Bethel joins gas task force

Infrastructure protection is the aim

By FRITZ MAYER

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — After considering the matter for about a year, the Bethel Town Board joined the Multi-Municipal Gas Drilling Task Force to help protect town roads and bridges should gas drilling come to the area in a big way.

Taking the action at their meeting on February 10, the lawmakers said this was not an attempt to prevent gas drillers from coming to the town, rather a move to protect the town’s interest.

Supervisor Dan Sturm said, “If this type of drilling can be proven to be safe, I would have to say welcome to the neighborhood. But, I am concerned about water, the environment, traffic, noise and pollution ... what we can control legally is the protection of the roads, the bridges and the infrastructure.”

Board member Vicki Vassmer-Simpson said much the same thing. “If somebody can prove to this board that gas drilling can be 100 percent safe, that my drinking water is going to be as clear as it is now, I also welcome it. I want jobs and I want people to be able to make a living. I was born and raised here, and I have a great deal at stake, just like everybody. I’m not convinced personally that my drinking water will be safe. But that’s not up to this board, that’s up to the state. What is up to the board is the protection of our roads and, at this time, I believe it would be prudent of us to join the taskforce.”

The cost for the town will be up to $8,000, but up to 90 percent of that may be paid for by state grants. The towns that are members or considering membership include Bethel, Callicoon, Cochecton, Delaware, Fremont, Highland, Lumberland, Rockland and Tusten.

The taskforce has engaged engineers and a law firm to help create a local law that would enable towns to compel gas companies to enter into road-use agreements. The law would apply to any company that practiced any form of industrial activity in the town and crossed an as-yet-to-be-determined threshold regarding the amount of truck trips involved or the number of tons of material moved on town roads.

Board member Denise Frangipane, who has been urging the board to join the taskforce for some time, thanked her fellow lawmakers for learning about the matter. She also thanked a number of landowners who were on hand and who are seeking gas leases. She said, “There’s no doubt that this issue could polarize a community; it has polarized some communities, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And I think we’ll have the best result if we work together.”

Former supervisor Harold Russell, a member of the Rural Bethel Landowners Association, which is seeking to sign gas leases, asked if the matter of the protection of roads could not be settled with handshakes or simple agreements as it is in other counties.

Paul Hindes, a resident from the Town of Delaware who has been working on the taskforce, said that a handshake agreement or even a written contract was not a very effective tool to protect roads because the matter could end up in court for years, with the offending behavior still taking place.

He said a road-use agreement based on a local law, however, would give town officials the ability to seek a court injunction to stop any practices that might violate the agreement and would be more effective in protecting the town’s infrastructure should the need arise.