Towanda Borough taking steps to maximize revenue from gas leases

TOWANDA - At its most recent regular meeting, the Towanda Borough Council discussed steps that need to be taken to prevent accidents involving water tanker trucks and to increase the borough's revenue from gas leases.

In addition, the council discussed the installation of signs and other measures that would warn motorists about crosswalks on Main Street and fire trucks entering U.S. Route 6 from Plank Road.

Tanker trucks

In April, the council had directed the borough solicitor to draft an ordinance that would prevent heavy water tanker trucks from traveling in the borough, except on the Merrill Parkway and on state routes, such as Route 6. Towanda Borough Manager Tom Fairchild Jr. and council members say large, heavy tanker trucks traveling on steep or heavily populated residential streets are a safety hazard.

Under the ordinance, weight limits would be posted on a portion of streets in the borough, and vehicles that exceeded those limits, such as heavy water tanker trucks, would be banned from traveling on the streets. The ordinance would not affect certain types of vehicles - including school buses, fire trucks, and trucks making local deliveries or pickups - because they would be exempt from the weight restrictions.

However, Fairchild announced at the May council meeting that before the council can pass the ordinance, it needs to have an engineering study done to determine the weight capacity of the streets.

The borough has hired a company called Municipal Solutions to conduct the study, he said.

Fairchild also announced that Chesapeake Energy Corp. and its subcontractors have voluntarily agreed to stop sending heavy trucks on east-west streets in the borough to access gas wells sites that are being developed west of the borough.

"However, we feel that weight restrictions are a good idea for the future," Fairchild said.

Royalties

In order to put itself in a position where it would be eligible to obtain gas royalties on its 34-acre former landfill site on Bridge Street Hill, the borough will encourage the other owner of the gas rights on the property to enter into a gas lease, the borough manager said.

While the borough had signed a gas lease with Chesapeake Appalachia in 2008 on 84 acres of land owned by the borough, including the landfill site, the borough has since discovered that another party owns two-thirds interest in the gas rights at the landfill site, Fairchild said.

The borough only has "one-third interest" in the gas rights at the landfill site, he said.

"It is to all of our benefits that all persons with mineral rights (at the former landfill site) execute gas leases. Otherwise, none of the parties will realize revenue from gas extraction since there would be no extraction," Fairchild said.

Gas lease

The borough needs to do more research before it seeks to find a company to lease the gas rights on the 95.2 acres of land owned by the borough on which there is currently no gas lease, including borough streets, the 10-acre S.C.I. property and the Third Ward playground, Fairchild said.

Research needs to be done because "there is some question of ownership of certain borough streets," he said.

For many of the streets, the borough may not own the land underneath the road but would have been given a right of way by landowners to create a public street, said borough Solicitor Leonard Frawley.

It would be worth it to the borough to resolve the question of the ownership of the streets, which represent 73.1 acres of land, Fairchild said.

However, while it waits for the research on the ownership of the streets to be completed, which is a project that is presenting some difficulty for the borough, the borough might go forward with a gas lease on the S.C.I. property and on other borough-owned parcels, he said.

Signs

The Towanda Fire Department wants to install "emergency vehicle signs" on Route 6 in the borough in order to warn motorists about fire department trucks that enter Route 6 from Plank Road, said Towanda Borough Councilman Rex Klinger, who serves on the Towanda Fire Board.

"It is a tricky intersection," Fairchild said.

The signs would not have flashing lights or any other lights, Towanda officials said.

The fire department will need to get permission from the state Department of Transportation to install the signs.

Cross-walk signs

The council discussed obtaining portable pedestrian cross-walk signs for Main Street in the borough.

"They are a good idea, especially with the traffic on Main Street," Towanda Police Chief Mitch Osman said. "They provide an immediate education with (respect to) the crosswalks."

Fairchild said that the state Department of Transportation provides grant money to communities to buy the crosswalk signs. The borough would rely on business owners to take the signs in at the end of the day and put them back in the morning, Towanda officials said.

Last year, the borough was unsuccessful in its application for a federal grant to fund an additional full-time police officer, but this month the borough will have another two-week window to apply for the same grant again, Osman said. The grants are funded with money from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

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

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