Eastern Hills, Meadowbrook, Tandy Hills added

Thank you to the new readers who continue to join Blogging the Barnett Shale! By request, we're adding the Eastern Hills and Meadowbrook neighborhoods to our "categories" list, and moving Tandy Hills to this string. Feel free to use this as a forum to pose questions to your neighbors, ask questions of us, or chat with other neighborhoods. Just click on the "comments" button at the bottom of this post!

-- Scott

(S-T photo: Cinco de Mayo celebration, Meadowbrook Park)

Comments

[alicewonders]

OK we met, a huge group of us. We listened and we believed that what was put before us was an honest effort to negotiate a real deal. Now I am beginning to doubt the integrity of the group that represented us. Were they really trying to help or was it just another ploy to stop drilling on the East side? Have we been skunked? Were the terms of the lease agreement so extreme that they would never receive consideration? Was there a "poison pill" included that would negate any negotiations? If not, why have we not heard from our leaders? Are the "just say no" group high fiving it at our expense? Face it. All around us people are negotiating with the lease companies. As the circle of leasers grows larger into the outskirts of Fort Worth, one wonders if the intent is to leave us behind. One also wonders why the people opposed to gas drilling were not at this big meeting to protest. Hmmmmmm

[waitdon'tsignyet]

BIG MEETING FOR EAST SIDE DEC 13TH!! A task force has put together a lease agreement for the largest group of neighborhoods yet. It represents 5 neighborhood associations and will be at 6:30 Eastern Hills High School. Please help us get the message out, tell your neighbors.

[waitdon'tsignyet]

BIG MEETING FOR EAST SIDE DEC 13TH!! A task force has put together a lease agreement for the largest group of neighborhoods yet. It represents 5 neighborhood associations and will be at 6:30 Eastern Hills High School. Please help us get the message out, tell your neighbors.

[Clayton]

Thank You Suzette, Obviously D.H. is a member of the Meadowbrook/Oak Hills Task force committee and will like most self-proclaimed POLICERS, attack anyone who disagrees with their views. I hope many will attend the meeting, and they need to attend other meetings as well. I believe the meeting you listed is a Dale Resources meeting and Paloma is also leasing in the area. I don't know when they (Paloma) have one scheduled; homeowners will have to call them to find out. Thanks

[Suzette]

Public Gas Lease Meeting for Meadowbrook area residents. Thursday, Dec. 13th 6:30pm, Eastern Hills High School Auditorium.

[Suzette]

D.H. - Just answer Clayton's question. Why such sensitivity? He must have hit a nerve and there must be a degree of truth in his one statement (the rest were questions)or you would not have come at him with such accusatory projections. From the experience that I have had in dealing with just one, West Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association "committees," indeed are very self proclaimed and lacking in exploring options, voices of different ideas/opinions, or the brutal truth of how they function.

[D.H.]

Obvious, Clayton sounds like a landman who has to make up lies to make himself feel good. We pray for the weak. The people were voted in by the members of the Neighborhood Association. Don't weary be happy. Clayton you will get your chance.

[Clayton]

There is big question when it comes to the Neighborhood Association Committees charged with negotiating the lease. Who put these people in place and how many of them are No Urban Drillers? And if they are not No Urban Drillers, how can you be sure they have your best interests at heart if you didn't elect them as a group. After all, it wouldn't be the first time a committee sided with one group from the beginning without exploring any other options, because that self-proclaimed "BEST IN URBAN DRILLING" paid off the committee.

[Clayton]

The MAJORITY of Meadowbrook has already signed leases and has continued signing since the start at the end of July. As far as the safety issues go, each homeowner should write down THEIR own concerns and contact the companies and ask them on the line, what are you going to do a bought this issue. If need be have them include it in the lease. As for the quality of life issues, the companies as a rule do try to make the sites as green and unsightly as possible, but I wouldn't want anything to take away from the quality of all the abandoned businesses and leaking gas stations scattered thought out the area. I would hope the money this industry brings here could do some good to make things better. I mean are we better off with the run down buildings or the gas wells.

[B. Jammin]

Based on these comments I would say the majority of you are not concerned at all about safety or quality of life issues. How can people make comments one week about how concerned everyone should be & then next week say you are "sitting pretty" because you haven't signed a lease. Which is it? Is this a community lease like Woodhaven?

[Suzette]

Does anyone KNOW where the majority lies in the Meadowbrook area? If majority is or has signed....what difference does anything make? If the majority has not signed, then I say Meadowbrook is sitting pretty. Who knows where the majority stands?

[Suzette]

I think people will be perfectly willing to wait and be patient. They just want to be updated at least monthly, on what has taken place regarding the negotiating. Even if it's "nothing has changed, we are still waiting"...people just want to know something periodically. Hopefully, at the big initial meeting, email addresses were obtained and can be utilized in getting out information. Thanks to the Star Telegram, blog sites like this will be extremely useful for many. Great idea Star-telegram. Thank you.

[Suzette]

I have often wondered....what "25% of royalties" means exactly. I mean, 25% of what...who is going to be doing the measuring? The Gas Company? Hummmmm, I would make sure that "royalties" is defined on paper and all parties agree to the definition and measuring thereof.

[Susan]

to WKNJOE.

