By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
COOPERSTOWN _ The Otsego County Board of Representatives did not vote Wednesday on a measure that would have made it easier to lease county-owned property to natural-gas drillers.
The resolution was essentially an expression of support for state legislation to allow non-chartered counties such as Otsego to enter into long-term leases. Currently, their leases are limited to five years.
Sponsored by state Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton; Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson; and Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford; the state bill would allow counties to lease public land indefinitely as long as the gas wells were producing in commercially-paying quantities.
The county's resolution of support was brought to the board by the Public Works Committee.
Before the resolution was discussed Wednesday, the committee's chairman, Keith McCarty, R-Springfield, withdrew it.
McCarty's action followed a number of comments by people opposed to the resolution, who spoke at the start of the meeting under privilege of the floor.
Eleanore MacDougall of Cooperstown said village leaders are upset at the prospect of widespread gas drilling, with ``heavy trucks carrying tons of water digging up the roads.'' By making it easier for drillers, the county would be risking water supplies ``and this is a very watery area,'' she said.
Adrian Kuzminski of Fly Creek and the group Sustainable Otsego said that rather than facilitate drilling, the county board should establish a task force to study and help the county prepare for the likely effects of gas drilling.
With much land in the area already leased, the county faces the prospect of thousands of wells, miles of pipeline and compressing stations being sited, yet there is no overall plan to make sure this is done in an orderly manner, he said.
``There is no rush to get the gas,'' he said, noting it has been trapped underground for ``60 million years.''
Nicole Dillingham, president of the board of Otsego 2000, said now is the wrong time for the county to act ``with so much uncertainty at the state level.''
Dillingham said that a month ago, she believed the state Department of Environmental Conservation's proposed new drilling rules were ``the product of a desperate governor,'' and that nothing she has seen since has altered this perception.
The resolution was supported by Richard Downey of Otego, a founding member of the Unatego Landowners Coalition.
Downey, who noted that his group controls about 31,000 acres of land, said that restricting county leases to five years is a disincentive for drillers, as it often takes a long time to recover their investment.
McCarty said he withdrew the resolution for further study. He added that it would have applied to county leases for many activities other than gas drilling.
At the end of the meeting, Reps. Stephen Fournier, R-Milford, and Kathy Clark, R-Otego, said they would have supported the resolution, as a change in leasing limits would offer the county options in the future.
``I'm disappointed we didn't have a chance to discuss it and vote,'' Fournier said.
According to the county's Real Property Tax Services Office, the county owns more than 3,300 acres of land.
