Natural-gas wells help provide revenue

Lease money is used for capital improvements.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Mill Creek Park has $1.1 million in a reserve fund from natural-gas well leases on property that surrounds the park.
"We do not have any gas wells on park property," said Susan Dicken, park executive director.
But in 1993, park commissioners passed a resolution establishing that money from gas well leases on surrounding property would be placed into a reserve fund for capital improvements, particularly those that are unforeseen, she said.
How leases work
That money is from natural-gas wells drilled on property near the park for which the park must sign leases. To drill a gas well, a company must obtain a minimum 40-acre lease, and a well cannot be closer than 500 feet to someone who doesn't have a lease agreement.
If a company wanted to drill a gas well, for example, it would have to enter a lease agreement with the property owner as well as with those surrounding that property.
"If a company has the acreage, and we're included, and everyone else has signed on prior to us, we would sign," Dicken said.
More than 135 gas wells that have been drilled over the last 20 to 30 years dot Boardman Township with some surrounding park property.
Dave Matak of Ohio Valley Energy Systems of Austintown, which owns many of the wells, said that Austintown and Canfield both have about 100 gas wells each.
Matak doesn't expect a recent change in state law to bring substantially more gas wells to Boardman.
It's about drilled out, he said.
In September 2004, the state Legislature changed the law regulating gas and oil drilling.
Companies formerly had to submit permits to the state, saying they would follow all local regulations.
Many townships and municipalities had zoning regulations governing where gas wells could be placed.
But the new law removed the local requirement, leaving permitting regulations strictly in the hands of state officials.
Improvements
Dicken said that the reserve fund has been useful in recent years to correct damage caused by flooding.
At a meeting last month, park commissioners allocated up to $50,000 more to address problems with roads that were worsened by heavy rains of 2003 and 2004.
That money left the fund at $1.1 million.
The $50,000 was to address problems on West Drive, where the road's shoulder started to slip a few years ago and to repair pavement on Glacier Drive and Robinson Hill.
Money from the fund also was used to repair slippage on East Cohasset Drive caused by heavy rain and to provide the local match from a state highway grant to repair the Pine Hollow Bridge on East Cohasset.