HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-06-29-PB TOWN OF ULYSSES
PLANNING BOARD
MINUTES
06/29/11
APPROVED 07/13/11
Present : Chairperson-Ken Zeserson, Members- Sarah Adams, Stan Beames , Peter Fry,
Rod Hawkes, John Wertis,
Excused : Rebecca Schneider
Mr. Zeserson called the meeting to order at 6 : OOpm . He stated the first order of business
was the Procedure/Policies as prepared by Mr. Wertis . He stated Ms . Schneider had sent
him a concern regarding restricting the public to speaking for 3 minutes . He asked the
members what other concerns, comments they have.
The members agreed adding a public speaking time limit would be a good idea. They
noted there is a section regarding the public decorum at a meeting, they felt this would be
a good place to add that restriction.
Mr. Wertis stated he is proposing this but does want it noted this would be a work in
progress. They would review and update as necessary.
The members agreed with his statement.
Mr. Hawkes questioned having the meeting without the Chairperson or Vice Chairperson.
Mariette outlined the protocol at her training session; in addition this Board had discussed
this and chose to not have a meeting without one of them present.
Mr. Zeserson stated he appreciated that however he read this as if in the event of an
emergency (e. g. flat tire) the members could conduct business .
Ms . Adams stated she is very concerned with not having the Chairperson or Vice
Chairperson present. They have already experienced this and the Board had decided to
not allow this situation again.
The members discussed and decided to have Mr. Zeserson research the issue with
Mariette .
Mr. Wertis MADE the MOTION, Mr. Zeserson SECONDED the MOTION to approve
and accept the policies/procedures . It would be accepted as a work in progress document.
The votes was taken, ALL IN FAVOR, MOTION APPROVED .
Mr. Zeserson stated they have a Site Plan Review for Bridgid and Stan Beames to open a
Montessori school in the Close Hall Building. He asked them to describe the project.
Mr. Beames stated he would be recusing himself from any actions taken on this project.
Mrs . Beames stated they have purchased Close Hall to open an elementary level
Montessori school They received a Special Use Permit from the Zoning Board of
Appeals. They have to obtain the Planning Board approval to do the renovations .
The families are very supportive of this they already have a full classroom set to start in
September. They would also offer the use of the building for community events such as
voting, yoga classes, etc .
Mr. Zeserson stated the traffic concern had been addressed in the document presented. He
asked the Beames ' where their students come from .
Ms.Beames stated the majority of their students are local, most of the children are bussed
from Trumansburg on one bus, and another from Ithaca.
Planning Board
06/29/ 2011
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f,9YlYl.. .--
Ms . Adams asked if the buses would stop on Route 96 .
Ms . Beames stated they do stop on Route 96 but other students reside on Route 96 and
have regular bus stops . They have had buses turn around to have students dropped off on
the same side of the road as the school.
Ms Adams stated she was at a wedding held at Close Hall . They were sitting outside
when somebody alerted them to a problem. It was the septic system not functioning
correctly.
Ms . Beames stated they are aware and already have a plan to replace/upgrade the septic
system.
Ms . Adams asked why they needed a Special Use Permit.
Ms .Beames stated Close Hall is in a hamlet, schools are not an allowed use, They had to
obtain the Special Use Permit .
Ms . Carlisle Peck stated many residents of Jacksonville came to the Zoning Board
meeting and are very supportive and want this school in Jacksonville. They view this
growth to their community. The Beames ' also intend to maintain the historic aspect of
this building both outside and inside. The residents were very supportive and requested
the Zoning Board approve the Special Use Permit for this plan.
Mr. Fry questioned the permeable pavers, are they using pavers? Also , permeable mesh
vs . gravel is much better.
Ms . Beames stated they want a permeable surface for the parking area. They will be
increasing the parking areas and locate them in the back. They are not using pavers and
prefer the mesh.
Mr. Wertis MADE the MOTION, Mr. Zeserson SECONDED the MOTION
Whereas the Town of Ulysses Planning Board have reviewed the Site Plan Application
for Bridgid and Stanley Beames to open a school at the Close Hall Building in
Jacksonville, NY.
Therefore be it resolved, the Town of Ulysses Planning Board recommend holding a
Public Hearing to gather public comment for the application.
The vote was as follow :
Mr. Beames-- Recused
Mr.Fry —Aye
Mr. Hawkes — Aye
Ms . Schneider-Absent
Mr. Wertis- Aye
Mr. Zererson-Aye
Mr. Zeserson asked the members what date they would like to have the hearing. The
members discussed the upcoming meetings and due to Mr. Beames having to recuse
himself, Mr Fry would not be able to attend the July 6th meeting, and Ms . Schneider' s
family emergency they chose to cancel the July 6 meeting. Mr. Hawkes cannot attend the
July 20th meeting. The members realized the Beames ' are on a limited time schedule to
get renovations done so they can open in September. The members chose to have the
Public Hearing on July 13th at 7 : 00 pm to assure quorum. The Regular July 6t and July
20th meeting will be cancelled .
1
Mr. Zeserson stated they do not have items on their agenda at this point in time. If other
business comes into the zoning office they will revisit the calendar.
Planning Board
i
06 / 29 / 2011 Page 2
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Ms . Carlisle Peck stated they have the minutes from June 8`h and June 15 `h to approve.
Ms . Adams noted a correction on the June 15 `h, she was not present to vote on the
Lakeshore Zoning approval .
Mr. Wertis MADE the MOTION, Mr. Hawkes SECONDED the MOTION to approve
the minutes of 06/ 15/ 11 .
The vote was taken, ALL IN FAVOR, MINUTES APPROVED WITH CORRECTION.
Mr. Wertis asked how they should submit documents with training.
Ms . Carlisle Peck stated if the members should copy information regarding the training.
Leave the copies in her box she will update their records . She has the TC3 and Mariette ' s
training recorded already.
Mr. Wertis and Mr. Hawkes had gone to additional seminars they would like to have
credit for, they will get the information to her.
The meeting was adjourned at 6 : 29 pm .
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Carlisle Peck
Secretary
Planning Board
06/ 29 / 2011 Page 3
1
. I
1
III . 1
2
3 TOWN OF ULYSSES
4 Town Board
5 June 29th , 2011
6
7 PUBLIC HEARING
8
9 RE : Local Law # 2 - Amendment to the
10 Existing Zoning Law of the Town of Ulysses
11
0 12
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18
19 REPORTED BY : ELIZABETH R . BRUCIE , RPR
20
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fir 24
2
1 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Okay . I am going
2 to get started . And then people out in the
3 hall will be coming in . I want to welcome
4 everyone . My name is Roxanne Marino and I
5 am the supervisor of the Town of Ulysses .
6 I am conducting tonight ' s public hearing on
7 behalf of the town board town of Ulysses .
8 SPEAKER : We can ' t hear you .
9 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Again , I ' m
10 Roxanne Marino , I am the supervisor of the
11 town . I am conducting tonight ' s public
® 12 hearing on behalf of the Town Board of the
13 Town of Ulysses .
14 Before we begin I would like to
15 introduce the members of the Town Board ,
16 Kevin Romer , Liz Thomas , David Kerness ,
17 Luca Tyler and our attorney Mariette
18 Geldenhuys .
19 The subject of this public hearing is
20 the proposed local law to amend the Town of
21 Ulysses Zoning Law . Copies of the draft
22 local law containing the amendments are
23 available by the door where you signed in .
24 The date of this public hearing was set by
3
® 1 resolution of the Town Board on June 14 ,
2 2011 . And a notice of this hearing was
3 published in the Ithaca Journal on June 24 ,
4 2011 .
5 To briefly summarize the proposed
6 zoning law amendment . Section 1 of the
7 proposed local law clarifies that extracted
8 industry as defined in the Town of Ulysses
9 zoning law does not include operations
10 extracting natural gas or petroleum .
11 Section 2 of the proposed local law has
12 definitions of natural gas , natural gas
13 and / or petroleum exploration , natural gas
14 and / or petroleum extraction and natural gas
15 and / or petroleum exploration and production
16 wastes to Article 4 , Section 2 of the
17 zoning law . Section 3 of the proposed
18 local law adds provisions to Article 21 of
19 the zoning law to clarify that certain uses
20 related to natural gas and / or petroleum
21 extraction , exploration , storage , treatment
22 and waste disposal are not permitted in any
23 zoning district of the Town of Ulysses .
24 The purpose of this public hearing is
4
110 1 to afford the general public an opportunity
2 to make statements and comments about the
3 proposed amendments to the Town of Ulysses
4 zoning law . This is a public hearing , as
5 required by state law when a town considers
6 adoption of a local law . It is not a
7 question and answer session . At several
8 previous Town Board meetings there have
9 been opportunities for the public to
10 question the board and our attorney
11 regarding the topic of this public hearing .
12 The hearing will remain open until
13 all members of the public who are present
14 at the hearing have been given an
15 opportunity to make statements or comments
16 on the proposed amendments . A stenographic
17 transcript of this hearing is being made
18 and will be available from the town clerk .
19 Comments presented at this hearing
20 will be taken into consideration by the
21 Town Board when it considers action on the
22 proposed local law . The proposed local law
23 is currently on the agenda for action at
411 24 the Town Board meeting on Wednesday ,
5
. 1 August 10th . The meeting will begin at
2 7 : 00 p . m . and it ' s held at the town hall .
3 If any change to this schedule is needed ,
4 it will be discussed and decided on at the
5 July 12 , 2011 Town Board meeting .
6 Written comments submitted prior to
7 this public hearing will be considered by
8 the Town Board . The Town Board will also
9 accept and consider additional written
10 comments received at the town clerk ' s
11 office , Ulysses Town Hall , 10 Elm Street ,
12 no later than 5 : 00 p . m . on Wednesday
13 July 6 , 2011 .
14 There are information sheets in the
15 back of the room on the table near the door
16 on how to submit your comments by e - mail .