The decision to lease or not lease is an individual one. From what I understand, the gas drilling committee's is neither for nor against drilling. That is an individual decision. However, the committee does want to protect the neighborhood and it's residents by providing information so that residents can make an informed decision. What's the harm in that?

To those reading these posts who live in Meadowbrook and through out the city. Negotiations TAKE TIME. Keep that in mind before you get antsy and sign a bad lease.

[Susan]

Thank you Archie for relaying the incredibly simple way to find out what the neighborhood drilling committee is doing.

When over 600 people attended the first community meeting (which was put together in an urgent attempt to give our neighbors SOME information before they signed the ridiculous lease initially offered by Dale on Chesapeake's behalf), it was very apparant that our residents are craving information.

However, these are neighborhood associations who depend on dues from their members and they don't have the finances to mail a letter every week to every resident in the Meadowbrook area. So, yes, please, everyone accept some personal responsibility to find out for yourselves what work the committee has done and is doing. Find out what neighborhood you live in, join their association and/or at least make sure you can be communicated with in an easy manner such as by e-mail.

The committee knows your need and thirst for information and will be getting it to you soon. In the mean time, be patient!! No matter what side of this issue you are on, time will be helpful. If the drilling company really needs 5 years to drill, waiting a few months for a more appealing lease is surely worthwhile. Not just for the money, but for other factors as well.

[Archie]

To B. Humphries: I may or may not be going to the bank with the rest of the royalty owners, only time will tell. AND I'm not completely sure the cost of driving to the bank will not overshadow any royalty payments....nor are you.

[Archie]

First, if you want to know what is happining with the Greater Meadowbrook Mineral Leasing Task Force I would suggest you call or email your neighborhood association president as each of them created a neighborhood drilling committee and then sent representatives to the greater task force. As I have been told, the purpose of the Task Force is to review other community leases and to discuss gas drilling issues of importance to eastsiders...which would include financial, environmental, safety AND the Tandy Hills Nature Area.

I don't think you are going to find out much by sending messages to the ST. I called my neighborhood president. Found that number in my neighborhood newsletter. Easy as pie!

[wknjoe]

I believe most reasonable and caring people will support the noble efforts to protect the rich flora and fauna history at the Tandy Hills Park with real enthusiasm. However, JUST SAY NO, is not the brush that should be used to paint the entire Meadowbrook area. Making our community the ONLY local neighborhood NOT to receive benefits from the Barnett Shale would be cause for a celebratory high-five for an important but small minority. However, I don't think that victory will resonate so well with the majority of homeowners. Let's face it, a good gas lease deal, as has been successfully negotiated by clearly focused and motivated neighborhood groups in other parts of the city, has created some very real and timely rewards to home owners. Suspect those folks also care a great deal about their environment and quality of life. The difference between $3000 per acre offered on our beloved Eastside and $10,000 plus community perks offered to more affluent neighborhoods is something that needs to be strongly rejected. The question is, who is now stepping up to do this important work for the majority and are they motivated to make a better deal or just say no?

[baron-samedi]

to B Humphries:

Suzette's comments above refer to Don Young's "tireless efforts to protect" Tandy Hills Park.

It's certainly your right to foolishly conflate Young's work in this regard with his work against urban gas drilling (I'm not sure that Young always makes enough of a distinction between the two issues), but they really are separate issues.

There are plenty of us who have leased our mineral rights who would do whatever it takes to keep and maintain Tandy Hills Park even while going to the bank by your side.

So go ahead and lease your rights (though given the current climate of communities receiving increasing bonuses and royalty rates, if you are going to lease your minerals, you'd be crazy to sign a lease on your own without joining with your neighbors), or don't sign a lease.

But either way, keep Chesapeake from screwing around with Tandy Hills Nature Center.

Support the development of a strong master plan for Tandy Hills, one that will protect the nature center and provide a lasting legacy for Fort Worth residents.

[B. Humphries]

To all of the above, stick with D. Young and you will not be going
to the bank with the rest of the royality owners. You will be left out, bypassed and forgotten in 6 months, as he will be.

[wknjoe]

Good question. What is the Greater Meadowbrook Leasing Committee doing and how does one find out? I uderstand it is made up of leaders of the Neighborhood Associations, but don't know if the group is unified FOR responsible urban gas drilling or AGAINST it altogether, as in just say no. If this is the group will be doing our negotiating, then they need to be FOR responsible gas drilling and focused on making the best lease deal for the neighborhood with obvious consideration for environmental and safety issues. We certainly don't want "negotiating" to become a vechile for obstruction and delay.

[Suzette]

Nice to see that the City of Fort Worth cares about Tandy Hills Park. I hope it gets alot of money and restoration. Where would we be without Don Young and his tireless efforts to protect this beautiful park? I'm all for saving our greenery -- it's exciting to see that this is becoming such a hot issue. It needs to remain a hot issue because when it's gone.....it's gone. We all need to keep our politicians committed to saving our environment....our natural resource and our beautiful City of Fort Worth.

[Suzette]

I have heard some Meadowbrook residents complain that they are not being updated on what's going on regarding the committee that is supposedly working with the drilling companies on getting everyone a good deal on their minerals. How does one find out the status of such workings?