Ford City Motions to Allow PennEnergy Water Extraction

Ford City Borough Council officials, New Bethlehem Attorney Nathaniel Parker and PennEnergy Resources Land Manager Zach Dixon deliberated on a land deal for possible water extraction from the Ford City brownfields last night during their monthly special meeting.

by Jonathan Weaver

Ford City Borough Council members have come to a consensus on financial considerations they expect for PennEnergy Resources to extract water from the Allegheny River on the vacant brownfields site.

After more than an hour of discussion and negotiation with PennEnergy Resources Land Manager Zach Dixon and Attorney Nathaniel Parker, the five Borough Council members agreed PennEnergy can utilize up to five acres of the brownfields near the Ford City Veterans Bridge if Ford City is compensated $125,000 every five years (or about $25,000 per year).

Council Vice-President Tyson Klukan clarified that the six-figure compensation is more than double what PennEnergy first offered Ford City a few months ago – in $12,000 per year – and that land usage deals would be made every five years if necessary rather than every 10 years.

“(The public negotiation) was something (Council) thought was transparent, but also you’re putting the facts on the table and the numbers on the table,” Klukan said. “It was a long and healthy conversation.

“This could be good – there hasn’t been anything on that brownfield in over 20 years – so we shall see.”

Ford City Borough Council also agreed PennEnergy should pay more of a signing bonus for the land usage - $15,000 up from the proposed $10,000.

For perspective, $15,000 equates to about half a mill of local real estate taxes.

Council President Carol Fenyes was still concerned what near-constant truck traffic along 2nd or 5th Avenues could mean for homeowners or infrastructure downtown.

Dixon cautioned council members that whether Ford City Borough signed the agreement or not, truck traffic could come via the state highway from another gas well site or municipality.

In Ford City’s counter agreement, PennEnergy would also have to consent to monthly discussions and increased ways to address safety concerns –including fencing and lighting the site and bonding roads.

“(Safety parameters) are agreeable to PennEnergy, largely in-line with our business practices already and we’re happy to accommodate all of those,” Dixon said.

Councilwoman Beth Bowser said she was comfortable negotiating with Dixon as well as with motioning for the agreement to be made.

“It’s just like any project or agreement – you can speculate until the cows come home, but until things get grooving and moving and put together, there are all those unknowns that come up,” Bowser said.

Dixon said any final agreement is based on the opinion on company President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Muse. PennEnergy hoped to begin operations next year.

More information on the proposed agreement will be presented in the upcoming Week-End Edition.

categories Ford City | November 29, 2016

6 Comments

  • By Watchingfromadistance, November 29, 2016 @ 7:27 AM

    Congratulations on finally generating some funds. Twenty five grand isn’t much, but it’s enough to start paying down your debt to the feds. Do you guys really think that if you keep,from looking at it, that it will just magically disappear? Be for real, step up and pay your due.

  • By sickofpayingforit, November 29, 2016 @ 2:37 PM

    Concerned about neighbors and infrastructure? Send out a flyer asking all involved if they would rather have some trucks working in the area or if they would rather pay more taxes to cover the bills? Constantly trying to have everything both ways ends up with never getting anything done…..

  • By jorn jensen, November 29, 2016 @ 6:03 PM

    Watchingfromadistance, I hit the ‘like’ button for your comment.

  • By jorn jensen, November 30, 2016 @ 7:04 AM

    sickofpayingforit, again hit the ‘like’ button. This story about the water trucks getting water from the river is a small version of the story of a few environuts convincing council to not take the million dollar gas lease deal a few years back. At least this time, council took the deal and there’s a few dollars coming in.

  • By ktown_kid, November 30, 2016 @ 7:20 AM

    Here we go complaining about trucks. We need trucks for everything we use in life. Next time you go to the bathroom sickofpayingforit, use your hand. I would hate to see you use toilet paper since a truck drove into ford city and delivered to the store. Residents might claim they felt earthquake like tremors due to the trucks. Unreal

  • By jorn jensen, November 30, 2016 @ 8:20 AM

    ktown_kid, I think you misread sickofpayingforit’s comment. Go back and read it again.

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.