17 I request that speakers sign in on the
18 sheet by the door . Those wishing to speak
19 are asked to line up at the microphone ,
20 just over to the side . In order to give
21 everyone ample opportunity to speak , each
22 speaker will be allotted three minutes to
23 make their comments . Speakers will be
24 given a signal when one minute of the time
6
1 remains . And Liz Thomas is going to be
2 doing the timing and there is her
3 one minute sign .
4 And at the end of the three minutes ,
5 you will need to stop speaking so that we
6 can be sure that we can get everyone in .
7 In order to ensure an accurate
8 transcript and to enable all assembled here
9 to hear your remarks clearly , I request
10 that each speaker please state your name
11 and address . If you are appearing as a
® 12 representative of an organization or
13 governmental entity , please identify the
14 organization or entity and state its
15 address . Please speak clearly into the
16 microphone at the podium .
17 Next I need to address some of
18 administrative matters by asking the
19 stenographer to mark the following
20 documents as exhibits to the hearing
21 transcript . The public notice that
22 appeared in the Ithaca Journal on June 24 ,
23 2011 . Affidavit of publication in the
S24 Ithaca Journal and the proposed local law .
7
1 I would now like to ask speakers to
2 line up at the microphone or over towards
3 the microphone in the front of the room .
4 In making your statement , we request that
5 you observe the commonly accepted rules of
6 courtesy and public decorum and respect the
7 rights of others to differ in viewpoint .
8 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Pat Nelson ,
9 I live at 86 Cayuga Street . I have
10 three points , one as I , I read this over , I
11 think it ' s clear I support this .
12 The first thing is there as an
13 engineer , I don ' t think with the fracking ,
14 this is wise because I don ' t think they
15 have control over what they ' re doing in
16 this process yet . As a health care
17 provider which I am also , I am deeply
18 concerned as the unknown health effects ,
19 especially neurological damage due to the
20 chemicals , most of which are unknown at
21 this time . I think the risk is too great .
22 And I guess thirdly , as a taxpayer , I
23 don ' t want to pay for the road maintenance
S24 for these trucks and equipment that are
8
1 going over the roads . If you looked at
2 some of the paving that was done last year ,
3 the macadam is breaking down already . And
4 I can see some heavy equipment . And I just
5 don ' t want to support it . I don ' t want to
6 pay the taxes for it . And that ' s all I
7 have to say .
8 ( APPLAUSE )
9 SPEAKER : I ' m Ken Zeserson , I am
10 planning board chairman but more to the
11 point I am the chairman of Ulysses Gas
12 Drilling Advisory Board . This group was
13 sanctioned by the Town Board 18 months ago
14 to help educate the board and ourselves
15 certainly about hydrofracking and also to
16 stage educational programs for the public
17 so we could understand this monster at the
18 gates .
19 I just want to briefly take the
20 opportunity to recognize the efforts of Mac
21 Don ( phonetic ) , and some others who ,
22 without whom we wouldn ' t be here tonight in
23 this room . I ' m sure there are many other
110 24 people whose names I don ' t know who should
9
S1 be recognized but these are the ones I do
2 know . The OTDAG ( phonetic ) people and
3 others like them spent thousands of unpaid
4 hours going door to door , getting
5 petitions , providing public education ,
6 either individually or in group efforts .
7 And their names should be in this record
8 because it wouldn ' t exist if it weren ' t for
9 them . So I would like to recognize them if
10 I could . Michelle Bamberger and Robert
11 Oswald , Jane Penrose , Ann Furman , Jan
12 Quarles , Michael Dineen , and last but
13 hardly least Judy Abrams . Judy was one of
14 the cofounders of another citizens group ,
15 Concerned Citizens of Ulysses and that was
16 more than three years ago . She was one of
17 the first people who raised their hands and
18 say what ' s about to happen .
19 But the OTDAG group and Concerned
20 Citizens didn ' t do it alone . We were also
21 joined by a grass roots group , Back to
22 Democracy which did a lot of door to door ,
23 a lot of talking and a lot walking on
411 24 behalf of this effort tonight . And finally
10
1 we certainly wouldn ' t be here if it weren ' t
2 for Helen and David Slatski ( phonetic ) , the
3 Community and Environmental Defense Council
4 lawyers who have given this town and this
5 county thousands of hours , and hundreds of
6 thousands of dollars of pro bono legal
7 consultation . They ' re the ones who
8 developed the concept on which I think this
9 law , from which it grew , and that is that
10 while we are presumably not allowed to
11 regulate gas drilling , we can ban it . And
12 that is what this Town Board is going to be
13 doing , it sounds to me on August 10th .
14 So we would like to really thank the
15 Slatskis for just helping us get there ; and
16 of course the people who have to be
17 thanked , the ones up here , are the ones who
18 bore the grunt of all the pestering and all
19 the angst that we have to cause . And of
20 course the Town Board , Roxanne and Mariette
21 and I think we all owe them a great vote of
22 thanks for acting in such a responsible and
23 grave fashion . Thank you very much .
24 ( APPLAUSE )
11
1 SPEAKER : My name is Paul
2 Bartishevich , I live at 7615 Willow Creek
3 Road . I laud you for your efforts , I thank
4 you for your efforts . I run a marketing
5 and media firm in Ithaca called Finger
6 Lakes Productions , and I have been aware of
7 the American Petroleum Institute for a long
8 time . They are what we ' re up against . The
9 API represents about 400 corporations
10 including all of the big oil companies ,
11 Chevron , BP , Phillips , etcetera . They have
411 12 a $ 90 million annual budget . They spend
13 $ 3 . 6 million to lobby our government
14 officials in 2009 . They are the people
15 behind the ads you see on television that
16 say , they begin with the deeper you go , the
17 more good things you learn about oil and
18 gas , and they end with so the next time we
19 discover more oil and gas together
20 underground think of all the good things
21 that it means above ground . They have a
22 huge ad budget and they have a huge
23 lobbying budget .
411 24 And we need to be in touch with not
12
1 only our local officials but also our
2 elected officials in Washington and in New
3 York as well .
4 Just a little bit more about API , a
5 few years ago the federal government ,
6 congress enacted a climate bill , after the
7 house narrowly voted it in , API became
8 active and began holding rallies around the
9 country , many of the people attending the
10 demonstrations were employees of oil
11 companies who worked for the oil companies .
12 I have a New York Times article that I will
13 leave in the back .
14 I would like to end with this . There
15 is a tragic analogy to be made here , I was
16 a news anchor in Syracuse , New York during
17 the 1980s , and I listened to the elected
18 officials there argue for the industry on
19 the banks of Onondaga Lake . Onondaga Lake
20 is a terrible mess now , and in the 1980s ,
21 and before then , it was argued that the
22 jobs were at issue . There are jobs here .
23 Well in 1985 , the companies went bankrupt
® 24 that were on that lake , they ' re gone , the
13
1 lake is dead . It ' s dead . It ' s one of the
2 most polluted lakes in the world . And
3 those jobs are gone .
4 And so I hope these oil companies
5 stay out of here . And continue to deal
6 with good people that are before me . Thank
7 you .
8 ( APPLAUSE )
9 SPEAKER : Good evening . My name is
10 Gwen Wilkinson , I am a resident of Ulysses ,
11 I live on Hinging Post Road and I am also
411 12 the Tompkins County District Attorney .
13 First as a resident of Ulysses , I
14 support the ordinance . I think there are
15 many people here tonight that can speak at
16 least as well as I could and probably
17 better about the horrific forecast for
18 infrastructure , environment , and public
19 safety , public health as - - if we don ' t
20 take steps to ban hydrofracking .
21 But there are other ripple effects
22 too that are , maybe not so much in the
23 public eye and I want to take just a minute
24 to talk about the area that occupies most
14
4 1 of my time which is public safety .
2 We have had some reports to the
3 Public Safety Committee , a subcommittee of
4 the Tompkins County legislature , we have
5 had people come and report on the public
6 safety issues that have arisen in areas
7 that did not act in time to stop
8 hydrofracking . And some of these , and this
9 is probably an incomplete list , include
10 terrible delays in emergency responder time
11 for fire , for police emergency . The 911
12 calls in I believe Bradford County , but
13 don ' t quote me on the county , but the
14 number is right , 911 calls went up by 4 , 000
15 in one year after hydrofracking and
16 drilling started in the area . The level of
17 assaults have spiked dramatically in
18 Bradford County . Property crimes are up ,
19 sexual assaults are up . These are all
20 spin - offs of a big influx of people who
21 come into town for a finite period of time ,
22 who are not invested in the community , who
23 have a lot of money in their pockets on
24 Friday and Saturday night .
15
® 1 I would encourage you if you are
2 curious to talk to any of the restaurant or
3 tavern owners in Bradford County , who have
4 all had horrible difficulties with their
5 business , with property damage , with loss
6 of revenue .
7 I think we all know that
8 hydrofracking poses a terrible risk to our
9 community on many levels and I just wanted
10 to shine a little light on one that hasn ' t
11 been getting so much attention , but which I
® 12 strongly believe will be impacted terribly
13 if hydrofracking goes on . I will be
14 supporting this ordinance . And I thank you
15 all for your efforts .
16 ( APPLAUSE )
17 SPEAKER : My name is Geri Keil , I
18 live on Rabbit Run Road in the Town of
19 Ulysses , I support the proposal .
20 I have a slightly different way to
21 approach it . I know that we all know the
22 facts and so I kind of looked to the past
23 to see how other people have thought about
24 this . And I found this preIndian prophecy
16
410 1 that says ; when all the trees have been cut
2 down , when all the animals have been
3 hunted , when all the waters are polluted ,
4 when all the air is unsafe to breathe , only
5 then will you discover you cannot eat
6 money .
7 What I took from that is when all of
8 the oil has been extracted , when all the
9 gas has been released , when all the waters
10 are contaminated , when all the air carries
11 poisons to our lungs , will we know only
110 12 then that we could have found alternatives ?
