By Will Jukes

The Dallas Planning and Zoning Commission received a standing ovation Thursday, March 22 when it voted to deny permits allowing Trinity East Energy to locate up to 20 natural gas wells, in the Trinity River bottoms, and a compressor station on land just across the border from Irving. This is the second time the Plan Commission has rejected the permit. The first vote took place on December 20^th, 2012. Commission Chairman Joe Alcantar, who supported the permits, asked the Commission to reconsider its decision in early January.

Opposition supporters came out for a final show of force, bringing dozens of speakers to the podium, including residents of Irving and Irving City Council member Rose Cannaday. The opposition required several extensions to give everyone a turn at the podium.

The proposal now defaults to the Dallas City Council, which can overturn the decision of the planning committee only with a supermajority of 12 out of 15 votes. Upcoming city council elections are expected to complicate the vote as the makeup of the council will change due to factors including the loss of drilling opponent Angela Hunt to term limits.

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Firefighters at DFW Airport’s Fire Training Research Center extinguish a fire on their Airbus A380 mockup trainer at the center’s re-opening after a yearlong $29 million expansion and reinvestment project. John Starkey/Staff Photograher

By Sissy Courtney

DFW’s FTRC is one of the world’s top facilities for aircraft rescue firefighting training and research. The center re-opened after a yearlong $29 million dollar expansion and reinvestment project enhancing the facility’s real world training and research capabilities by adding new interactive curriculum, classroom space, a new control center, new burn pits and the only Airbus A380 mockup trainer in the United States.

“We are connecting two environments that previously had this gap between them,” said David Henderson, as he spoke in the FTRC’s large, state-of-the-art classroom with 3D simulation technology providing the ability to visually and virtually train for any airport in the world. “We want to immerse the student; we want to engage the student. Every student gets the hands-on experience that we want them to have.”

For hands-on training, the Center now features a one-of-a-kind Airbus A380 mockup to teach students how to handle modern ultra-large fuselage aircraft. The A380 trainer contains accurate representations of the interior of both a multi-class passenger aircraft and a cargo freighter, including key components of the cockpit.

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Includes DFW Press Release Information.

By Will Jukes

A City of Irving town hall meeting at North Hills Prep on March 18 gave Irving residents the chance to voice their concerns regarding Trinity East Energy LLC’s proposed natural gas drilling operation in the City of Dallas near the Irving border.

Susan Sullivan, a member of The Argyle-Barton Communities Alliance (ABCA), addressed the audience with the cautionary tale of childhood cancer, asthma, and corporate malfeasance.

“A lot of us can't tell our stories. [Many people] had to sign non-disclosure agreements just to get the money to get out of there,” Sullivan said. The ABCA was founded by residents of the town of Argyle in 2010 to combat a waste disposal project in their community which, they claim, caused severe, often tragic health problems in members of their community.

Despite the accusations, Trinity East did not send a representative. Doug Janeway, chief development officer for the City of Irving, said that Irving officials have met with Trinity East about the planning process and the environmental challenges.

“They've presented to our planning development sub-committee [and] Parks and Recreation,” Janeway said. “They've come forward, President [sic] Tom Blanton has made those presentations to various boards with the City of Irving, to let them know what their plans are for drilling in Dallas.”

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By Jessie Burke 

The Greater Irving Las Colinas Texas Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel discussion on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sponsored by HMS Employee solutions at the Los Colinas Four Seasons on March 8.

One of the ACA’s major provisions is the introduction of the Employer Mandate, to begin in January 2014. This states that employers with 50 or more full time employees will be required to offer minimum essential health care coverage or be made to pay a penalty fine in taxes. (Full time employees are considered those who work 130 hours month.)

Peggy Bass, Director of client services for Prescott Pailet Benefits, says the businesses that will face the biggest challenges going into this will mainly be those who did not previously consider offering coverage to full time employees, such as businesses in hospitality and retail. It could also impact businesses that are currently expanding, as crossing the 50 employee mark at any point will then require the coverage to kick in, possibly discouraging small businesses from growing.

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