Mansfield group to contemplate sponsorship of natural gas education project

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MANSFIELD - A new organization that wants to educate the public about what is going on in the natural gas industry in Tioga County, particularly Richmond Township, approached the Betterment Organization of Mansfield Thursday to be an "umbrella" organization.

Ed Trask, founder of the "Marcellus Shale Community Education Team" spoke to the members of BOOM at their first meeting of the New Year, outlining his plan to "help the local community" with everything that has to do with the gas industry, from what to do with their newfound money to getting jobs in the industry.

The funding for the $80,000 per year payroll would come from contributions from members, such as his family, which has already contributed $10,000, and others, such as members of the gas industry itself.

If there wasn't enough money in the fund, then "we don't get paid," Trask said.

Trask and his family - his mother is former district judge Eleanor Trask - already have plans in the works to develop a housing complex on family owned property on South Main Street, near Walmart.

The family already owns a trailer park on the property.

The new "Canoe Camp Village" will be constructed, hopefully starting this spring, Trask said, across the street from his mother's business "Grandma's Kitchen."

"I see huge changes coming to the community. I believe that royalty income will soon exceed earned income," he said, adding "that's a lot of money."

Trask said that he was led to organize the MSCET group after "talking to a lot of people."

According to Trask, who said he spoke with an official from East Resources, one of the main drillers in the county, that they intend to drill 6,000 wells in both Tioga and Bradford counties, but "mostly in Tioga County."

Housing has proven to be a problem for the influx of workers to the county, Trask said, with landlords he has spoken with talking about getting $1,200 a month for a double-wide.

Part of the group's plans, Trask said is to hold "community education programs, designed to give citizens quality information about the gas industry activities and its impacts."

"The average guy on the street knows squat, or what they do know is rumor," Trask said.

Trask said he hopes to hold his first event, possibly at the fire hall here, sometime in March or April.

"We're going to hire someone to put out a journal that we will publish every month," he said.

Included in the discussions Trask said he hopes to have with the community will be "what do we value and what do we want to protect?"

"More people will come in, possibly doubling the township's population in the next 10 years, which I think is a good thing. "More people means more volunteers to run Little League, attend our churches and volunteer in our organizations," he said.

Right now, Trask said, Richmond Township has about 3,100 adults between the ages of 25 and 80.

"That's not a lot of people," he said.

BOOM decided to hold another meeting in two weeks to give its membership time to discuss the idea of taking on the organization, which would be "setting a precedent," said member Scott Bastian.