13 And this is another ancient Indian
14 proverb ; treat the earth well , it was not
15 given to you by your parents , it was loaned
16 to you by your children . We do not inherit
17 the earth from our ancestors , we borrow it
18 from our children . And so what I get from
19 that is , walk lightly on the ground beneath
20 your feet . It took the ancestors of all
21 the plants and animals around us millions
22 of years to create the gas down below .
23 What ' s the rush ? Shouldn ' t we save some
• 24 for our children and their children and
17
• 1 their children ' s children .
2 And from Uncle Ralph Nader ; the use
3 of solar energy has not been opened up
4 because the oil industry does not own the
5 sun .
6 And from me ; banning gas drilling is
7 only one step in the process of saving our
8 precious homes and landscape . It ' s time to
9 pull the rug out from underneath the gas
10 companies by working towards
11 sustainability , to conserve our use of
® 12 natural resources , to pursue alternative
13 energy sources , and to set an example .
14 And from Mark Twain ; a round man
15 cannot be expected to fit in a square hole
16 right away . He must have time to modify
17 his shape . And I say let ' s get started ,
18 the clock is ticking .
19 ( APPLAUSE )
20 SPEAKER : Hello , my name is Nedra
21 Harvey , I don ' t live here but I have
22 property on Iradell Road and I now live in
23 Rochester and I am in full support of this ,
® 24 and I came here tonight to just say it out
18
1 loud . You know , I don ' t know if you know
2 it , but Rochester does know about this , we
3 are trying to wake them up . And there are
4 a great many of people who are paying
5 attention to this .
6 I thank you all for the e - mails that
7 I get every day , telling me what ' s going on
8 down here . Sometimes it feels like
9 Rochester and Western New York are sort of
10 disconnected from the state , but we are
11 there . I ' m not a scientist , a lawyer or
12 anything , I am a retired teacher . And I
13 just think that part of the problem , there
14 are so many people who don ' t know this , or
15 who won ' t take up a fight , I don ' t know ,
16 are we complacent , are we cynical , are we
17 hopeless , I don ' t know what we are . But I
18 think that this is , banning these , banning
19 this across the many towns that are already
20 taking this up is just a wonderful way to
21 fight it . And I wish you luck and thank
22 you .
23 ( APPLAUSE )
111 24 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Michelle
19
411 1 Bamberger and I live at 1225 Hinging Post
2 Road in the Town of Ulysses . I would like
3 to thank the Ulysses Town Board for
4 studying the impacts that gas drilling has
5 on communities in Pennsylvania and
6 elsewhere , and might possibly have on our
7 town . And for their efforts these past
8 months in drawing up this draft zoning
9 legislation .
10 I would like to make a few comments
11 about the work that Robert Oswald and I
411 12 have been doing for the past seven months .
13 We are documenting the health of animals
14 and their owners living on or adjacent to
15 properties with gas drilling operations in
16 several states around the country . As we
17 continue to collect information , I find
18 that I am surprised by some findings that I
19 would like to share with you tonight .
20 First we found that approximately
21 one - third of all of our cases were
22 associated with the drilling of shallow or
23 deep vertical gas wells . I would like to
® 24 commend the Town Board for studying this
20
411 1 issue and including vertical gas drilling
2 under this zoning legislation .
3 Secondly , we found that severe health
4 effects were not only associated with water
5 contamination , but also with acute and
6 chronic exposure to contaminated air . We
7 have documented several cases where the
8 property owner ' s health has declined to
9 such a degree that their doctors have
10 advised them to leave their homes and live
11 elsewhere for the sake of their health and
411 12 that of their children . These cases also
13 involve water contamination , and in both
14 cases the families must use water buffalos
15 for all of their non drinking water needs
16 and water dispensers for drinking water
17 needs . When the families continue to be
18 ill after they stopped all usage of their
19 water , further medical tests were done and
20 both phenol which is a metabolite of
21 benzene and centeric ( phonetic ) acid which
22 is a metabolite of toluene were found at
23 high levels in their bodies . Their
® 24 symptoms include difficulty breathing ,
21
® 1 severe lethargy , dry hacking coughs with
2 sore burning throats , intense headaches and
3 nose bleeds and a diminished sense of smell
4 and hearing . They do not know if they will
5 over be able to live in their homes again
6 with their animals without being sick .
7 I would like to conclude by strongly
8 encouraging the Town Board to pass this
9 legislation as soon as possible . Thank
10 you .
11 ( APPLAUSE )
® 12 SPEAKER : Good evening . My name is
13 Paul Rice , I live on Krums Corners Road . I
14 have two main concerns about the
15 introduction of hydrofracking into our
16 community . In addition to all the ones
17 that have already been raised .
18 One has to do with the loss of value
19 to property that would almost certainly
20 occur if hydrofracking were permitted .
21 Such loss would result not just from
22 pollution of our water supply but also from
23 the general degradation of the environment ,
411 24 due to truck traffic , consequent damage to
22
411 1 roads , constant industrial noise , noxious
2 odors and toxic fumes ; and something that
3 is very important in our beautiful area ,
4 which attracts so many tourists , the
5 destruction of nature and of our landscape .
6 My question is who would compensate
7 us for such loss ? Who would pay for the
8 water wells that are contaminated by
9 methane and dangerous chemicals ? And who
10 would compensate us for the loss of
11 property value ? So when we find that we
12 are unable to sell our homes because
13 potential buyers will flee from the sight
14 of nearby drilling rigs , who is going to
15 make up the loss to us , anyone ?
16 Not only that , but we now learn that
17 banks may not give mortgages on properties
18 near gas wells . So who will give us
19 compensation , the gas companies ? I would
20 not expect to get even partial inadequate
21 compensation very easily . Will the state
22 cover our losses ? The federal government ?
23 I think it very doubtful . That leaves the
24 Town of Ulysses , that is us , will we cover
23
411 1 the losses to our neighbors who suffer from
2 this ? So I would really like to know who
3 would pay for these such losses , and I hope
4 and I believe that the Town Board is going
5 to think very carefully about this question
6 before they even think of allowing
7 hydrofracking to go forward .
8 A second point I just want to say is
9 that if we allow hydrofracking to come in
10 to our area , there will be no turning back .
11 No way to reverse the clock and undo the
12 consequent damage .
13 So if we adopt it , if we adopt this
14 present resolution , and later decide that
15 it was a mistake , well we can always go
16 back and repeal it . But we cannot undo a
17 ruined water supply and a destroyed
18 environment . So please let ' s pass this
19 resolution and not allow our beautiful area
20 to be destroyed . Thank you .
21 ( APPLAUSE )
22 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Eric Slocum , I
23 live on the Jacksonville Road , 7187
24 Jacksonville Road . I am a fourth
24
411 1 generation citizen of Tompkins County , grew
2 up in Slaterville , I lived in some various
3 places around the nation , and elected to
4 come back here because of the natural
5 beauty that we have here . I am a
6 conservative , I am pro business , I am an
7 outdoors man , I like to hunt .
8 And I have traveled for the last
9 22 years when my mom retired from Cornell
10 down to northern Virginia through
11 Pennsylvania and down Route 13 , 14 and 15 .
12 And I will tell you , candidly , I have seen
13 that area change dramatically . And not for
14 the better . I can ' t speak as one of these ,
15 some of my neighbors about the
16 externalities , but I will touch on just a
17 few . And I also been lucky enough to do a
18 few hunts out in Wyoming where it ' s a
19 beautiful state , in fact there is more
20 antelope in Wyoming than there are people .
21 It ' s beautiful out there . But at certain
22 times the air quality out there around
23 these fracking wells is worse than LA . And
24 I have lived in LA . And that ' s bad .
25
1 With respect to some of these
2 chemicals that some of the others have
3 talked to , I can ' t even say some of those
4 names . But you remember those Cheerios
5 commercials , there is Cheerios has 12
6 essential vitamins and minerals , right .
7 It ' s because it ' s good for you . With the
8 Cheney exemption where they don ' t tell you
9 what ' s in the ground , why don ' t they tell
10 you what ' s in there ? Because it ' s bad for
11 you , we all know that .
12 So , and with respect to what Gwen was
13 saying , I have seen the roughnecks down
14 there , I don ' t want to speak to anything
15 about how somebody makes a living , because
16 you know , I worked for Ithaca Gun , my dad
17 worked for Ithaca Gun , there is not a lot
18 of business here . Basically what this
19 distills down to is we have Cornell , and we
20 have our water . Seen the wine trails grow .
21 If we poison the well now , we will
22 have nothing . And believe me , the
23 downstate people that , from Long Island ,
110 24 Suffolk County and those affluent areas
26
® 1 will not send their kids to Cornell if the
2 well ' s poisoned . You know Cornell can
3 insulate itself a little bit . They own
4 what 45 percent of the county . But it ' s
5 not enough . Once that fracking water seeps
6 in , it ' s , it will permanently poison the
7 well ; and we just can ' t afford the
8 opportunity costs of the unknowns of
9 letting these fracking companies in . They
10 don ' t deal squarely . They are just going
11 to be tough on the roads .
S12 We had an engineer here , Pat could
13 tell you about the coefficient of
14 restitution about the tires on those
15 bridges , but I tell you , I have seen it in
16 Pennsylvania , the roads are torn up . The
17 roughnecks , enjoy the festive atmosphere
18 when they go out and Gwen spoke to that .
19 So I just want to ask the legislature
20 to please not enact , or to not allow the
21 fracking to continue and pass this
22 resolution . Thank you .
23 ( APPLAUSE )
24 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Mitch Clarke , and
27
1 I run the Halsey House Bed and Breakfast on
2 Trumansburg Road , 2057 Trumansburg Road .
3 And another industry for the area is
4 tourism , and it ' s huge . It would devastate
5 the tourism industry , once we ran out of
6 the people coming to see the devastation ,
7 then nobody is going to come .
