Ascend team and city officials give pilots safe landing option
Ascend’s Chocolate Bayou site recently helped the city of Liverpool in Brazoria County become a little safer by donating materials and labor to install a windsock for the city’s new helipad site.
The city, located about five miles from the plant, needed a windsock for the safety of its residents and the pilots and medical personnel responding to area medical emergencies on Life Flight helicopters.
For decades, city officials have shut down main roadways to allow Life Flight landings because the small rural community didn’t have a helipad. A couple of months ago, thanks to the persistence of Liverpool Mayor Bill Strickland, the city received county funding to build one.
The only thing missing was a windsock – textile tubes that look like large socks – to help pilots determine the wind direction and wind speed for safe landing.
Strickland turned to his former employer and team members at Chocolate Bayou for assistance. He approached Pramod Bengani, the site’s business unit leader of infrastructure and business development, who presented the request to the site leadership and community relations teams. Bengani and both teams worked together to fulfill the request.
“We want to be a model corporate citizen and serve the communities in which we operate,” Bengani said. “This is just one of the many ways we help our community. We take pride in serving our community. It’s the Ascend way.”
On Sept. 9, CHB team members Jason Kaw, Brad Owens and Kevin Hudson traveled to Liverpool, where they assembled a windsock, attached it to a 45-foot wood pole, dug a hole using an auger and shovels, and inserted the pole into the ground with an Ascend utility truck. Jennifer Harrison, a member of the site’s community relations team, helped to coordinate the project.
The plant already had an extra windsock in stock because every unit at the site is equipped with a windsock in case of safety issues. Kaw, the plant’s electrical operations lead, found a used 45-foot electrical pole and recycled a spare 6-foot steel pole to use as the windsock’s base.
The windsock was installed near the new helipad across the street from the city hall building. The value of the donated supplies and labor is about $3,000, Kaw said.
“The city of Liverpool truly appreciates Ascend and its Chocolate Bayou team for donating the materials and labor,” said Mayor Strickland, who retired from the site in 1995. “This is a great benefit to our community and the surrounding area.”
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