COUDERSPORT — The Potter County Commissioners adopted the county budget for 2017, which will raise taxes by one-half mill for the coming year.
The approximately $9.5 million budget is based on state and federal funding that is not guaranteed, but the commissioners were hopeful that anticipated funding will be received.
The half-mill increase will result in approximately $12 per year in additional costs for property owners, but brings in about $170,000 in funding for the county.
In other news, changes are coming to the Women’s Residential Treatment Center in Harrison Valley.
The Northern Tier Children’s Home non-profit organization will take over administration of the facility, and the county will no longer subsidize its functions. Women committed to the facility from Potter County will be paid for through a per-diem rate. Potter County Human Services and Dickinson Center staff will continue to work at the center.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Paul Heimel recently attended a water protection meeting in Harrisburg as a representative of the Triple Divide Watershed Coalition, along with other rural water system representatives and university professors seeking to protect drinking water source locations.
The group is urging the state Department of Environmental Protection to identify the sources, contents, quality and movement of groundwater to establish baseline data and pinpoint areas of concern, especially in light of oil and gas development. Some studies are already in the works, including one funding by U.S. Geological Survey set to take place in the coming year. The study includes the evaluation of dozens of water wells and the construction of a database.
Representatives also asked the agency to consider “the proximity of public drinking water sources when reviewing permit applications for drilling and other disturbances,” according to a press release provided by Heimel. “Many public water suppliers, including all 11 in Potter County, have approved source water protection plans that would provide the relevant information to DEP permitting personnel.”
The newest edition of the Shale Gas Roundup newsletter is currently available. Natural gas company JKLM plans to complete more than a dozen wells by the end of the year, and began activity at several sites recently. The company plans to deliver natural gas found in the Utica Shale formation through the national pipeline network. Drilling has begun at a site in Summit Township, and will commence in Ulysses Township, Sweden and Eulalia townships, and additional wells are planned near those areas.
While much gas drilled in the region has been from the Marcellus layer up to this point, the Utica layer has begun to look as though it will be even more productive. Additional layers that could hold even more gas exist beneath the Marcellus and Utica layers.
JKLM was fined $472,000 for groundwater contamination affecting six private wells in Sweden and Eulalia townships last year. An additional $100,000 penalty was assessed to install round-the-clock monitoring units on the eleven public water suppliers in the county. The monitors will log water quality data and serve as an early-warning system if similar incidents occur in the future. JKLM installed four groundwater monitoring wells, plugged three gas wells near the site and continued to monitor the area. No further drilling is planned in the area.
Seneca Resources also plans to restart unconventional well drilling activities in the region, and already has more than 20 wells in northwestern Cameron County.
Though there is a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on state lands, drilling is likely to take place in areas that have already been leased or the mineral rights are owned by private entities. A management plan has been developed by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The newsletter also offers additional information on the above-mentioned groundwater study, a wastewater treatment plant proposal, money for local bridges from Act 13 funding, methane emissions, court decisions on drilling rules and a wealth of other topics. The newsletter is available at pottercountypa.net.
In other news, a bridge funding agreement was approved with Roulette Township. The township will receive $40,000 for the purpose of replacing the Atkins East Bridge.
The commissioners also acknowledged the temporary hiring of Reuben Donovan as a part-time deputy sheriff to cover an employee’s medical leave, on the recommendation of Sheriff/Jail Warden Glenn Drake.
A contract was renewed with Anita Mead to provide victim/witness services in Potter County.
Thomas A. Walrath Jr., Esquire, will continue to serve as juvenile defender and indigent parents counsel for Potter County through 2017.
The next commissioners meeting will be a reorganizational session scheduled for 11 a.m. Jan. 3. The next regular meeting will be held on Jan. 5. All meetings are held at the Gunzburger Building in Coudersport.
