Shohola to explore controls in gas drilling

By TOM KANE

SHOHOLA, PA — Shohola Township will use a technical assistance grant from the Upper Delaware Council to explore what its options are in regulating gas drilling.

“I will see what our abilities are to regulate in any sense gas drilling in the township,” said township attorney Jason Ohlinger. “It will be done without any explicit goal in mind but to examine the pending litigation around the state to see where it will be going.”

The township board agreed to the use of this grant at its meeting on October 14.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on a township’s ability to regulate gas drilling within its borders. In Huntley & Huntley vs the Borough of Oakmont, the court allowed the township to regulate where in the township drilling could or could not take place, but said that the township could not determine how the gas drilling would be done.

“I need to study this case,” Ohlinger said. “We want also to see, for example, what’s going to happen with litigation in Damascus Township and how that might affect us,” he said.

“Another example is what the township can or cannot do about the transport of gas across the township either by pipe line or truck,” Ohlinger said. “There may be nothing that we can do but we want to explore if there might be.”

In other business, the board agreed to several improvements to their personnel policy. They agree to shorten the length of probationary periods of employment evaluation from 90 days to 60 days. Another motion changed the number of hours an employee must work to qualify as full-time from 30 hours to 40 hours. They also approved a provision that only full-time employees working a 40-hour week will be entitled to disability, medical and life insurance, eliminating the current policy of a minimum of 15 hours to be entitled to benefits.

Lawmakers also agreed that full-time employees, following the 60-day probation period, will be entitled to paid or compensated holidays.