverability and help relieve economic congestion in the region. This new 345-KV line is also a key piece to support the development of extra high voltage transmission in our area. After facilitating a competitive transmission request for proposal process for this project, SPP has awarded this project to Transource and Southwestern Public Service Company. This project will require approval by the Texas Public Utility Commission and the Oklahoma Public Utility Commission. This is crossing four counties in Texas; Potter, Carson, Gray and Wheeler, and jump into Beckham County in Oklahoma. We will own and operate about 111 of the 125 miles of the total line.”
“Routing studies started in Q1 of 2006 and were completed in Q1 of 2026. Public outreach occurred during this time and we completed landowner meetings in the first of June in Texas and Oklahoma. Land acquisition for this project is scheduled to start Q2 of 2027 and complete on Q2 of 2028. Construction is looking to start Q3 of 2028 and complete in Q4 of 2029.”
“There is a public narrative out there that you use eminent domain, but you haven’t acquired any land for this yet?” Judge Porter asked.
“No. This project has not been approved by the Texas PUC. The only time we are able to deploy eminent domain is through the approval of the project by the PUC.”
“If the PUC did approve the project, would it be subject to eminent domain?” Commissioner Jeff Haley asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is the SPP the ones who determine the need for the project?”
“Yes, sir, that is correct.”
“What criteria goes in that determination?”
“They look at the system load in our area, as well as other members of the power pool. I believe there’s 13 members, and they look at the impact on the grid and the load issues across the grid and identify projects that will help alleviate those loads, and this is one of those projects.”
“Is there anything out there in the public where we can see the criteria and see how they arrived at that determination?”
“I believe it is all on the Southwest Power Pool’s website.”
“I am writing these questions down for our senior vice president who couldn’t be here today,” Sam Reese said. “He has offered to be here for the next commissioners meeting if the written answers do not meet your satisfaction.”
“With all this infrastructure that’s coming into the county, I think it’s good to understand why things are the way they are,” Jeff said. “So this proposed line is 345, which way will it be carrying power? East or west?”
“The initial need for the power is to bring it from the east to the west into SPS. But it does have the ability to push power back and forth in both directions.”
“So the need they are giving is to send power to Amarillo?”
“Yes.”
“What makes the determination of whether it flows west or east?” Judge Porter asked.
“Need, basically,” Lance said. “There are certain times of the day or certain times of the month and weather-wise that would determine if we have outages at a power plant, or a generator is down, or the wind isn’t blowing, we may need to bring in 200 megawatts from the eastern grid and vice versa. Right now we don’t have a lot of excess generation, but if it came to it and we had the availability to do so, we could ship power back to the east. We have ties that go to the western grid and north as well that allows us to flow power in every direction in and out of our system.”
“You can look at a power line like a water pipe. Those transmission lines can only carry so much voltage on them. With increased generation, you have to have more power lines to be able to carry it. You can’t just put more and more into just one power line. They do have a capacity and can only carry so much.”
“Can the conductor not be replaced?” Jeff asked.
“It can, but it depends on what you have out there. A lot of times it takes a complete rebuild of a power line, you have to increase the size of the poles and the conductor. A lot of times, you have to go through the Public Utility Commission to get it approved as well.”
“With these lines going back and forth, what is the reason they can’t just upgrade what they have?” Jeff asked.
“You would have to take an outage on that line that is already being used. We would have customers impacted by that outage,” Sean asked.
“Is it less efficient to upgrade? I can understand the outage.”
“What they are seeing is the amount of power that is needed, you’re going to need that existing 230 line that is already there plus an additional 345 KV line as well. The right of way wouldn’t be a sufficient width to be able to accommodate both a 345 and a 230 line.”
“Would it take less right of way than two right of ways in balance on some level?”
“We will get back to you with an answer on that,” Sam said.
“This was a competitive project, and with the initiative that was put into place a few years back to put up competition with local transmission,” Sean said. “We had to compete with other transmission developers to have a project in our backyard. We won this project in conjunction with Transource to build. So luckily for us, SPS is going to own and operate this line. It could’ve been owned and operated by another developer that is not part of SPS. To go back to the reconstruction of the line, you would have to upgrade everything to be able to handle the loads and the stresses of the conductor, and everything associated with engineering of that line.”
“Also, for a project like that, you would have to one of two things: get every landowner on that line to sign an affidavit saying they agree to the project and to sell additional land for an easement. Everyone would have to agree to it and sign it, or if you don’t, you would go right back to where we are now and go and create this entire criteria we’re building right now and go through the PUC and do all that, and they would still have the say so if it’s a double circuit where it’s at or leave the line where it is and build a new 345 line,” Lance said.
“So it’s really just easier for you to build a new line?”
“The biggest thing is to try to take that 230 line out,for the amount of time it would take to tear it down and rebuild it like it is, we don’t have enough load to supply power around it to lose it that long to take it out unless you build a temporary one around it. To do that, you would have to buy a temporary right of way adjacent to where the line is at to carry that voltage while you build the new one, then take it out once it’s built.”
“Maybe I’m wrong, but I would say you’re incentivized to build new lines. It’s growing your business at a set rate of return,” Jeff said.
“I would agree at some point, but at the same time, we’re providing service to our customers,” Sean said. “We’re the main power utility in this area.”
“We have to go to Texas PUC and show that we are prudent in how we spend our money,” Sam added. “I get what you’re saying, but it’s in our best interest to operate our system as efficiently as possible because we have to go before the commission and prove to them that we’re spending the money to serve our customers the best way we can.”
A little more discussion was had, and any questions the commissioners had were written down and were told that those questions would be answered by the end of next week.
Next on the agenda as to discuss and consider a road crossing requirement exemption from Olsson, Inc. for a Road Crossing Project at County Road D, to which a representative from the company answered Commissioner Logan Hudson’s questions and concerns about the location, size, and depth of the pipe. It will be between the two miles between County Road 21 and County Road 23, with a 16-inch pipe going 14 and a half feet below the ditch line. With that clarification, the exemption was approved.
Editor’s note: Due to time constraints, I was unable to attend the full meeting, so the remaining items on the agenda will be addressed in the Friday edition.
