Gas questions at town hall meeting

Fluhr wants more time before next meeting

By TOM KANE

SHOHOLA, PA — It was relatively quiet at the last Shohola Township meeting last Thursday until the public comment period.

This time, the dispute centered around a town hall meeting held last week on gas drilling in which a long list of questions were asked by the attendees and a taskforce proposed for the township.

“The people want to have the answers to these questions, so we should schedule another meeting next month,” said supervisor Nelia Wall, who has been the center of controversy at meetings in recent months.

Fluhr answered that a meeting could be held later but not next month.

“I haven’t had time to read the list yet,” Fluhr said.

During the question period, a number of residents loudly questioned why Fluhr was against holding such a meeting. “I’m not against it,” Fluhr said.

“We all want to know how the drilling is going to affect our lives and if our property values are going to be lowered,” one woman asked. “We need to know these things now and we should not wait.”

A taskforce sholud be formed in the township as soon as possible, another man said. “The purpose of the task force is to help you, the township supervisors, not to criticize you.”

“We can not answer these questions, so we need time to get these experts to come here,” Wall said. She said there was no reason to delay the meeting.

In other township matters, zoning officer Bob DiLorenzo told residents that the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company was seeking to establish staging areas in the township as part of their operation to establish loops on their current pipelines. “They have established three that I know of,” he said. “They’re extending their right-of-way more than 75 to 100 feet. They’re not taking the property by eminent domain but are offering property owners what they consider a fair price,” DiLorenzo said.

“They are cutting down trees that are 60 and 70 feet high. It is being approved by the Federal Energy Regulation Commission. There’s not a whole lot we can do about it,” he said.