Amarillo residents and city leaders talk about infrastructure

A North Heights neighborhood sign at NW 9th Ave. and Hayden St.

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – During Tuesday’s Amarillo City Council meeting, one of the topics on the agenda was infrastructure in North Heights and University Heights, with residents from these areas calling for a change from city leaders.

“I was presented with a history of the of the infrastructure and how the improvements came about. I think that’s important for what they’re facing today up in the North Heights, but it applies to many communities across the city that were all developed prior to the subdivision laws that required those public improvements,” said City of Amarillo interim city manager Floyd Hartman.

Officials with the City of Amarillo noted that some of the sewer and water lines in these neighborhoods have been in the ground since the 1920s. That noted that older lines are a cause of hydrogen sulfide in those parts of town. Officials added that gas is created in a sewer system over time no matter the size or age of the lines.

Hartman added that when it comes to the rules surrounding lead and copper the city is required to identify those lines and that takes effort.

“You have to physically look at that line at some point unless you can prove it otherwise through a plan review or others. And that’s a costly effort, and a system this size, obviously, with 77,000 plus meters, it’s going to take us a while,” said Hartman. “A lot of effort to do that, but we’re committed to meeting that requirement, especially in this effort to help the citizens.”

One resident at the meeting on Tuesday says that has been asking the city time and time again to look into the infrastructure in these neighborhoods but nothing has been done yet.

“My problem is what has this gas has done to North Amarillo. I have been told to be patient. My problem is I am afraid that some of our citizens will become patients in the hospital. It is time to do something,” said concerned resident Warren Coble.

Coble added that the city has the resources to fix the problem it just needs to want to fix it.

“If they would grab money and fix this problem, they can, like they grab money to take care of this ballpark. They just grabbed a million and a half a few months ago. Do something to the ballpark,” said Coble. “The guy told me they spent $50,000 on this apparatus that they put over there. And so compared to life and health, what is 50,000 compared to a million and a half, this problem can be fixed almost overnight.”

As we previously reported last fall the City of Amarillo invested 71 million dollars into the Northeast Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Project. Officials added at the council meeting last night that this project will help with the issue however, that project is still a year away from being online.