8 I have the Ithaca Journal ' s Monday ,
9 January 27th issue where the headline was
10 gusher highlights shale potential . And
11 just one line in there is that the
411 12 landowners holding the gas leases , there
13 are fewer than 25 of them in this area that
14 has been devastated , are splitting hundreds
15 of thousands of dollars in monthly
16 royalties . Well aren ' t they the lucky
17 ones . They can move out and get water
18 elsewhere . The other people are stuck with
19 lost profit on their homes , their life has
20 been totally turned upside down and
21 devastated .
22 If we haven ' t learned from all these
23 articles coming out of here from the
24 devastation going on below us , I don ' t , I
28
1 don ' t know what more they could tell us .
2 You know , if we lose this battle , we have
3 lost the through - truck battle on Route 96
4 which is really kind of put a damper on the
5 industry , but if we lose this battle , we ' re
6 done .
7 And I think another part in this
8 article , where it says , one of the gas
9 industry leaders says that it ' s like
10 batting practice , the more you swing the
11 bat , the better you get . Let them swing
12 the bat somewhere else . It ' s not a place
13 for practice . If they come in here , tear
14 up our roads , tear up our ground , ruin our
15 water , totally pollute our area , 24 / 7 , it ' s
16 not going to be a place worth living .
17 I moved here because it was a
18 destination and this is not going to be a
19 destination . Thanks .
20 ( APPLAUSE )
21 SPEAKER : I am Bob Howarth , I live at
22 4124 Reynolds Road . I would like to thank
23 the board , the supervisor and our town
24 attorney for the very careful , cautious
29
1 thorough work they ' ve done ; and I fully
2 support the proposed change in the zoning
3 ordinance .
4 By way of background I am an
5 environmental scientist , I earned an PhD in
6 1970s at MIT , been a tenured faculty member
7 at Cornell since 1985 . I am an expert on
8 environmental risk assessment . I have
9 worked extensively on the environmental
10 consequences of the oil and gas development
11 since the 1970s . I have testified in
12 Federal Court , I have testified before the
13 U . S . Congress on some of these issues for
14 decades .
15 Precautionary principle here says we
16 should go very slow on this process , and do
17 everything we can certainly to keep it out
18 of our town . The development of natural
19 gas from shale is a recent phenomena , the
20 technology was not available 10 or 15 years
21 ago to do it . The scientific evidence on
22 what the consequences are is only now
23 coming into sharp focus and it does not
• 24 look good .
30
1 There was a very thorough paper by a
2 Duke University scientist that came out
3 last month in the Proceedings of Natural
4 Academy of Scientists , it shows if you live
5 in the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and
6 you have gas drilling within one kilometer ,
7 two - thirds of a mile of your home , you have
8 a very very high probability that your well
9 will be contaminated with methane , quite
10 possibly just - - and with that you ' re
11 likely to have toxic radon and benzene
12 coming into your home . So water pollution
13 is a severe issue .
14 The air pollution was mentioned
15 earlier . I think the air quality
16 monitoring in the state of Texas has done
17 in the Barnett shale shows extremely high
18 levels of benzene at times , many other
19 hydrocarbons at levels which are acutely
20 toxic , acutely toxic in Texas .
21 Now Pennsylvania ' s monitoring data
22 are sparser and it ' s newer and they have
23 not yet seen highly acute toxic levels ,
24 below the OSHA occupational levels so far
31
1 but they are at levels , benzene levels in
2 the Pennsylvania monitoring system are high
3 enough to in my opinion pose a significant ,
4 chronic risk of cancer and other diseases ,
5 so precautionary principles says this
6 should not belong anywhere , and certainly
7 not in our town . Thank you .
8 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Pete Angie ,
9 and I live on Swamp College Road and I am a
10 resident of Ulysses . I love it here . I
11 came here on and off about 10 years ago .
12 And I am very very concerned about
13 possibility of fracking coming to this
14 area . And I want to thank the Town Board
15 for giving me the opportunity to speak
16 tonight .
17 I want to voice that any benefit that
18 comes from fracking , monetarily will
19 benefit very few people . But the damage
20 that is associated with this kind of
21 natural gas drilling will affect all of us .
22 And I am very concerned that my children ,
23 speaking for Oden here and my daughter
24 Naomi , will grow up in an environment where
32
1 there are toxins in the air at unsafe
2 levels , levels that are going to seriously
3 damage their health .
4 And I urge you to please pass this
5 legislation . For the sake of everyone in
6 this room , and for the sake of my own
7 children . Please .
8 ( APPLAUSE )
9 SPEAKER : Hello , my name is Bill
10 George , I live at 59 Cayuga Street in the
11 village . And I want to thank everyone who
12 has been involved with all their efforts
13 and time and consideration in doing this .
14 And I worked for nearly 20 years for an
15 industry in Cortland that functioned under
16 the Clean Air and Water and Safe Drinking
17 Water Act . And they did so gladly , and I
18 think for two reasons , one that they are
19 all local people from management on down .
20 And they realized that what happened where
21 they lived happened to them and the other
22 reason is because those regulations were
23 there . And if they weren ' t there , there
24 might not be quite the willingness that was
33
• 1 there , and it ' s just human nature .
2 In the case of this hydrofracturing ,
3 on those two conditions , one the people are
4 not by and large local , they are outside
5 firms who don ' t have that investment in our
6 community , and don ' t need to care . And the
7 other thing is they don ' t have the
8 regulations , they are exempted from the
9 Clean Air , Clean Water and Safe Drinking
10 Water Acts . And so they just don ' t have
11 the incentive . There is not the big
® 12 federal hammer basically to keep them on
13 track .
14 Since the local board cannot legally
15 regulate , then I also support this
16 amendment to just eliminate it , since there
17 is no other regulation option .
18 And also as an engineer , I know that
19 they don ' t have it under control . And you
20 can see it , common sense . But it is not
21 all the things that we have to do in this
22 industry just to monitor and keep track of
23 their process . Thank you again for your
24 effort .
34
1 ( APPLAUSE )
2 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Chris Tate .
3 And I represent the Finger Lakes Clean
4 Waters Initiative ; and in cooperation with
5 Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival we begun
6 to do awareness concerts and events
7 throughout New York , Binghamton and
8 Syracuse , and we are going to continue to
9 do these sorts of musical concerts and
10 educational events in opposition to
11 vertical and horizontal hydrofracking .
12 We ' re defending New York ' s waters at
13 large against unsafe gas drilling . And I
14 think I can speak for the entire musical
15 community of this region , and would thank
16 you in advance for banning horizontal and
17 vertical hydrofracking in the town of
18 Ulysses . And I would actually - - we ' re
19 looking for a house , and I will move here .
20 Ban hydrofracking . Thank you .
21 ( APPLAUSE )
22 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Elijah
23 deCastro and I live in Trumansburg . I want
24 you to make sure that hydrofracking trucks
35
411 1 don ' t come into our village . I also want
2 Governor Cuomo to ban fracking in the whole
3 state . Here ' s a letter I sent him today .
4 Dear Governor Cuomo : I am an
5 ordinary fifth grader in Trumansburg , New
6 York . My mother says if that they do
7 horizontal hydrofracturing anywhere in New
8 York , we will have to move to a totally
9 different state . I have lived in New York
10 all my life . I am almost 10 . I have grown
11 comfortable in New York and it will be a
12 nightmare to move into a totally different
13 state . I would really miss all of my
14 friends and my school .
15 Please read this true list about
16 fracking . 1 : They say it ' s safe ; but they
17 have done many bad things in Pennsylvania .
18 2 : Their trucks make the roads impossible
19 for kids to ride bikes . 3 : They give kids
20 asthma or even kill them . 4 : They make
21 the place smoggy . I have sensitive lungs .
22 They are very powerful . Very truly yours ,
23 Elijah deCastro .
411 24 ( APPLAUSE )
36
111 1 SPEAKER : Elijah and I both live at
2 14 Bradley Street . In addition to being
3 his mother , I am also biologist , I spent
4 the last 20 years studying environmental
5 health . I have written three books on the
6 topic . My most recent book actually
7 includes the health effects created by
8 hydrofracking . I didn ' t intend it to cover
9 that , but in the middle of research and
10 writing the book , here we are .
11 And as far as I can see ,
12 hydrofracking is the biggest threat to
13 public health that I have ever encountered
14 in 20 years of looking at various
15 environmental health risks . It ' s big
16 because it affects us through all three
17 environmental media , air , water and food .
18 And because it ' s coming to a very densely
19 populated area . And because the damage
20 once done is irremediable , so it affects
21 not just us but future generations from
22 here until forever .
23 I was asked most recently to provide
24 testimony in the State Assembly which held
37
1 hearings on the environmental health
2 effects of fracking and I would like just
3 to share with you two of the things that I
4 talked about :
5 One was air quality . And we know
6 actually quite a lot about the air quality
7 issues from hydrofracking in contrast to
8 the guesswork we do about the risks which
9 are real to water . But what will happen to
10 our air is a certainty , not as a result of
11 catastrophic accident .
411 12 We know , we can model this , we know
13 based on the 96 , 000 wells that are imagined
14 here , each well requires a thousand truck
15 trips , and each one of those wells requires
16 generators , pumps , drill rigs , condensers
17 and compressors , they all run on diesel .
18 At the same time the well heads themselves
19 vent volatile organic chemicals such as
20 benzene and toluene , these are themselves
21 highly toxic and they combine with the
22 diesel byproducts to create smog . And that
23 kind of air pollution is actually lethal .
24 It ' s not just an irritant . It contains
38
1 large amounts of ultrafine particles , soot ,
2 ozone and the carcinogen benzopyrene - -
3 lead to bladder , lung and breast cancer ,
4 stroke , diabetes and premature death . In
5 children they are linked to preterm birth
6 as a cognitive deficits and stunt lung
7 development .
