This email from Julie Wilson just in on the email from a loyal reader.

Subject: Chesapeake’s Thomas drillsite
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:34:51 -0500
From: Julie Wilson
To: Kathleen Hicks , “Mike Moncrief ”

CC: “Allen, Devan” , Laura Jones

Dear Mayor Moncrief and Councilmember Hicks:

As you are aware, a recent email request was sent by Don Young concerning the Tandy Hills Nature Center located within Councilmember Hicks’ district in the West Meadowbrook neighborhood. Mr. Young initiated an email campaign requesting the “Friends of Tandy Hills” to oppose the proposed gas drilling operations in the area and send a copy of their reply to me. Mr. Young has made no attempt to contact us directly concerning the facts about our plans, and, as usual, has misrepresented our future activity in the area. We don’t understand his malicious behavior but can tell you we are not drilling in or adjacent to the Tandy Hills Nature Center.

Along with you, we have received many responses from residents. Many of them are not from Fort Worth residents – one was even from San Antonio — and most of them are inaccurate. Although we understand the concern of constituents in the immediate neighborhood, we want to make sure you and residents have correct information about our plans there.

Chesapeake’s proposed Thomas drillsite is located on privately owned land, not public parkland. As a matter of fact, the site is more than 1,500 feet from Tandy Hills’ boundary. Although many of the nearby residents view this land as theirs to use, they are actually trespassing on private property if they do so.

The owners of this land have been trying to sell it for more than 25 years. If “Friends of Tandy Hills” were concerned about maintaining the property as a nature preserve, they certainly had the opportunity to purchase it. So did any other entity who could have decided to purchase and clear the land for commercial or residential development. The residents fail to realize that only “a small amount of green space remain” because their own residential development infringed on the area first. They don’t seem to acknowledge that any impact caused by future development of the land was first caused by themselves. After financially maintaining the property for many years, the owners have chosen to have their minerals developed and use their land to do so, rather than rely on someone else to provide a drillsite. In addition, they have generously allowed nearby residents and the City of Fort Worth to have their minerals produced off-lease from this same location, which will not only provide royalty payments to some of those protesting, but a future domestically produced energy source our nation desperately needs and all of those neighbors use.

Chesapeake has no intention of drilling inside the Tandy Hills Nature Center, even though Fort Worth has leased its minerals to us. Our ability to use private property to produce natural gas will benefit the area — including Tandy Hills — for many years to come through the resulting funding. The bonus received by the City of Fort Worth has already allowed it to pay for the master development plan and nature study for Tandy Hills.

We would also like to dispel the misinformation concerning another comment made by Mr. Young that Chesapeake “used a loophole in the ordinance to buy the affected property.” We do not own the property. In fact, we purchased no homes or other properties in the area. Chesapeake followed both the letter and the spirit of the ordinance by obtaining the necessary waivers from area homeowners who are eager to have their minerals produced and who have no objection to nearby drilling. Our activities at the site will fully comply with the city’s gas drilling ordinance, as all of our operations do. As a matter of fact, as outlined in the city’s gas drilling ordinance, no council approval will be needed for this permit.

All transportation route possibilities have been fully researched, and the only access available to and from this site is via Scott Avenue. Chesapeake is mindful of and the sensitivity of urban neighbors and always looks for the solution that offers the least amount of disruption. As a major taxpayer in the city, we certainly pay our fair share toward road maintenance in addition to posting a $300,000 bond with the City of Fort Worth. Despite claims of this being a pristine nature area, photographs of the entrance to this site today show much trash and neglect; we are confident the area will look much better when we are through.

We hope this information clears up some of the misinformation that has been sent out about this site. It is unfortunate that certain members of the community enjoy fear-mongering and name-calling to intentionally upset their friends and neighbors. Perhaps they think they’re “showing us” something, but we’re unclear what. It is a shame they won’t use their idle time and resources to foster meaningful dialogue, legitimate research, and open fact-based debate on potentially opposing viewpoints to understand the issues, seek common ground, and collaborate on potential neighborhood improvement.

We are sending a copy of this message to each person who sent us an email on this topic. And we will work on posting information on this particular site on the neighborhood center page of our AskChesapeake website to provide information to those who wish to review it. And we are planning to meet with the West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association board members to answer any questions they may have. We will alert you to the proposed date and time, as we would welcome your attendance at the meeting. In the meantime, please contact us with any questions you may have and thank you for your continued leadership and service to our city.

Thank you.

Julie H. Wilson
Vice President - Corporate Development
Chesapeake Energy Corporation

Tags: Chesapeake Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Don Young, Julie Wilson, Mike Moncrief

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