Meeting Minutes 9/09/08

This addresses highlights from the meeting. The PowerPoint slide presentation that was reviewed at the meeting is also available (click here to view as PDF file.)

The subdivision leads were introduced and are also listed on the website. The URL for the website is
www.northeastarlington.org.

Current Status

We are still trying to gather as many of the MOIs as possible. This gives us the greatest amount of power at the bargaining table.

The total size of the area that we represent is:
2047 households
25 subdivisions
269 commercial property owners

The boundaries are the Trinity River , 360, Collins, and I30.

Currently we have received 1250 residential and 35 commercial MOIs

How to get Information

The website has a lot of information.

Helpful links provides a lot of external sites that have information.

There is the ability for everyone to submit their concerns via the website, under the contact us link on the home page.

Under the link on our website is the Star Telegram Blog, Which has a lot of useful information. http://startelegram.typepad.com/barnett_shale

Here are some of the questions that were asked at the meeting:

1) Do the homes that back up to Green Oaks, will they get extended to the median of Green Oaks.

We think so, but do not know definitively.

2) Are we too big to be effective.

No. The larger a group that we can deliverer, the more bargaining that we have. We have considered allowing the gas companies to bid on only portions, as long as there is enough companies interested to cover the entire area. But this might create problems if some areas were omitted. It was decided that the entire area would have to be included.

3) Is there really gas under our homes.

There is gas under the houses. How much? We do not know and the gas companies do not know either. Seismologists have not tested the exact area. There are rumors that there was a dry well north of here. At the meeting we said that we heard this. Later I learned that the dry hole was caused by errors in the drilling process. With today's technology, dry wells do not happen, unless mistakes are made.

4) What happens if I do not sign
The gas companies need 85% of the properties in the path of the well, to start the drilling. The other 15% are considered to be a working interest in the well. This means that the person is considered a partner in the well. Therefore their royalties are paid after the expenses are deducted. This yields a smaller amount of money.

5) What is the committee (particularly Brad Perkins) getting out of this.

Nothing. This is done out of community involvement.

6) What about the drilling sites.

There are multiple sites being considered that we are aware of. Nothing is finalized yet. When the site starts, the derrick will go up for about 60 days. The well has a noise barrier erected to lower the noise. When the well is producing, the pumping station is hidden by some sort of barrier that is unobtrusive.