8 Since I gave that testimony , new
9 research has emerged from Europe showing
10 that even very vanishly small brief
11 exposures to congested roadways and diesel
• 12 exhaust can create a very real risk for
13 heart attack . So that would mean large
14 fleets of trucks moving through our area ,
15 even briefly can create very real health
16 effects for all of us who live here .
17 Lastly , I presented the legislature
18 in Albany with a loaf of bread from Wide
19 Awake Bakery and I pointed out that this
20 loaf of bread contains flour grown right
21 here in Tompkins County , and it ' s heirloom
22 wheat , and organic wheat field , it ' s milled
23 right here in Trumansburg . The mill would
411 24 like to hire . The farmers would like to
39
® 1 expand , but they ' re surrounded by gas
2 leases and no one wants to expand this
3 business until they know what ' s the way
4 forward . So if we ' re talking about job
5 creation , this is the way of the future .
6 Not permanent extraction of fossil fuels .
7 ( APPLAUSE )
8 SPEAKER : I gave this loaf of bread
9 to the legislators and they paused for a
10 moment , they reminded me they were not
11 allowed to accept gifts as though I were
® 12 bribing them . I said no actually this
13 comes from the farmer Stephan who offers it
14 as testimony . These , the bread are his
15 words . And they accepted it .
16 ( APPLAUSE )
17 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Excuse me . You
18 just need to state your name for the
19 record , Sandra . Can you state your name
20 for the record .
21 SPEAKER : My name is Sandra
22 Steingraber and I live at 14 Bradley Street
23 here in Trumansburg .
411 24 ( APPLAUSE )
40
® 1 SPEAKER : Good evening , my name is
2 Don Smith . I live at 1329 Taughannock
3 Boulevard and I am also the President of
4 the West Shore Homeowners Association .
5 This is an organization that represents the
6 homeowners , approximately 250 homes from
7 Cass Park to Taughannock Falls .
8 The West Shore Homeowner ' s
9 Association is very very supportive of the
10 proposed zoning . Gas drilling similar to
11 what has created terrible problems in
410 12 Pennsylvania that we have heard this
13 evening would be a major threat to our
14 lake , our drinking water , our roads , our
15 health and our way of life . These recent
16 studies have shown hydrofracking also
17 lowers property values , hydrofracking also
18 threatens the entire structure , the
19 economic structure of our community , of the
20 revenue and your ability to provide
21 services to the community .
22 We strongly urge you to quickly pass
23 this zoning as soon as possible .
410 24 On a personal note , I ' m a boater , I
41
4 1 really love to boat . If you have never had
2 the experience to sit on a sail boat , on a
3 power boat , on a fishing boat , on a canoe ,
4 on a kayak in the middle of Cayuga Lake , it
5 is an awesome experience . It is just an
6 extraordinary experience . I live on the
7 lake . We drink the water from the lake .
8 We saw a beaver yesterday . Please don ' t
9 screw this up . This is an extraordinarily
10 special resource . If we don ' t have Cayuga
11 Lake , 40 miles long , average one mile wide ,
410 12 very commonly two , three , four hundred feet
13 deep , this is an extraordinary resource .
14 Don ' t screw it up . Thank you so much for
15 your effort .
16 ( APPLAUSE )
17 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Amelia
18 Stevens , and I live at 89 East Main Street
19 in Trumansburg . And I am opposed to
20 fracking . There are so many reasons why .
21 There is so little fresh water in the
22 entire world . And we ' re sitting right next
23 to a very large body of fresh water that
410 24 people can still drink .
42
® 1 My concerns mostly are about the
2 water , because I don ' t know enough about
3 the rest . And because hydrofracking is so
4 new , I understand that it is not regulated
5 the way other fossil fuel extraction
6 methods are regulated . The rules came in
7 to effect before hydrofracking happened .
8 And therefore there is less regulation to
9 protect us .
10 Also , I don ' t know if this is still
11 true , but for the longest time , the
12 industry was not required to tell us what
13 was in the fluid that they mix with the
14 water that they use for hydrofracking .
15 Also they extract that water and then they
16 have to get rid of it . And they do not
17 have to tell us where that is gotten rid
18 of . It ' s in Pennsylvania , they sometimes
19 bring it to water treatment systems , town
20 water , municipal water treatment systems .
21 And the water treatment systems rely on
22 microbial , beneficial microbial growth in
23 order to treat the water and clean it . And
24 the fluids apparently have an antimicrobial
43
1 effect . And therefore they are working
2 against what the water treatment plants are
3 trying to do . And as we know , many water
4 treatment plants are decades and decades
5 old . And they ' re not , they haven ' t even
6 been upgraded to today ' s standards . And
7 they are going to be challenged by this
8 water that we don ' t even know what ' s in it .
9 So , I guess that ' s my statement . Thank
10 you .
11 ( APPLAUSE )
12 SPEAKER : I ' m Matthew Beltonen , 3336
13 Podunk Road . I ' m with the board and don ' t
14 think fracking is good either .
15 ( APPLAUSE )
16 SPEAKER : My name is Robert Oswald , I
17 live at 1225 Hinging Post Road and I agree
18 with the last speaker . I am a professor of
19 pharmacology at Cornell , and I do research
20 on proteins and toxins and nervous systems
21 in terms of pharmacology and biophysics ;
22 but I have had to learn a lot about
23 politics , engineering and law in trying to
24 understand this process .
44
411 1 I ' m also a member of the Ulysses Gas
2 Advisory - - Gas Drilling Advisory Board to
3 the Concerned Citizens of Ulysses . And one
4 of things we ' ve done is to survey about a
5 third of the Town of Ulysses . And from
6 that we found that about 85 percent of the
7 population is in favor of a ban on
8 hydrofracking .
9 But what ' s really important is the
10 statistical analysis that Michael Dineen
11 has done of that , and demographics tell us
12 that it cuts across all political parties ,
13 all two sexes , age , etcetera . So it ' s not
14 an issue that ' s liberals , conservatives ,
15 democrats , republicans .
16 I think the town is united in support
17 of this resolution . So okay so why is that
18 true ? Well , we can look across the border
19 at Pennsylvania , they have about 60 , 000
20 wells in Pennsylvania , about 3 , 000 of those
21 are Marcellus wells . Okay . Despite the
22 fact that there are actually only about 680
23 horizontal wells in Pennsylvania , but if we
• 24 look at a place like Washington County ,
45
® 1 there have been enormous impacts , Michelle
2 Bamberger talked about the health impacts ,
3 in that region of Pennsylvania . If you
4 talk to the farmers down there you find
5 that about 80 percent of those that have
6 gas drilling on their land regret it . They
7 regret it because of the impacts on their
8 water , and the way they are treated by the
9 people that have come on their land . The
10 lack of respect that they are given .
11 Okay . So actually when you look at
12 Pennsylvania , it has a fairly small amount
13 of drilling compared to what they will have
14 if they take this to completion . You only
15 have to look at Google maps , encourage you
16 to go to Silk , Colorado and look at the
17 topology on Google maps . If you look
18 around , you will be amazed at the
19 distribution of wells . Every square mile
20 you will find either some wells or some
21 wells and a frack bed . It ' s devastating .
22 Same thing if you go to some areas of Fort
23 Worth .
24 So what do these states get out of
46
410 1 this ? If we look around at the states
2 around us , look at Pennsylvania , Ohio , and
3 New Jersey , I ' m sorry not New Jersey , West
4 Virginia . They have higher unemployment
5 than New York does . If we look at Texas ,
6 the great drilling state , they have the
7 second highest deficit in the country , much
8 higher , both in numbers and percent than
9 New York . That ' s all I have to say . Thank
10 you , Liz .
11 ( APPLAUSE )
411 12 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Before you start ,
13 I just want to remind anyone , that if you
14 didn ' t finish what you wanted to say
15 because you ran out of time , you are
16 welcome to submit more details in writing
17 up through July 6th . Thank you .
18 SPEAKER : Hello . My name is Nancy
19 Young , I live at 59 Cayuga Street ,
20 Trumansburg . You know , I thought , a lot of
21 people have said things that I thought I
22 might say , and especially the last speaker .
23 One thing that I would like to
I24 comment on that I don ' t think I have heard
47
111 1 in here before , is in areas where there is
2 fracking , there is no way for people to
3 calm down , ever . The fear that ' s in those
4 areas , fear of disablement for themselves ,
5 fear for their children , fear for their
6 properties , but fear fear fear fear , and no
7 place to escape from the noise , from the
8 pollution , from the sound , from the water .
9 No place to go and just chill out . Where
10 we have that here . I can go and sit in my
11 backyard and just listen to birds . And I
12 can look at trees .
13 And I urge you all to please pass
14 this ban on fracking because I want a place
15 to chill out . And I want everybody in here
16 to have that place to chill out . Not
17 necessarily in my backyard though . But ,
18 you know the other thing that I would like
19 to ask everybody in the room here , is
20 please , perhaps you are unaware , Governor
21 Cuomo has pushed the Department of
22 Environmental Conservation to hurry up
23 their statement , then he wants it by
110 24 Friday .
48
1 So I would say to everybody in this
2 room , please think about going home , get on
3 your computer , get on your telephone , call
4 your legislators , call Governor Cuomo and
5 tell them no , not from New York State . Not
6 here , not in New York State . Please . Keep
7 us healthy . Thank you .
