Company Digs Natural Gas Lines in Branson

By KSPR News Story Created: Feb 16, 2010 at 9:22 PM CST Story Updated: Feb 16, 2010 at 9:22 PM CST A natural gas company is digging along Roark Valley Road this week. Southern Missouri Natural gas is installing natural gas lines to bring the energy source to Branson. A major transmission gas line will bring natural gas into Branson from Aurora. That line will bisect Branson and eventually cross Lake Taneycomo to provide natural gas to College of the Ozarks. Nearly 15 years ago, Branson approved a franchise agreement to bring natural gas to Branson. FULL NEWS RELEASE: Southern Missouri Natural Gas, the company bringing natural gas to Branson, has started installing distribution gas lines along Roark Valley Road near Truman Drive. According to Branson Engineer and Public Works Director David Miller, the company has obtained the necessary permit to begin the underground installation. The equipment and machinery are already in place along Roark Valley Road and the underground installation has started. Miller said the company is starting along Roark Valley because it is a non-complex area meaning very little development there that would require more detailed digging. He said Southern Missouri is still working out the details and plans for the more complex areas like Branson Landing and College of the Ozarks. The lines being laid Along Roark Valley Road will be capped in anticipation of the major transmission gas line that will be installed in a few weeks from Aurora, Missouri to Branson. That transmission line will bisect Branson from the north part of the city near the Sight & Sound Theater and eventually cross Lake Taneycomo at the Cooper Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant to provide natural gas to College of the Ozarks. The gas line across the city will follow an electric power line easement. Almost 15 years ago, Branson's Board of Aldermen approved a franchise agreement with Ozark Natural Gas to bring natural gas to Branson. Since then, two other gas companies took assignment of the franchise agreement, with the latest being Southern Missouri Natural Gas in July 2007. Besides Branson, Southern Missouri Natural Gas, headquartered in Mountain Grove, MO, also has a franchise agreement with Hollister. Southern Missouri already serves several other southwest Missouri communities including Rogersville, Marshfield and Lebanon. Southern Missouri Natural Gas officials have said that once the main natural gas line through Branson to College of the Ozarks is completed later this year, the company will then lay distribution lines throughout Branson and Hollister. Large commercial users like colleges, schools and hospitals will be targeted first by Southern Missouri and then areas where there is a large concentration of homes. Under the franchise agreement with the city of Branson, Southern Missouri Natural Gas will pay the city a fee of 5 percent of sales in the third year of its operation. There will be no fee in the first year and a 2 percent fee the second year.