Oct 2, 2013 3 min read

Some residents in Mt. Pleasant Township are not pleased with a closed-door conversation between some township officials and Range Resources representatives Wednesday afternoon.

Township zoning officer Larry Chome confirmed he attended a private meeting with officials from the natural gas drilling company yesterday, but declined to comment on the topic of discussion or identify others who attended. Township manager Mary Ann Stevenson, supervisor Larry Grimm and a Range spokesman did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

“I’m upset because I don’t know why they have to meet privately,” said township resident Maggie O’Lear. “I think the public should be in the know.”

O’Lear said her husband, Martin O’Lear, went to the municipal building Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. after learning about the private meeting and was told he couldn’t attend by township secretary Karen Fine. O’Lear said her husband wanted to request the notarized questions they submitted at the last public meeting regarding four Range water impoundments within the township – which were not read aloud during the public comment period – be read during the private meeting Wednesday.

O’Lear said she called township solicitor Bill Johnson, who confirmed he attended the meeting, along with Range representatives, Chome, Stevenson and Grimm. She said Johnson told her any resolutions discussed at the private meeting would be presented in another public meeting.

Resident Dencil Backus said he wished the public could have been included in the most recent discussion with Range regarding the future of the Carter, Cowden, Clingerman and Stewart impoundments.

“I can only hope that whatever they did at this meeting will be dealt with in a public meeting of some sort and that they will be receptive to what it is that the residents have to say about these impoundments and whatever Range has proposed to be done,” Backus said. “I’m pleased that there are negotiations ongoing. I’m kind of disappointed that some of the residents who have been the ones most affected by these impoundments have not been privy to the meeting.”

Resident Janet Lauff, who is represented by attorney Dwight Ferguson, also said she disapproved of the private meeting.

“This is not just an issue with us who are living by the impoundments. This is a township issue,” Lauff said. “We’re the ones who are affected, and then they take it behind closed doors.”

Ferguson, who represents seven clients who live near the impoundments, said the private meeting did not violate the Sunshine Act because there was no voting quorum present. However, he said the meeting was inconsistent with the township’s practice of transparency up until now.

“The purpose of the meeting on Saturday was to avoid the legitimate criticism which was leveled at Cecil Township for holding closed door meetings with Range Resources,” Ferguson said. “And so, that’s why the Mt. Pleasant Township supervisors seemed to adopt a policy of transparency by holding that meeting on Saturday, and that was very admirable and appropriate.”

Ferguson said he is not against the township’s efforts to reach a resolution with Range, but he doesn’t “think that should involve the township permanently legitimizing what they have already characterized as violations of their ordinances.”