Posts Tagged ‘Lake Township Supervisor’

Land in the Back Mountain complex will not be disturbed, since the approach is horizontal.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

LEHMAN TWP. – Board members who oversee the Back Mountain Recreation Complex will certainly appreciate any revenue derived from a natural gas lease if local Marcellus Shale development is successful, but that’s not why they approved the lease, according to the board president.

“All of the adjacent landowners to our property I believe did sign leases with Marcellus Shale companies,” said board President Richard Coslett, a dentist practicing in Shavertown, Kingston Township.

Because it was expected that natural gas drilling would be going on all around the organization’s 130-acre property, there was no reason not to sign a lease with Chief Oil & Gas, Coslett said. “But there will be no well drilling on the property &hellip absolutely not.”

“Our land is there for one purpose – for the recreational enjoyment of residents of the Back Mountain,” he said.

Back Mountain Recreation will receive a bonus payment of $12.50 per acre and, if natural gas is extracted from the land beneath the complex, the organization will receive 20 percent royalty payments.

Coslett said that money would go right back into developing the complex.

Coslett said the lease gives permission to Chief Oil & Gas to drill horizontally deep underneath the organization’s property without disturbing the surface. “Now, on the other properties, I can’t speak for that,” he said.

EnCana Oil & Gas is proposing to drill just over a mile from the complex on property owned by Lake Township Supervisor Amy Salansky and her husband, Paul.

There was “very concerned discussion” among the board members about the safety of children and adults who use the complex if natural gas wells were drilled on nearby property, Coslett said.

“We see what happened to the roads in the Northern Tier counties; we heard the stories of water being contaminated in the Northern Tier. Myself and the board are very concerned about those things happening here also,” Coslett said.

And, of course, the thought of an explosion on property near the complex similar to the natural gas well blowout in Clearfield County on June 3 would be enough to make any Back Mountain recreational enthusiast shudder.

But Coslett is hopeful state officials will make sure adequate regulatory safeguards are in place before drilling begins anywhere near the complex.

“I really think there is a lot of emotional information out there right now,” Coslett said. “I can understand both sides of the issue. Hopefully, the facts will come out.”

The organization is in the process of a multiphase development. A lacrosse field and two soccer fields opened in summer 2007. They were dedicated in May 2008 as Edward Darling Field, Flack Field and Pride Field.

Two more full-size soccer fields and two mid-size soccer fields were completed in fall 2008 and opened for use last fall. The fields are currently used by Back Mountain Youth Soccer and Back Mountain Lacrosse. A football field, used by the Back Mountain Youth Football and Cheerleading League, is the most recent addition.

The fields lie on about 40 acres of the complex dedicated to organized recreational activities, Coslett said. But the board wants to develop part of the remaining 90 acres for passive recreational activities such as hiking and biking trails and other activities.

Copyright: Times Leader

Bill would have rollback taxes assessed only on land impacted by wellhead permanently.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Luzerne County Assessor’s Office Director Tony Alu still doesn’t know how Marcellus Shale development on land with “Clean and Green” designation will affect the land’s tax status.

“We don’t have a clear-cut plan yet. … I’m turning over every stone to get as much information as possible. We won’t be doing anything until I’m sure what our options are,” Alu said Monday.

Clean and Green is a program authorized by state law that allows land devoted to agricultural or forest use to be assessed at a value for that use rather than at fair market value.

The intent of the program, which is administered through county government, is to encourage property owners to retain their land in agricultural, open-space or forest-land use by providing real estate tax relief.

Property owners benefit through lower taxes as long as their land isn’t used for housing developments or other uses inconsistent with agricultural production, open-space or forest-land use.

If a property owner decided to use the land for a purpose inconsistent with the program, the landowner would have to pay “rollback taxes” – the difference between fair market value and use value of the land – for as many years as the property had been designated Clean and Green, up to a maximum of seven years.

Although it’s a state-authorized program, with maximum use values set annually for each county by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Farmland Preservation, the bureau offers no guidance on how drilling for natural gas on a Clean and Green parcel would affect the tax status.

“The (state Farmland and Forest Land Assessment) Act is silent in that regard, so it’s left up to each individual county how to address it,” said bureau director Doug Wolfgang.

However, Wolfgang said, in March 2009, state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, introduced a bill that would amend the act, allowing for natural gas drilling on Clean and Green land, with rollback taxes being assessed only on the portion of land that would be permanently impacted by a wellhead. State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, was a co-sponsor of that bill.

Yaw represents Union and Sullivan counties and parts of Susquehanna, Bradford and Lycoming counties, which together boasted a total of about 200 natural gas wells by the end of last year.

The bill won Senate approval in February and is before the House for consideration.

Yaw has said the bill would provide counties across the state with “a consistent interpretation” to follow and would “help to prevent differing opinions on how many acres of roll-back taxes should be levied on landowners who have leased for natural gas development.”

He has said farmers and landowners need the bill to become law “so that there isn’t any confusion on how the Clean and Green Program operates.”

The bill also would exempt land with underground transmission or gathering lines from roll-back taxes and would allow for one lease for temporary pipe storage facilities for two years. Each property would have to be restored to its original use.

Regardless of whether the bill becomes law, Lake Township Supervisor Amy Salansky said neither she nor her husband, Paul, will have to pay rollback taxes on their Clean and Green land, on which EnCana Oil and Gas USA intends to drill a natural gas well in August. If county officials decide to assess rollback taxes, the lease with EnCana makes the energy company responsible for paying them.

Salansky noted neither she nor her husband own the mineral or gas rights to the land.

The couple bought the land after the owner died so they could farm it, but the owner had willed the mineral and gas rights to his nephew, who retained them in the sale.

The Salanskys are crop farmers, growing oats, corn and hay. They own and work more farmland nearby, Amy Salansky said.

Even if the entire 50-acre parcel is kicked out of the Clean and Green program, Salansky said she would reapply to have the parcel accepted back into the program, minus the 6 acres that would be used for the gas-drilling operations.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader