[Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Mtg. Minutes Aug.

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, August 
14, 2007, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew 
Serna, Ramon Gutierrez, Bob Broilo, Jon Thunborg, Guy Stanzione, and 
Charley Chavez.

BUDGET — Operating budgets are spent down. Any future expenditure should 
be made on essential projects and services only. St Croix painting 
project has been approved, and a special account number has been 
assigned. Painting Costs will be about $50K higher than originally 
estimated. The request for $12K to transport antenna counterweight steel 
was granted and should be expended this year. Perhaps a shipment of 
chairs for the visitor center theater can be included with these shipments.

The Generator Overhaul request for $150K was not granted. The west 
generator has a massive exhaust leak and is spewing sparks. Safety has 
red tagged the generator due to potential fire hazard. Investigating the 
possibility of trading the ALMA generators for overhaul work was 
suggested. Unofficially, ALMA personnel have no problem with the idea. 
Guy will talk to Wagner Power Systems to see if they would have any 
interest in a swap for services.
VLBA TT Trips— One wheel assembly was installed during the FD and BR 
Tiger Team visits. We will try to replace one at each site that requires 
one from now on. Antenna mechanics should ensure we have one wheel 
assembly ready for each site being visited. With the three month St. 
Croix painting project looming in September, no more TT trips are 
planned in FY2007 therefore; the OV trip scheduled for 09/20/07 has been 
postponed until possibly next year. The BR foundation may require work 
in the future.

The HN foundation repairs and the subreflector replacement are complete. 
The paint on the HN subreflector was deteriorating badly but its surface 
contour seems to be in reasonably good shape. It might be possible to 
simply repaint the surface to ready it for installation at SC towards 
the end of the painting project or the next scheduled SC maintenance visit.

MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels need 
to be repaired for spares.

Elevation bearings grease samples taken at FD and SC are showing metal 
flakes. A plan to replace these bearings should be made soon.

The BR foundation may require work in the future.


AZ BEARINGS –Next Bearing replacement will occur in FY 2008.

PROJECTS:
Control building Stairways— The Control Building Stairways are being 
replaced due to their rapid deterioration. The stairways will be 
replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. The western stairway 
is complete. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base 
of the eastern stairway. The eastern stairway is deemed hazardous and is 
currently barricaded to prevent its use but a more substantial barricade 
is still needed. Work on the eastern stairway will be done as the 
workload permits. No further progress


Waste Oil Storage Tank—the two old storage tanks behind the Generator 
building have been removed and replaced with a double wall storage tank 
to bring us into HAZMAT compliance. Concrete bases are made and the tank 
is set. The plumbing will be done soon.

HANCOCK SUBREFLECTOR & HANCOCK ANTENNA FOUNDATION— — Project completed. 
Foundation is repaired and stabilized. The deteriorating subreflector 
has been changed out with the repaired subreflector removed from Brewster.

VLA WAREHOUSE SAFETY Rail — This project is complete. Railing is 
required on top of the rooms in the warehouse where parts are being 
stored. Welders will have completed fabrication and installation.

ST Croix Painting— St. Croix Antenna has severe corrosion problems which 
require extensive repair and painting. A plan to begin repairs and 
painting in the fall are underway. Jon attended a corrosion control 
symposium in March and has met with a paint supplier and a painting 
contractor to prepare for the fall painting of the SCVLBA telescope. The 
cost to have a contractor do all the work is prohibitive so we will have 
to use a combination of ES Division and contractor manpower to do the 
work. Jon Thunborg and Phillip Sanchez have attended a paint inspection 
training class. Bids for the contract work have been received and a 
contractor has been selected. A meeting will be called on Wednesday 
8/15/07 for ES personnel involved to discuss safety and develop a plan.

VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT— A problem with north arm antenna 
foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two 
rearward pillars have been slowly separating over the years at several 
stations with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far enough in 
about 33 years that 2 bolts can no longer be used to secure the antenna 
pads to the foundation pillars. A plan to investigate and correct or 
stop the movement will be initiated in the near future. It is possible 
that these pillars were installed this way since they have been 
problematic since day one and different telescopes make it appear as 
though they are moving apart in which case the plates could be 
repositioned, solving the problem. A thorough inspection of the 
foundation should be made nevertheless. Markers will be installed by 
Paul Savedra to measure the separation movement of the pillars if any.

EVLA STATUS;
EVLA Civil Tasks are complete. An occasional miscellaneous task 
involving civil work may be required at times.

EVLA Antennas— S-Band- prototype has been tested and approved. A 
laminating contract should be in place soon.

Progress is made in correcting hoist difficulties. Basically the hoist 
at the vertex is getting new cable and D-rings are available to attach 
harnesses for those doing hoisting operations.

Reminder to remove Lockout/tagout when it is not necessary to leave the 
antenna locked out. Please leave antenna in operational state whenever 
possible.

SAFETY REPORT – No Report Available


ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Power Outage Friday, 8/17/07 beginning at 6am, due to SEC effecting 
repairs to lines west of Socorro. The outage may last up to 12 hours. 
One generator will be started prior to 6am to carry the site load.

OTHER:

A preventive measure should be implemented for the Correlator Room Doors 
in which all safety features are tested and the door kept properly 
lubricated.


Lighting at the VLA - All high mercury content light bulbs should be 
eliminated from stock. A plan to replace all ballasts and bulbs to 
efficient electronic ballasts and bulbs should be initiated. In addition 
to removing the high mercury content bulbs the savings in kilowatt usage 
would payback the initial cost in less than 2 years. A meeting will be 
scheduled with Skip to formulate a plan.