8 ( APPLAUSE )
9 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is Jesse
10 deCastro , I ' m well represented actually by
11 the rest of my family here , 14 Bradley
12 Street . But I feel moved to talk in any
13 case . I ' m an educator , I drive into Ithaca
14 each day on 96B ; and over the course of the
15 years since I talked to the EPA on - - in
16 September . No . It was September . I have
17 observed the number of trucks on the road ,
18 and it ' s incredible . I would just , from
19 observation , simple common sense
20 observation , I have noticed coming and
21 going at least 10 to 20 very large trucks ,
22 and I think that ' s a conservative judgment ,
23 on the roads , and if you go out and look at
24 them , you know they are not ones we have
49
1 seen in our area before . And many of them
2 are heading up to dump , we know about it ,
3 in Seneca and I think the other end of
4 Cayuga Lake , I forgot , is it Auburn . And
5 you can take notes , I mean some of them
6 are , have a sort of triangular bottom and
7 they are - - again the size and scale , is
8 way different than a regular construction
9 truck . Unless they ' re doing really heavy
10 building at Cornell or Ithaca College .
11 There are also the very very large gas
12 trucks , and they will say natural gas on
13 the side . Or the large trucks that are
14 carrying whatever fluid , I mean they might
15 as well put whatever fluid on the side of
16 the truck .
17 Thank you . And so , I would like to
18 return to that statement about public
19 safety , and we would like to cross the
20 street here , we like the idea that we have
21 vehicles that respect our boundaries . And
22 not only would that be in danger physically
23 by these diesel emitting vehicles , but it
24 would also be endangered by what they ' re
50
1 carrying . If not right then , then wherever
2 it ' s dumped . Thank you .
3 ( APPLAUSE )
4 SPEAKER : I am Clare Fentrell and I
5 own a cottage on the lake , on Taughannock
6 Boulevard in Town of Ulysses , and I love it
7 there . I came to this area about 30 years
8 ago , and I have lived here ever since and I
9 think it ' s the most beautiful area that I
10 have ever lived in and I hope it ' s going to
11 continue that way .
12 I came here very worried about this
13 open session . And it ' s been an enormous
14 relief . I was going to keep the tallies of
15 the fors and against , haven ' t had any
16 against yet , unless they are standing
17 behind me .
18 So I feel you are a very brave board
19 not to pass this resolution . So I think - -
20 when I first heard about this fracking , and
21 gas drilling , people being honest , I
22 thought oh this sounds interesting , maybe
23 this is away to go . Fortunately nobody
110 24 ever , actually asked me to sign a lease , in
51
1 the property I live in in Danby . Many of
2 the people I know that did sign leases are
3 living to regret it .
4 So , I think that we can ' t rest here ,
5 even if you do pass this , which I hope you
6 will ; but I would really encourage my
7 neighbors and friends in the town of
8 Ulysses to encourage areas like Danby and
9 other areas of this county to also enact
10 such battles and to help them do such a
11 fantastic job as Ulysses has done . Thank
12 you .
13 ( APPLAUSE )
14 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is John Coggin ,
15 I live at 1113 Glenwood Heights Road ,
16 Ulysses . About a dozen years ago I kind of
17 realized a life long dream and to my wife ' s
18 regret it was a lot of blood , sweat and
19 tears have been had . But to get a piece of
20 land , grow some fruit trees and grow a
21 vegetable garden . And I have had the
22 lifelong fulfillment of actually making a
23 place better than when I came , and healing
411 24 the wounds . And driving up to this meeting
52
1 tonight , I kind of meandered through the
2 back roads . I leave early because I don ' t
3 know when I ' m going to get here . I ' m
4 really relieved that no deer came out in
5 front of me , because I was just in awe by
6 the sky , by the fields and by homes with
7 vegetable gardens and people living in just
8 a beautiful beautiful environment .
9 Years ago , before the information
10 came out on hydrofracking , I got a call , a
11 very nice gentleman asking me about a
12 lease , and I told him I was not interested .
13 Didn ' t need it , didn ' t want it . I didn ' t
14 want any interference with the land . I
15 thought that was , the land and nature , and
16 all the creatures and plants that live
17 there was my concern . My neighbors , and
18 actually all around me did sign leases and
19 I didn ' t really have any animosity or
20 problem with people who wanted or needed
21 money .
22 And but I did attend as a concerned
23 citizen when they had a couple years ago at
410 24 the State Theatre , the New York State
53
® 1 Environmental Protection Agency and the
2 Department of Conservation , came there as a
3 listening thing . I listened and there were
4 a hundred speakers and I had the
5 opportunity to do the same , who spoke the
6 issue , very informative . People from
7 academia , people from the industry , people
8 from the Southern Tiers who experienced
9 some of the effects of it . And you know ,
10 it was really an eye opener .
11 I was concerned about what was
12 underground , the water , without water there
13 is not life . And that was a serious
14 concern . And I was thinking well , would
15 you be safe before it was done , I was not
16 aware of the affect on the surface .
17 And thanks to people who have come
18 and talked , including some wonderful people
19 on their own , have come up from where they
20 do have that hydrofracking and telling the
21 effects down in Pennsylvania . You know I
22 appreciate the work , and time and effort
23 you have done to help and hope to prevent
24 that , and people have put a lot of work in .
54
110 1 The gentleman who was stating about that
2 big mountain or double mountain of garbage
3 in Seneca County , there are trucks that go
4 through and they go right through State
5 Street , the people , you know tried to do
6 something about it , all hours of the days ,
7 multiply that by a thousand or thousands ,
8 and you will have the trucks , heavy trucks ,
9 and the traffic and hazards that will be if
10 that ' s accepted in this area .
11 So thank you for putting the
410 12 legislation , we hopefully prayerfully
13 prevent that from coming to our town and
14 hope that gets out the word . Thank you .
15 ( APPLAUSE )
16 SPEAKER : Good evening , my name is
17 Martin Hill , I live on Route 228 , just
18 outside Ulysses county in the metropolitan
19 area of Perry City . I guess like my fellow
20 Brit , obviously we share similar interests .
21 One of the points I wanted to raise
22 was that I am just amazed how much
23 foresight you guys have in taking this
24 action . But I kind of fear - - one , I ' m a
55
® 1 little concerned that there are no voices
2 here tonight who are against this
3 resolution . Because it kind of suggests
4 that there are people in this community who
5 are not being represented here , and perhaps
6 don ' t feel like this is a forum for them
7 to speak their views .
8 And the first thing is what ' s going
9 to go on in other counties around this
10 area ? You still may have the trucks , you
11 still may have the pollution . And you
® 12 definitely , I urge you to carry this beyond
13 the boundaries of Ulysses , to educate and
14 inform other counties , other areas of
15 what ' s coming , of what they are going to
16 get . Because if it ' s simply Ulysses is the
17 only place that has the foresight to deal
18 with this , you are going to be affected
19 just as much as the people who accept it .
20 And I urge you as part of this to
21 carry on making provision to deal with the
22 additional truck problems that you ' re
23 likely to face if other areas do accept
24 this .
56
I1 On another point , the gentleman here
2 mentioned about a nice gentleman who came
3 to see him about a lease . Well we went to
4 a meeting in Brooktondale where we listened
5 to a couple of ladies from Pennsylvania who
6 described what ' s actually happened as a
7 result of doing business with these nice
8 gentlemen . They ' re liars . If you don ' t
9 get it in writing , they will not honor
10 anything they have told you . So for those
11 people who have taken leases , I know
12 someone who has taken a lease in Schuyler
13 County , he didn ' t read it , he didn ' t take
14 it to a lawyer , and he read it afterwards
15 beginning to get concerned . And found that
16 he had given them his water rights . These
17 are the people that you are dealing with .
18 We heard about how much money they have .
19 They will do whatever it takes , don ' t kid
20 yourselves .
21 Most of the people , we heard someone
22 else talk about the fact that some people
23 getting rich , very few . They will make
24 sure that the number of people who make
57
• 1 money out of this is very limited .
2 One very final point , in terms of
3 energy , independence for the United States ,
4 the people who are buying into these
5 investments are mainly in Hong Kong and
6 Norway . This money is not going to the
7 United States . Thank you . Thank you for
8 your efforts .
9 ( APPLAUSE )
10 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Jackie Merwin and
11 I live in the village on Washington Street .
411 12 And I was just sitting back there , I was
13 not going to talk . And I was just sitting
14 there thinking , what are we doing here ?
15 Why are we here ? This isn ' t something that
16 a Town Board should have to deal with .
17 This is something that the state should be
18 protecting us on . But the state will not
19 protect us .
20 ( APPLAUSE )
21 SPEAKER : We want to send a great big
22 huge thank you to the Town Board for taking
23 this on , and for carrying it through . And
410 24 I hope that you will find it feasible to
58
1 pass this legislation . And I , as the other
2 gentleman just said , I urge everybody to
3 try to put pressure on legislators in a
4 much larger context . Thank you .
5 ( APPLAUSE )
6 SPEAKER : Hi , my name is John Gunder
7 Wertis , I live at 4074 South Street
8 Extension here in Trumansburg . I would
9 like to thank our Town Board members for
10 considering the currently proposed zoning
11 law amendment that reinforces and clarifies
12 our community ' s commitment to ban gas
13 drilling from our town . I strongly support
14 this amendment . I ' m opposed to natural gas
15 drilling in our area for many reasons .
16 On a basic level , I ' m concerned about
17 the health of our water , air and soil . I ' m
18 concerned about the welfare of our region ' s
19 existing economy , and quite frankly I do
20 not want my family to live in the middle of
21 what would surely be an industrial zone .
22 It is unbelievable to me that there could
23 be anyone who would be willing to defile
24 their ownness in such a way .
59
1 On a more philosophical level , it has
2 become more apparent to me that the energy
3 industries are willing to take increasingly
4 greater environmental - - coal , oil and
5 natural gas . It ' s also quite apparent to
6 me that as long as there is a readily
7 available supply of fossil fuel , we will
8 continue to be addicted to it .
9 I believe that it is time for us to
10 radically alter the way we acquire and use
11 energy . For me , this means we must embrace
411 12 renewable energy and energy conservation .
13 This move to a more sustainable energy
14 future will not happen without the
15 direction and support from our governments .
16 A ban on natural gas drilling in the town
17 of Ulysses will be an important step
18 towards moving us all in this new era .
