Don't get violent over pipeline, officials urge area landowners

Pipeline opponents and the sheriff are seeking legal advice about property rights.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- John Garwood, president of Columbiana County Landowners Association and Nancy Cope, county farm bureau organization director, strongly urge area landowners not to allow their fight against a natural gas pipeline to turn violent.
Columbiana County Sheriff Dave Smith said he has had calls from some landowners in the past few days who say they will resort to violence to keep pipeline surveyors off their property. Some landowners have contacted members of the local unorganized militia for support, Smith said.
Landowners and pipeline companies have varying opinions about whether surveying can be done without landowners' permission. Garwood said surveyors are waiting for a break in the weather, and surveying is to begin in western Ohio counties and move eastward.
Don't advocate violence: Cope said property-rights issues stir strong emotions, but the farm bureau has never advocated violence as a solution.
"We certainly understand that people want to protect their property," Cope said. "People are anxious about this and have very deep, heartfelt feelings. But this debate is one that should be settled in the courts, not out in the fields."
Garwood said the landowners association condemns any notion of armed resistance or any other violence against surveyors or any other pipeline representatives.
The pipeline would cross about 100 acres of High Hope Farms, which Garwood and his wife, Linda, own in Fairfield Township.
"There's no way we want people taking things into their own hands," Garwood said. "We have never allowed such discussions at our meetings. That's not what we're about.
"We have accomplished a lot through proper, legal means," he said. "Through all of this, we have tried to do everything by the book. We intend for that to continue."
Contacts made: Garwood said he has contacted Ohio Farm Bureau Federation attorneys, and Smith said he is seeking an opinion from the county prosecutor and the state attorney general. Smith has also contacted sheriffs in western Ohio counties to see how they will handle the situation.
"I want to be clear on this before they [surveyors] come here," Smith said. "What I don't want is to be called out to someone's property and go out there cold. People will be handing me legal documents and claiming different things. I want to know what to look for."
Local landowners remain hopeful that a federal judge will overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval for pipeline construction. The case will be heard Oct. 5.
The pipeline is to extend from Defiance, Ohio, to Leidy, Pa., passing through Stark and Columbiana counties in Ohio and Butler and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania.
Gas company officials have said the project's goal is to pipe cheaper gas -- primarily from Canada -- to the heavily populated areas of the east coast.
Local landowners fear the pipeline would restrict access to their land and damage crops and tile drainage systems.