In the early 1980s, van or panel like trucks laid wire out along our ridge roads, then would stop, start the equipment inside. This equipment made graphs, ribbons and like materials that recorded the mineral elements, gas, oil and such that lay beneath. This was a survey done by the U. S. Dept. of Energy. Our deeds and records room at the Court House was soon filled with people (mostly strangers) looking up info on deeds, minerals, oil, gas rights, etc. and owners of local lands and their heirs.

Our City Council soon recognized the need for an ordinance and enacted it in 1985. This ordinance bans drilling within our city limits. Citizens should see to it that this ordinance is kept and enforced. The citizens of New Martinsville have paid high property taxes and high utility bills too long to see their property value plummet, due to drilling and its related activity. Keep the drilling and its pads, platforms, towers, tanks, heavy equipment, dust, chemicals, noise, bright lights etc., out of our city limits.

We have needed to improve our streets, sidewalks, old homes, businesses and their parking lots, potholes and much more. Keep the unsightliness of drilling and its related activity in the country, out of our city limits, while sprucing up our town.

We should know that the drilling companies are here for one reason only. That is; to make as much as they can, paying out as little as possible as they invade our lands, with little or no regard for the land owners, our roads, or the land in general.

May everyone prosper from the drilling, the jobs it brings, landowners’ compensation, local trade, etc. But local laws and rules should prevail. Council should stick to the 1986 ordinance to protect the rights, property, and the will of our town residents.

About our water, to date these drilling outfits will not divulge what chemicals they use in fracking, claiming the formula is proprietary. in view of this, why should we trust them? Are we so gullable and easily taken in? The least we can do is keep it out of town. No drilling within our city limits.

They have stolen our countryside, so let’s try to save our towns.

Robert Hoffman

New Martinsville