19 Thank you .
20 ( APPLAUSE )
21 SPEAKER : Hello , my name is Gerga
22 Bor , I live at 7580 Willow Creek Road in
23 Ulysses . And I was going to prepare
24 something really good , and really
60
1 scientific and do a lot of research , and
2 document it , because I have heard many
3 programs , particularly a breakdown of the
4 toxic soup that they want to pump into our
5 soil and our bedrock . And I - - AS an
6 analysis , individual chemicals in that
7 toxic soup that lead to this cancer and
8 that cancer and we do get a good sample of
9 that already . And I ' m not a scientist .
10 But I have a runoff well , we made two
11 attempts to drill a deep spring water well ,
411 12 it ' s not happening on my property . But
13 there is an abundance of runoff . And my
14 sistern is no deeper than six feet below
15 ground and if anything spilled into the
16 water , my house would be finished , my
17 property would be finished , and my , yeah ,
18 and we have to leave , it would become
19 valueless , my house would become valueless .
20 And this is a real fright . Because uphill ,
21 I live on the - - well I live on a slope ,
22 and things run downhill as we know . And
23 it ' s worrisome enough when I see the
24 sprayer , the farmer up the hill spraying
61
1 his corn with pesticides and I wonder ,
2 hmmm , I wonder how much of that is going
3 into my water . But it is going to be worse
4 when this cocktail goes into our ground .
5 There is a lot of private property all the
6 way up to Jacksonville Road above me , of
7 vacant property , and the sonogram people
8 were there , you know , a couple years ago
9 checking out our whole area , this whole
10 piece of Ulysses by where I live . And so
11 my real concern is water , and that , you
12 hear further about the air and the air
13 pollution , and that even goes , you know
14 beyond that . Because we can live maybe a
15 few days without water , but we can ' t live
16 very long without air .
17 And I mean there is really two words
18 that I want to leave this group with , and
19 if you don ' t know about it , you need to
20 find out about it . And that ' s Dish , Texas .
21 ( APPLAUSE )
22 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Cathy Bair , I live
23 at 6010 Cold Springs Road . I ' m up by the
24 old chicken barns . And I personally , you
62
® 1 know , I ' m a teacher at the elementary
2 school , I love my job , I love the area . I
3 don ' t have a lot of money . But I have
4 enough to live in a little house with clean
5 water , my little well , and my clean air ,
6 and you know , I don ' t need tens of
7 thousands of dollars to be happy . You know
8 I guess maybe , I can understand that some
9 people maybe need some money to pay the
10 taxes on their farms , I do get that . But
11 this whole idea of all this so - called money
12 and jobs that are supposed to come into our
13 area , I just , I just , you know , just
14 doesn ' t ring true . You know talking about
15 all the health issues that everybody ' s
16 talked about . I won ' t go over those again .
17 But I am sitting there at Cold Springs Road
18 now watching the Willy ' s water truck coming
19 up . You know several times a day , and
20 tapping on to the end of the Ithaca water
21 line is right there across from Babcock ' s
22 driveway , filling that thing up . And I ' m
23 thinking to myself , you know , that could
24 just as easily be those trucks that need so
63
1 much water , they need so much water for
2 each one of these wells . They are just
3 going to be coming up and down Cold Springs
4 Road all the time getting those , you know ,
5 getting those tanks filled with water . I
6 mean Willy is there all the time and he is
7 just filling up swimming pools , you know .
8 And that road isn ' t going to take very much
9 before it ' s all crunched up into nothing .
10 And so , everybody this so - called
11 money , and jobs that we ' re supposed to be
12 getting , I just don ' t see it . I just , you
13 know , running the numbers , and looking at
14 it . I just don ' t see where it is going to
15 do anything except end up costing us ,
16 again , not talking about even the health
17 and the air and the environment which is
18 huge , but just the plain ole dollars of
19 it ' s going to cost us a lot to - - what are
20 they going to pay us then to fix the roads ?
21 I don ' t think so .
22 You know , and if , what the article in
23 the New York Times talked about , that this
S24 is nothing more than a big Ponzi scheme ,
64
® 1 you know these little companies selling to
2 go bankrupt . Then we are going to go get
3 some money from them to go fix all this
4 stuff they are giving us . I don ' t think
5 so . I just , I don ' t want it . And I
6 support you in what you are doing . And I
7 think we just have to fight it . That ' s all
8 we have to do . Thank you .
9 ( APPLAUSE )
10 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Krys Cail , I live
11 at 3110 Dubois Road in the Town of Ulysses ,
12 and we have 24 acres of land there . And
13 said no when the landmen came around , one
14 of the few in our neighborhood .
15 But I wanted to actually address you ,
16 carrying on from the last speaker , in my
17 role as the chair of the gas drilling
18 subcommittee , the policy committee of NOFA
19 New York , which is the Northeast Organic
20 Farming Association of New York State .
21 We ' ve taken policy positions on gas
22 drilling for the past two years , we have a
23 tremendous amount of concern for the health
24 of the organic industry . It is currently
65
® 1 the largest segment - - excuse me . Let me
2 phrase that . The fastest growing segment
3 of agriculture in our state . And it is
4 among the largest of the farmers in
5 Ulysses . We have a large number of farms
6 that are certified organic here in Ulysses .
7 We have genuine concerns about the
8 marketability of our product , we have
9 already seen major buyers , and of course we
10 have a large distributor , regional access
11 of organic fields within our boundaries as
12 well have been helped out by the economic
13 development folks who see it as a growth
14 industry in our region , as well as in our
15 country . These are the industries that our
16 comprehensive plan says that we ' re
17 interested in promoting .
18 And I am here to tell you , that at
19 least the organic segment of agriculture in
20 New York State is extremely concerned about
21 the effects on the industry of gas
22 drilling . Both from the point of view that
23 there may be issues and problems that would
24 directly affect their certification . I sat
66
1 on the management committee of the
2 certification component of NOFA New York
3 for four years , we get audited regularly ,
4 we ' re required now to actually do residue
5 testing . And if our organic farmers find
6 residues in their product , they can lose
7 their organic certification , which is , you
8 know , a death blow to their business .
9 In addition to that , we also have
10 issues of customer acceptance . We have
11 already found that many of the larger
411 12 buyers in the New York City area are
13 essentially issuing ultimatums saying that
14 they are intending to source from outside
15 the Marcellus shale area if gas drilling is
16 allowed within this area .
17 So we have an interest in keeping the
18 businesses that we have here in town
19 healthy and I applaud you for doing that .
20 Thank you .
21 ( APPLAUSE )
22 SPEAKER : Hello , my name is Stephen
23 Penningroth , I live at 2080 Cayuga View
® 24 Road and I would like to thank the Town
67
1 Board for taking this action .
2 Just one thought I would like to
3 share that occurred to me while I was
4 listening to other speakers and that is
5 that I think of the issue of hydrofracking
6 represents a failure of government . It ' s a
7 failure of government on a state level , a
8 failure of government on the federal level .
9 Fortunately we have local government that
10 is not failing us . Okay .
11 ( APPLAUSE )
410 12 SPEAKER : And I would like to note
13 that according to things I read on the
14 Internet , I hope it ' s true , hydrofracking
15 has been banned in Australia , South Africa
16 and France , and Germany ' s considering a
17 ban . So there are places that are looking
18 at the risks , or rather the lack of
19 knowledge about the risks , and taking
20 decisive action . And I hope that this kind
21 of concern reaches the state level and the
22 federal level soon . Thank you .
23 ( APPLAUSE )
24 SPEAKER : Thank you very much for the
68
1 opportunity to participate in the
2 democratic process and thank you all very
3 much for being here tonight . I just have a
4 short statement that I would like to say .
5 If God is with us here tonight , and I
6 happen to believe that God is , then what we
7 are doing here now may be the single most
8 courageous act of this century . I know it
9 sounds a little grandiose , but , wide scale
10 corporate takeover of a people ' s land , air
11 and water for profit unencumbered by laws
12 we must obey is criminal . To poison entire
13 watersheds , create huge blocks of landscape
14 that spew forth carcinogens like plagued by
15 our neighbors in Pennsylvania is poisoning
16 us right now .
17 Likewise , our surface land and water ,
18 aquifers , some still unmapped in Tompkins
19 County and forests , wildlife habitat and
20 life support system for our vibrant
21 agriculture is in serious jeopardy . All of
22 these threats to our homeland is a form of
23 corporate tyranny .
24 Like our ancestors , this is a call to
69
411 1 action , to revolt against this toxic
2 tyranny . As a township , and the vanguard
3 of this revolt , I think we should advertise
4 our stand with signs at our borders ,
5 warning away the forces that may be
6 unleashed by our public servants in Albany
7 in this wave of lawless corporatism .
8 We have stood up to it if we do what
9 is right here tonight . We are all heroes
10 here , beginning our peaceful fight , not
11 with weapons of violence as our foes have ,
12 but with love . Love for our children , love
13 for our fellow Ulyssians , love for our
14 natural communities that give us life and
15 most important , love for our perceived
16 enemies whose misguided scillitic concept
17 of progress has inspired us to create this
18 new revolution . Viva la revolution .
19 SUPERVISOR MARINO : His name is Dan
20 Burgevin . We need your name .
21 SPEAKER : My name is Daniel Burgevin ,
22 8 McLallen Street in Trumansburg , New York .
23 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Just a reminder
411 24 to everybody , we need your name and address
70
• 1 for the record . Thanks for the statements
2 though .
3 SPEAKER : My name is John Gorche , I
4 live at 19 Washington Street here in the
5 village . And I ' m cancer survivor so far .
6 And there may be others in the audience
7 tonight , I would suspect there are . One
8 thing that cancer is great for , and that is
9 giving you perspective . And from my
10 perspective it ' s a measure of how out of
11 whack our society has gotten that we are
12 even considering something like
13 hydrofracking in this area .
