Fracking meeting falls victim to a tie

EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent

HARVEYS LAKE – A motion for a public meeting on an anti-fracking ordinance fizzled, while Internet comments about a budget deficit had some people confused.

A vote Tuesday night to hold a public meeting on an anti-fracking ordinance proposed by the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund ended in a tie.

Council members Boyd Barber, Ryan Doughton and Francis Kopko voted against the meeting, while Rich Williams, Carol Samson and Diane Dwyer voted for it. Council member Larry Radel was not in attendance.

In November, many residents asked council hold a public meeting to openly discuss the fund’s proposal, called the Harveys Lake Community Water Rights and Local Self Government Ordinance.

The proposal would prohibit any corporation from extracting natural gas within the borough.

It would also make it unlawful to use water from any source within the borough for extraction of natural gas.

Borough attorney Charles McCormick afterward said the ordinance was not the only way for the borough to protect itself.

“The borough is not defenseless,” he said. “The borough code is very strong and we are looking at other ways to firm up. Everyone agrees this is an environmentally sensitive area.”

He said the tie vote does not mean the issue is dead. Down the road, he said, residents could ask council to revisit the idea of a public meeting on the ordinance.

In other business, resident Michelle Boice questioned council on a $118,000 deficit comment Radel posted on The Times Leader website in response to Boice’s letter to the editor on Jan. 10.

“The new council ended their first year with a deficit, breaking a 25-year record of a surplus budget,” she said.

Council member Dwyer said she has served for seven years on council and at the end of 2009, the budget was balanced.

Boice stated that in the monthly finance reports no mention of a deficit was made. She questioned council member Samson, who has served the borough as secretary and now on council for about 17 years.

Samson said the borough has always run in the black and has not had to take out a tax anticipation loan in about 16 years.

Boice showed monthly borough minutes showing a surplus. In August 2009, available cash was listed at $476,459.94. In December 2009, total available cash is shown as $393,000.

“When I saw Radel’s comments, I called Diane,” Boice said. “She said the budget was $75,000 over.”

Reached after the meeting, Radel said the $118,000 deficit was reduced to $75,000 after adjustments were made through means such as the mill tax rate.

He said, according to the borough accountant, John Brokenshire, a slowly growing deficit started in 2008.

“It is black and white,” he said. “It is seen yearly, not monthly.”