A few interesting land transactions

To the editor:

In Sandy Long’s January 7 article, David Jones portrays himself as a small business owner. He tells of how the gas industry will create good jobs. He says “Our farmers are struggling.” He has also predicted in the past, that if drilling does not occur, houses will spring up every five acres. Mr. Jones also states: “I’ve got a lot of land. If I can get revenue from this, I can justify keeping and preserving it. I enjoy my land, but I don’t enjoy paying the taxes.”

If Mr. Jones does not enjoy paying taxes, why did he recently purchase land in Northern Wayne County? The Pennsylvania tax assessment public records show that Jones, either alone, or with partners, has purchased, just since the natural gas boom talk started, the following acreage: In June of 2008, Jones Partners LP purchased 185 acres in Berlin Township for $1,000,000. In August of 2008, David C. Jones purchased 68.99 acres in Damascus Township for $438,500. In May of 2009, Ruth M. and David C. Jones purchased two plots of land in Preston Township that totaled 181.75 acres at a cost of $825,000.

Therefore, in the 12-month period between June of 2008 and June of 2009, Mr. Jones and partners seem to have paid $2,263,500 for 435.75 acres of land. During this period, Mr. Jones has been a vocal proponent of high volume, slick water hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling into the Marcellus Shale.

Mr. Jones often says he supports drilling in the Delaware River Basin in order to become independent from foreign oil, to help struggling farmers, to benefit everyone economically, and even that drilling is safe and better for the environment than other development. What I see, is that he has invested heavily in gas extraction, for immense personal gain.

Kudos to Rural Health Network

To the editor:

Thank you for writing the article about the rescue of the Rape Intervention Services and Education (RISE) program by Catskill Regional Medical Center (CRMC). Regrettably, we (CRMC) failed to recognize one organization that has been instrumental in making the RISE transition become a reality, and has always been a great supporter of CRMC. I would like to thank the members of the Rural Health Network for their approval of $38,500 from January 1, 2010 to January 31, 2011 to CRMC, to help RISE stay afloat in the next year, and I applaud their commitment to keep the RISE program going.

The Rural Health Network is an organization of agencies invested in improving health outcomes in Sullivan County. Good deeds should indeed be recognized and I thank the selfless commitment of the Rural Health Network members, as well as the Sullivan County Legislature and the New York State Department of Health, Office of Rural Health, who approved this expenditure.

Crazy coyotes

To the editor:

Now hear this, all you coyote-hatin’ people. It’s been reported that the neighbor’s dog, who was off its own property and caught “red handed” on the alpaca farm, was not responsible for the attack on the herd. I haven’t heard anything lately, so I’ll assume that the remainder of Stuart Salenger’s alpaca herd is alive and well since that determination was made.

Not once in any article I have read on this subject did it state who the wildlife biologist was who made a determination that the coyotes in New York State now kill for fun. There was a wildlife biologist called in, right?

Must be those coyotes are keeping themselves on a short leash now. Or could it be that someone has finally tied them up? Maybe they watched from the tree line when the neighbor’s innocent dog got shot, and are now staying away so they won’t be further blamed for the unfortunate alpaca massacre. We can’t call it the great coyote feast because apparently that day they weren’t hungry, just killing for fun.

Last I knew, coyotes kill for food. Unless, of course, they all had rabies at the same time (unlikely) or were attacked trained coyotes. Then I would be wrong. Otherwise, I ain’t believin’ all of this coyote killing stuff. Or maybe, just maybe, that pack of coyotes isn’t around anymore, because they all did die from rabies.