14 So I don ' t have a long speech about
15 it . But my perspective is it ' s really an
16 insane thing to even be thinking about .
17 Thank you .
18 ( APPLAUSE )
19 SPEAKER : Hi , I am Michael Dineen , I
20 live in the town of Ovid . And but , I ' m
21 concerned about not having fracking in any
22 towns in New York . But I just wanted to
23 say one thing that was on my mind , because
24 I know that you all have been concerned
71
1 about the - - that there may be a subsequent
2 court case that arises from this ordinance .
3 And I don ' t know , this was my thinking on
4 it . But I don ' t know if it gets translated
5 in to a legal argument . But I know that
6 the state has , through state laws has given
7 towns the ability to make comprehensive
8 plans , and encourages towns in the
9 development of comprehensive plans ; and a
10 comprehensive plan allows a community to
11 envision what they want their community to
12 be like . You know , and Ulysses has made a
13 very clear and beautiful comprehensive
14 plan .
15 And one thing that occurs to me , is
16 that people are saying well this won ' t
17 stand up in court . But I think if , if this
18 doesn ' t stand up in court , it makes a joke
19 out of any kind of comprehensive plan . I
20 mean if a town can , if they say , go ahead
21 and make a comprehensive plan for your
22 town , what do you want your town to look
23 like . And you say this is what we want our
24 county to look like , we want our visual
72
® 1 part of our county to look like , our town
2 to look like . And but then they say , okay ,
3 well , but at the same time , we ' re going to
4 allow this industry that ' s absolutely
5 destructive to everything that you have
6 said in your comprehensive plan to come in
7 to your town and you can ' t do anything
8 about it . That ' s , that , I mean that just
9 strikes me as ridiculous . Why even have
10 anything , any laws encouraging towns to
11 have comprehensive plans when they can just
12 come in and ( snap ) say well we are just
13 running all that new , we are bringing in
14 the big boys and we ' re drilling . And there
15 is nothing you can do about it .
16 Any way . I want to , that ' s just a , I
17 wanted to encourage you guys to be strong .
18 And you ' re going to stand up to the people
19 who are arguing against you in court and I
20 think you are definitely going to win . And
21 we ' re behind you .
22 ( APPLAUSE )
23 SPEAKER : One thing , I want to thank
24 Mariette particularly , because I love the
73
1 clarity of your , of the ordinance you ended
2 up putting together . Thank you . She did a
3 lot of work on that .
4 ( APPLAUSE )
5 SPEAKER : My name is Jan Quarles , I
6 live at 7342 Myers Point Road in Ovid , New
7 York . And part of Back to Democracy , which
8 has been meeting at the Trumansburg fire
9 hall for eight years on a monthly basis .
10 All of our meetings are free and they are
11 about the concerns of the community , to
12 come forward as a place to meet and talk
13 about issues that we want to talk about .
14 And especially based on the principle ,
15 people ' s right for self determination to
16 create their own futures .
17 And I feel so honored to be part of
18 this process , the Ulysses Gas Drilling
19 Advisory Board , invited Back to Democracy
20 to join with them a year ago and do this
21 door to door campaign , gather signatures ,
22 to see what did the community feel about
23 fracking . And we found even people who had
110 24 signed leases in Trumansburg were really
74
411 1 regretting it . They were really scared ,
2 they felt that from what they had heard
3 from other states that they weren ' t going
4 to be treated fairly . And they didn ' t
5 think it was worth it .
6 So we were overwhelmed with the
7 support for a ban , and we worked with the
8 Town Board , and I just want to thank all of
9 you for being so receptive and so
10 professional , and so patient through this
11 process . It was unprecedented .
411 12 But I also want people in the room to
13 know that that was the beginning , but it
14 wasn ' t the end of our work . And since
15 then , we have been contacted by activists
16 in a lot of other towns across New York
17 State . And they say oh we heard that you
18 guys did a campaign and petitioned your
19 board . We just thought that that was up to
20 the state , and we just gave in . And now we
21 realize we can actually have the power to
22 ban it . Because Ulysses took this step ;
23 and so we were contacted by groups of
24 activists in Enfield and Dryden and
75
® 1 Caroline and Danby , and we met with them
2 over the course of the past few months , and
3 they are all doing their campaigns now .
4 And several towns are already working on
5 bans in the Catskills . The City of Buffalo
6 has already banned fracking , and now there
7 are dozens and dozens of towns across New
8 York State writing bans as well as
9 counties . So I just want to say I feel
10 it ' s such an honor to be part of this , it ' s
11 like this is what democracy looks like .
• 12 Thank you so much .
13 ( APPLAUSE )
14 SPEAKER : I just came here to listen
15 tonight . But I guess that changed . I want
16 to say two things . The lovely British man
17 who was concerned that the landowners
18 aren ' t here or the opposition isn ' t here ,
19 they had a chance to be here , it ' s a public
20 open meeting , and maybe they are here , just
21 aren ' t speaking . But they have an
22 opportunity . And frankly , it ' s about
23 balance , everything has to be balanced . We
411 24 all have to listen to all sides . This is
76
411 1 an issue , I don ' t think there is any
2 balance , not for me any way . It ' s like we
3 are not on a teeter - totter . We need to get
4 rid of this idea of right here , because
5 this is going to ruin , I mean they are
6 fracking what 30 some states and all over
7 the world . But so their balance also is
8 the lobbyists , they have millions of
9 dollars in lobby money that is going for
10 their voice . So I ' m not really concerned
11 about their balance , or their opportunity .
410 12 Because it is here if they want it .
13 The other thing that concerns me
14 about myself and about my friends who are
15 concerned about this , but maybe they
16 haven ' t called a legislator , maybe they
17 haven ' t written a letter , but I think we
18 get rid of some of our anxiety by sitting
19 around talking about it . But maybe not
20 doing much . I wonder if at some point we
21 all have to be out in the streets more .
22 Maybe there is more activism , more actual
23 presence , I don ' t know what the letters and
• 24 the phone calls do . The legislature has ,
77
S1 the assembly passed some regulations , but
2 the senate is firm , they haven ' t budged ,
3 maybe they are just waiting until the SGEIS
4 is out . I think they are .
5 But I went to two rallies this
6 spring . There were a few hundred people
7 there . But I think we may need thousands
8 in the streets . People in France are out
9 in the thousands . People in other
10 countries , they are not - - I ' m not
11 advocating revolution in that way . I ' m not
12 ready to go to jail yet . But you know , I ' m
13 not a tree hugger , but I might see myself
14 climbing a gas drill . I don ' t know . I
15 think that we may get to a point where we
16 have to do more than the talking and the
17 letter writing and the calling and the
18 phoning , because I don ' t trust them . A lot
19 of them I just don ' t trust . They listen ,
20 and they nod and even Governor Cuomo says
21 water is sacrosanct , all water is
22 sacrosanct , everything is going to be safe
23 and blah blah . But I don ' t know . Do we
24 trust them ? And when will they really ,
78
1 what will make them understand , I guess
2 that ' s what I don ' t know yet . But maybe a
3 big presence in the streets will , I mean we
4 don ' t have to burn buildings down , but you
5 know what I mean .
6 I just was a little disappointed this
7 spring when there were just a few hundred
8 people at some of these rallies . And we
9 need lots of buses and lots of people .
10 SUPERVISOR MARINO : So two things ,
11 one that ' s the end of your time . And two
12 we need your name .
13 SPEAKER : Oh , yes , Nedra Harvey . I
14 live in Rochester . I grew up here , and I
15 own a place on Iradell Road .
16 ( APPLAUSE )
17 SUPERVISOR MARINO : All right . It ' s
18 8 : 29 , and before we close the hearing , I
19 want to ask if there is anyone else here
20 who would like to make a statement ? Feel
21 free . And if you don ' t feel like you would
22 like to make an oral statement , again
23 please feel free to make one either by
24 e - mail or handing it in writing to the town
79
1 clerk at the town hall . Again we are going
2 to take those comments , we have been taking
3 them for the past two weeks and we will
4 take them until the 6th of July . And
5 again , if you know anyone of any particular
6 opinion at all , who wants to be heard ,
7 please encourage them to send in their
8 comments .
9 Okay . If there is no one else that
10 would like to speak . It ' s 8 : 30 . And the
11 hearing is now concluded .
® 12 SPEAKER : I have a question . And I
13 heard tonight that we have until Friday , so
14 we have two days to call our legislators
15 regarding this EPA . Could you fill us in
16 on that information ?
17 SUPERVISOR MARINO : Well I need to
18 close the public hearing now . But then you
19 can speak with us afterwards if you would
20 like .
21 SPEAKER : Okay . I hope everybody
22 does , because if it ' s Friday we need to
23 call tomorrow .
410 24 SUPERVISOR MARINO : I want to thank
80
1 everyone for attending and I also would
2 like to thank the Trumansburg school for
3 allowing us the use of their facility . So
4 thank you very much for coming .
5
6 ( FOLLOWING ARE WRITTEN COMMENTS SUBMITTED )
7
8 Hello , I urge you to pass the ordinance
9 banning hydrofracking in Ulysses !
10 Thanks ,
11 Mary Shelley
411 12 1383 Taughannock Boulevard
13
14 Dear Ulysses Town Board . I would like to
15 support your proposal to amend the local Zoning Law
16 of the Town of Ulysses to ban Hydrofacking .
17 Thanks for your courage .
18 Barbara Anger
19 1383 Taughannock Boulevard
20 Ithaca , N . Y . 14850
21
22 * * *
23
410 24
81
1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
2
3 I hereby certify that the proceedings and
4 evidence are contained fully and accurately in the
5 notes taken by me on the above cause and that this
6 is a correct copy of the same to the best of my
7 ability .
8
9 E ' R . Bruci&
10
11 ELIZABETH R . BRUCIE
® 12
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• 24