Use of gas money on park improvements subject of W&J event
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Chartiers Township Manager Jodi Noble reads from slides during a presentation Thursday organized by the Center for Energy Policy and Management at Washington & Jefferson College.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Lisa Cessna, executive director of the Washington County planning commission, discusses funding sources for park improvements on Thursday organized by the Center for Energy Policy and Management at Washington & Jefferson College.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Lisa Cessna, executive director of the Washington County planning commission, discusses funding sources for park improvements on Thursday organized by the Center for Energy Policy and Management at Washington & Jefferson College.
A group of about a dozen people gathered on Washington & Jefferson’s campus on Thursday to hear several speakers discuss how funds from state programs and other outside sources could pay for park improvements.
Speakers during the roughly two-hour session included Lisa Cessna, executive director of the Washington County planning commission; Jodi Noble, the manager of Chartiers Township; and Adam Mattis, regional adviser for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who outlined various state grant programs.
The event was organized by the college’s Center for Energy Policy and Management. Corey Young, executive director of the center, said its purpose was “not advocating for or against any particular policy but just giving you lots of information about policy.”
Much of the discussion centered on use of money from impact fees – collected from gas well operators and distributed to the state and local governments to offset the effects of the industry under Act 13, passed in 2012 – to fund parks and other amenities.
Noble and Cessna also discussed how their respective employers use Act 13 revenue and the proceeds of leases with gas drillers to fund park projects. Among the projects Cessna highlighted was the Henry House, a late-18th-century log cabin in Mingo Creek County Park. The county is paying for the restoration of the old structure with proceeds from gas leases in the park.
“There is actually a contractor working now, gutting that interior and restoring the interior of the Henry House so that we can actually use it now,” she said. “Those are the kinds of things that you can do.”
The center also offered attendees a bus tour of the park in the afternoon.
Noble said it’s also possible to use Act 13 funds to cover the debt service on bonds floated for “master plans” for park improvements. For her, the industry’s money offered a way around municipal officials’ usual problem – how to fund expensive projects without raising property taxes or cutting into other services.
“By using non-taxpayer money, it’s much easier to justify expenditures on parks,” she said. “It makes it a lot easier to explain to them, no taxpayer-funded dollars went into this project.”
She denied that this reliance on funds from industry sources has any effect on how local officials evaluate gas companies’ applications for new facilities and enforce local zoning rules. Township officials “strictly go by our ordinances” and applicants know that, she asserted.
Lars Lange, who was appointed to fill a vacancy on the West Bethlehem Township board of supervisors last year, was one of those in the audience.
“I’m new as a supervisor, and our township’s never really pursued grants,” he said. “It’s to learn the process.”