Dana Godfrew a gas industry worker from Calhoun County speaks to the overflowing crowd at Monday’s New Martinsville City Council meeting in favor of the industry. (Photos by Amy Witschey)

It appears that an overwhelming show of opposition to the New Martinsville City Council’s revised ordinance to prohibit natural gas exploration and gathering activities within city limits has changed the governing body’s mind.

Following a regular council meeting Monday night that included 19 speakers, with all but one specifically against either the natural gas ordinance or a seemingly related recreational vehicle ordinance, council has announced a special council meeting to be held Friday at 3 p.m. On the three-item agenda is a recommendation for the first reading to repeal the fossil fuel ordinance.

The ordinance reads, “The exploration, extraction, production, development, mining, leasing, and/or drilling for oil, gas, or other hydrocarbon substances or the conduction of any other operations including fracturing or re-fracturing wells, installation and maintenance of any production equipment and appurtenant structures or machinery proposed or intended to be used for or in connection with the production of oil and gas on any private or public property within the corporate limits is strictly prohibited and shall constitute a public nuisance.”

This expected first step could eventually not only take the city back to its stance prior to the recent ordinance passage, but also delete the ordinance enacted in 1986 that prohibited the exploration for, extraction, production, and development of coal, oil, gas, or other hydrocarbon substances.

Council faced a standing-room-only crowd of about 100 in the council chambers Monday. Mayor Lucille Blum began the public comment portion of the meeting by stating, “I assure you that city council will listen, deliberate, and talk to make decisions.”

Councilman Steve Pallisco, right, tells Bill Talkington, left, and other in attendance Monday that council was just trying to protect what the city has. Also pictured are Councilpersons Casey Corliss and Joel Potts III.

The bulk of the comments were concerned about the possibility of losing the gas well developers’ business because of the development ban. This was primarily in light of comments made by Michael McCown, president of the West Virginia Independent Oil & Gas Association in an article in The Intelligencer, Wheeling’s daily newspaper, on July 29. “This is ill-conceived. By them choosing to do that, we have to react. We do not want to do commerce in communities that do not want our business,” McCown was quoted to say.

Bob “Boo” Litman, owner of Litman Excavating and Construction who has seen his business blossom along with the gas industry, said when he first saw the city’s new ordinance he thought the council just spoke before thinking about it too much. “I kind of took up for everybody,” he humbly said.

His company went from 17 employees to 106 and “we need more,” he said. His wife Kristen started Litman Campground as a place for her to park their camper and enjoy some relaxing times but quickly found it was needed for the gas workers. At first she didn’t want to rent to that clientele, but she quickly found they were upstanding residents. “I’ve had not problems with any of them,” Kristen told council.

Council voted unanimously to table the RV ordinance that would limit the use of recreation vehicles to 14 days per calendar year. Also, any recreational vehicle or tent on private property must abide by all setback and fire codes. The ordinance stated its purpose was to preserve the community’s neighborhoods and recreational parks. It had only passed a first reading.

Christy Leek said she has known the Litmans all her life and knows they would not do anything to jeopardize the town. “If it wasn’t for the well companies, half of us wouldn’t be here right now,” said Leek.

Matt Quinet of Quinet’s Court Restaurant speaks to council in favor of the gas business.

In the beginning the gas workers bragged about how welcoming the people of the area were. “They love us!” she exclaimed. “If we’ve got to pitch tents to keep them here, then that’s what we need to do!”

Matt Quinet, proprietor of Quinet’s Court Restaurant, said his family’s business has been a part of New Martinsville for 70 years. Before the recent gas boom, business wasn’t so great. Now he is feeding many people associated with the industry. “We’re all benefiting from it,” offered Quinet.

Last week he said a job fair at his restaurant resulted in the hiring of 65 people, all ages 25-35. “My generation in this town. . . there was nothing for us. Now there is.”

Local resident David McCulloch is a truck driver who said he has been on the road for years, only seeing his home for a total of three months in five years. In January he got a job driving truck for Litman. Now he gets to spend more time at home and said, “All my paycheck comes here.”

Dana Godfrew is a gas worker from Calhoun County who has been in the local area since January working for Litman. Like McCulloch, he was constantly on the road prior to the gas work. While he may have to spend the week away from his family, living in the Litman’s campground, he said, “Now I kind of have a life. I like it here. It’s home for me through the week.”

Steve Steele shows council a diagram of drilling and the local water table. . . ironically drawn on the back of a "Buy Local Now" poster.

He added, “Besides, the best liver and onions are right down here at this place (Quinet’s Court Restaurant).”

John Joe Mensore, owner of J.C. Mensore Distributors, Inc., said he has found council, historically, to be unfriendly to business. Although he added, “I do not think they (council) would intentionally do anything to damage the city.

“It’s not a big deal to say we might have made a mistake,” continued Mensore. “Be for something. Don’t always be against everything.” The comment was met with applause.

Bill Talkington, whose property outside of the city limits is currently being drilled upon, said he does not believe the city’s water wells can be affected by Marcellus Shale gas development–the reason cited for the offending ordinance.

The Marcellus formation is 7,000 feet deep. Drilling for it is cased in 13 inches of concrete to a depth of 1,300 feet and by eight inches to a depth of 4,000 feet.

Bob "Boo" and Kristen Litman talk with council about how the gas industry has increased business.

“There ain’t no water table going down that deep,” exclaimed Talkington. The local water table is at about 1,300 feet.

“You’re not in any danger at all and I can’t see why you want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” added Talkington. “We’ve got to keep these people working.“

He further chastised the city for recently wanting to charge a gas company $150 to conduct job interviews in its council chambers. The company went to a local business who let them use the space for free.

Steve Steele, who works with Litman, said he has been amazed to see how the gas companies conduct business. “They’ve got deep pockets,” he said. “They do things right. They don’t cut corners.” He claims they go four times above what is necessary to be sure there aren’t any problems.

Steele drew a diagram illustrating the drilling and water table issues, giving a visual representation of Talkington’s explanation. Ironically, he drew it on the back of a “Buy Local Now” sign he found in the city’s lobby, a fact met by applause.

Laura Slater is a rather new resident of the area, moving here from Michigan before the boom began. When it started she investigated the industry’s practices. “I was concerned. It’s very safe,” she told council. “I was amazed.“

George Friedline, vice-chair of the city’s water and sewer board, said he is not worried about any drilling above 3,000 feet. When asked if the council had consulted with the board before enacting the ordinance. Friedline said they had not. However, Councilman Chris Bachman said Water Department Pat Durant had asked the council to look into the issue.

“I wish it would have come to our board first,” said Friedline.