Chesapeake Energy Entices Towanda's Police Chief to Take Gas Job

Towanda Borough Police Department has revealed that the Chief of Police, Mitch Osman, will leave the department to accept a job with Chesapeake Energy Corp. [Chief Osman may also have been frustrated (only guessing here) by the lack of extra funding and personnel needed to address the growing police needs of the area mostly due to the gas drilling industry.)A classic example of how the gas industry is siphoning off local people from public service jobs.  A few months ago, I attended a meeting about hydrofracking in Rochester, NY, at which Mike Lovegreen was a panel member.  Mike is the district manager for the Bradford County Conservation District, headquartered in Towanda, PA.  At the meeting Mike told me that several of his employees had left to accept jobs with the gas industry because the salaries were significantly higher.  He simply could not compete with that, given his budget.  And he said it was hard to find new people to fill these positions vacated by employees who left for better pay.

Boomtowns have this effect on local economies.  The Big Boys ride in to town, offer great (at least a little better) salaries to often economically depressed people.  The local people are enticed to go to work for them, in an effort to provide a better life for their families.  The local businesses take a hit.  It becomes a mono-economy, dependent on the gas industry.  Gas industry eventually leaves.  The area returns to its original condition or worse.

Will Bradford County experience this boom/bust cycle in the future?

Read the full article here.

Gas Industry: Great Jobs?

Vera Scroggins in Dimock, PA

Comments from Vera Scroggins:
Believe me, you won't be wanting these "great" jobs for your families--
12 hour days with 14 days on and 14 days off  with rates of $10 to $13 an hour
and exposed to dirty conditions with exposure to possible toxins
and dangers--
not something I want my children involved in or our husbands, dads, etc..--
the gas companies think we are so desperate here in Susquehanna County that
we will take any kind of low-level, donkey work--

the better, choicer jobs are for the out-of-staters--  
and they're not so great either--
 
The Gas Companies can't get enough people interested in their offerings--
I wonder why ?? !! 
and they have the nerve to say our people don't want to work--
I told them to offer humane jobs and conditions--
that went over their heads!!
   
Vera Scroggins
Citizens for Clean Water

Marcellus Shale: Economic Impacts Not All Good

Economic Impacts of Heavy Industrial Activities in the Town of Ulysses, New York

A talk by Dr. Jannette Barth, PhD, given in May 2011.

Jannette Barth, PhD (Economist). Other speakers include Carolyn Knapp and Carol French (PA dairy farmers); and members of the Ulysses Town Board. May 21, 2011, Trumansburg Fire Hall. Co-sponsored by Back to Democracy, Concerned Citizens of Ulysses, and Ulysses Gas Drilling Advisory Board.

Watch this outstanding talk by Dr. Barth here: LINK  (Total time: 38 minutes)
Introduction of Jannette Barth prior to her talk: LINK
Read an article by Dr. Barth (Economic Impact of Gas Drilling in the Catskills) here.