CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Port Aransas City Council met and voted Thursday to keep the same natural gas companies that failed recently; leaving nearly 2,000 homes and businesses without service.
Port Aransas receives their natural gas from White Marlin Operating Company LLC and Agua Tranquillo Midstream LLC. After Thursday meeting, the city will continue with two companies.
Port Aransas Mayor Wendy Moore said that part of that reasoning is because the city already has a working partnership with the gas companies.
"We were on contract with them and we will stick to them but, it is important for us to look for other resources, that in case something happens with them, we're not in the same situation," she said.
Moore said that after the natural gas outage last Friday, she is looking into bringing in other gas companies to provide auxiliary support.
"With the difficulties that happened this past week, the unforeseen circumstances, we've realized that having one sole supplier is not going to be sufficient for our system moving forward," she said.
While the situation caused headaches for many residents, Port Aransas City Manager David Parsons said there is a protocol the city must abide by.
"We have to physically lock with a zip tie, every meter in town. We probably zip-tied an excess of 1,600 meters," he said.
On Thursday the city reported there were still about 500 homes without service. They said the ones who haven't had their gas turned on are likely properties like short-term rentals.
"We'll just be down to staff doing call outs and getting people turned on. It could take weeks," he said.
Moore told 3NEWS that the city is looking at better ways to alert the community when situations like this occur. She encourages residents to sign up for the optional alert system the city currently has in place.
"This has taught us that we need to do some further reaching out to those people. Not only our residents, but our second homeowners who have property here," she said. "We need to get as many people on that system as possible, and if we need to find another robust system to replace that, we're going to do that."
To sign up for the alert system, click here.
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