Bradford County commissioners reduce seats in courthouse's rotunda for gas workers

TOWANDA - As many as 100 people a day have been working at tables and benches in the rotunda of the Bradford County Courthouse, where they do research on the oil and gas rights on properties in the county.

Faced with the littering, high levels of noise, and other problems some of these people are causing in the rotunda, the Bradford County commissioners last week moved several tables out of the rotunda in order to limit the number of people that can work there, said Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith.

And last week, the commissioners issued a list of rules, which have been taped to the remaining tables in the rotunda, which ban people from eating lunch in the rotunda or using electricity from outlets in the courthouse to power their laptop computers, Smith said.

People are using laptops to watch movies and play video games in the rotunda, and are making a racket there with their cell phones, said Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko.

"We're trying to keep a work space for the gas companies (in the rotunda), because we know they have work to do," Smith said. "But we're not going to run the courthouse over to do that."

There is limited space in the Register & Recorder's Office in the Bradford County Courthouse, so many people who use that office to research the mineral rights and ownership of property that may be drilled on for natural gas do their work in the adjacent rotunda.

There have been "just too many people" working in the rotunda, which has resulted in noise issues and other problems, said Smith, who added that Chesapeake and Talisman Energy USA each have on average 30 to 40 people a day doing work at the courthouse.

Smith ticked off a list of problems that have resulted from people working in the rotunda, including the fact that the county has had to hire another janitor to keep things clean at the courthouse.

"We have to scrape food off the floor (of the rotunda) at night," he said. "We've had to tell people to turn down the music on their laptops because they are playing it out loud in the rotunda of the courthouse. There are people watching movies (on their laptops in the rotunda). It's like a social club. We've got to reel it back."

The county can't afford to employ a janitor "to keep the bathrooms clean all morning long" in the courthouse, Smith said.

"We've had people running extension cords across hallways" in the rotunda area, "which is not safe," he said.

The county can't afford to have its sheriff's deputies "running around the courthouse making sure there are no extension cords running across the hallways," he said.

"Last week it was so loud out there in the rotunda that we had the door shut (for a meeting in a room next to the rotunda) and it was hard to carry on our business at our meeting," Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko said. He said he was concerned that the noise from the rotunda would interfere with the proceedings in the courtrooms that are located next to the rotunda.

Smith said the removal of the tables leaves 42 seats for people to use when working in the rotunda and in the basement area just below the rotunda.

Smith said 42 is a "reasonable" number of people that the county can handle on a regular basis.

Shirley Rockefeller, Bradford County register and recorder of deeds, said that even though some tables have been removed from the rotunda, people could still stand and work at the counters in the Register & Recorder's Office.

Smith said the removal of tables and the other measures were taken after the commissioners consulted with other counties to see how they addressed issues related to people doing work at their courthouses.

"The rotunda of the courthouse is not a corporate office," Smith said. "It's not a cafeteria, and it's not a social club."

Smith and McLinko both said they had tried to work with the larger gas drilling companies to find a solution to the problems in the rotunda, but that those discussions did not alleviate the problems.

The commissioners said that it was after they saw that those discussions were not bearing fruit that they took out the tables and issued the new rules.

Smith and McLinko said they believe that, now that the new rules are in effect, there are some common-sense solutions that could address the limited number of seats left in the rotunda.

For example, McLinko said he would like the gas companies to have the workers work in shifts, so that workers are not there all at the same time. Currently, many workers who use the rotunda arrive late in the day and leave early, he said.

He also encouraged companies who use the courthouse to have their workers use private offices in the vicinity of the courthouse to do their work.

And Smith said the companies should make use of the Register & Recorder's Office when it is open two nights a week.

He recalled a recent evening where only five people were doing work in the Register's & Recorder's Office, even though 42 seats were available.

"You guys can't tell me you can't manage your situation better to get the work done that you need to get done," Smith told Bruce Dawley, a contractor who does work for Chesapeake Energy and who raised the issue of the reduction in seating at the commissioners' meeting on Thursday.

Mark Scheuerman, a spokesman for Talisman Energy USA, said the county commissioners are "doing the best they can" to manage the problems in the rotunda in a way that treats everybody fairly.

Brian Grove, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy, said, "We don't anticipate that any of the changes being implemented (at the courthouse) will affect our operations. We have worked closely with the commissioners and the recorder of deeds for some time and are supportive of their efforts.

But a West Virginia woman, who was doing research in the rotunda on Thursday said the new rules will result in "lower productivity for us and our clients (the gas companies)."

Joan Walker, who researches mineral rights for Elexco Ltd., said "I've never seen a big mess anywhere" in the rotunda area.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.