EXCLUSIVE: Town of Avon Hosts Public Hearing on Hydrofracking
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- Written by JOSH WILLIAMS
AVON — There are not many moments in Livingston County where you can bring a banker, farmer, school teacher, engineer, lawyer, gas and pipeline worker, botanist, personal money manager, student, factory worker, retiree, and numerous other professions together for a public hearing. What did bring this wide variety of backgrounds together was the Town of Avon's public hearing on the proposed moratorium on hydrofracking.
Over fifty people gathered at the hearing where the major operator of gas wells in the region, John Holko, owner of Lenape Resources, addressed the Town Board on their concerns with hydrofracking.
Holko used a hypothetical situation for property the Town of Avon owns behind the Town Highway department and the potential revenue it could generate for the community if hydrofracking was allowed.
"On property taxes we pay $3.91 for every thousand dollars. That would generate $216,000 per year for the Town of Avon," said Holko who currently operates hydraulically fractured gas wells in Avon. "After you add up the county, state and school tax we would contribute 1.6 million dollars of tax revenue on five acres of land alone."
Not everyone was supportive about the possibility of hyrdofracking, of the 14 people that spoke 9 were clearly against hydrofracking.
"What's waiting one year going to do compared to 10,000 years of potential damage to our environment." said Michael Faville. "At least for our children's future we can wait a year."
The Avon Town Board decided to table the issue until the next meeting on Feb 9th where they could possibly vote. The public meeting session will remain open until then, if other people would like to comment on the issue.
