Spafford

Link Here to Town of Spafford

On Thursday July 12, 2012 the Town Board of the Town of Spafford passed Local Law 2012-2 to amened and clarify the local zoning laws to specifically include prohibited heavy industrial activities not consistent with the Town Comprehensive Plan. Local Law 2 of 2012.

Town Board Meeting 7:00pm Thursday Feb. 23 2012
Public Hearing on Proposed Local Law 2012-1
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that there has been introduced before the Town Board of the Town of Spafford, County of Onondaga and State of New York, on the 9th day of February, 2012, a proposed local law for the Town of Spafford re-establishing a Moratorium banning Hydraulic Fracturing and/or Hydrofracking. The purpose of said proposed Local Law is to provide for a one-year moratorium on all applications and potential land use involving said banned activities.

PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that pursuant to Section 20 of the Municipal Home Rule Law, a public hearing will be held on the aforesaid proposed local law before the Town Board of the Town of Spafford at the Town Hall, located at 1984 Route 174, Skaneateles, New York 13125, on the 23rd day of February, 2012, commencing at 7:00 P.M., local time, at which time all interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard.

“Drilling and the DEC – Responding to New Guidelines” Informational Meeting at Borodino Hall Sept. 21, 7:00pm

How to respond to the DEC “Guidelines”? It is a 1000+ page report that the State is asking for comments on. We need to make a large number of comments.

Sponsored by Citizens to Protect Spafford Watersheds.

Town Board – September 8, 2011 7:00pm Public Hearing

Reporting from Spafford:

Tonight, after a lengthy hearing and numerous comments from many residents urging the Town to Ban Hydrofracking the Town Board passed a 180 day Moratorium on Fracking – the first step towards a ban.

All public comments were anti fracking and all were pushing the board to do more – to use the time to study the industry and clarify the Town Zoning to prohibit heavy industry in this pristine rural community that encompasses two major drinking water watersheds for Syracuse and Onondaga County. About 75 people were at the hearing (a lot).

Many residents had gone to Pennsylvania and seen the process for themselves and offered to raise the money to send the board down there to see it for themselves.

Right now, with the current DEC recommendations, half of this town is protected by the DEC because it is in the Skaneateles watershed, and their neighbors in the eastern half of the town in the Otisco Lake watershed are not protected. How crazy is that??

Notes from Town Board Meeting August 11, 2011 by Anita Williams

It was standing room only with Spafford residents and OLPA supporters at the meeting tonight! Webb Stevens, Town Supervisor warned he did not wish to “rehash” what was already said at last month’s Town Board meeting where he gave us a great deal of time to voice our concerns and issues regarding hydrofracking.

He continued to say Spafford was prepared to put forth a Resolution to enact a Hydrofracking Moratorium (very positive move for us), that there would be a Public Meeting on Thursday, Sept. 8th at 7:00 pm at the Spafford Town Hall. The Board would then vote on the moratorium and take that 6 month period to examine their options in addition to listen to what the DEC and NYS was going to say.

I was able to speak on behalf of the OLPA, thanked the Board for their action to move towards a moratorium and to ask one more request: for Spafford to join our other (4) Towns to create a Coalition and work together to protect Otisco lake and its watershed. (Mary Menapace will be doing the same with the Towns of Skaneateles Lake and we will work together regionally).

PLEASE put September 8th on your calendars and plan on attending! It is critical that we start asking our Towns to do more. Moratoriums are appreciated but we need to ask for an outright “BAN” to protect our lakes, watersheds and towns (using zoning and land use tools).

The Spafford Citizens group will be going door to door asking for signatures on a petition. Anyone interested in helping, please email Will Hier, will@iiscny.com, or Anne McElroy, mcelroys71@gmail.com. (Don’t forget: Aug. 17th Spafford meeting at the Bordino Grange to find out more!). Anyone interested in doing the same in our other Towns (Marcellus, Otisco, Onondaga and Tully) please let me know, email me at aniwillia@aol.com. Time is of the essence!

Thank You!
Anita Williams
President, Otisco Lake Preservation Association
otiscolakepreservation.org
492-6126

To Contact the Town of Spafford here is a link: Town of Spafford

August 11 Statement by William Hier to Town of Spafford Board submitted to the Board in writing at the meeting:(as the board only allowed one person to speak at that meeting and was not ready to open a public forum)

WILLIAM R. HIER
2423 ROUTE 174
MARIETTA, NY 13110

August 11, 2011

To: Spafford Town Board

I spent three days in the Towanda, Pennsylvania area last year. Until that time, I never really thought about hydrofracking. Sad to say, I am not really political. I’m no activist. I am probably like most others in Spafford who mind their own business and quietly live their lives. But, after seeing for myself the effects of hydrofracking in Bradford County, I have to stand up to try to protect what my wife, Maureen, and I have worked for, over the past 30 years in Spafford.

Like most of our Town’s residents, we love where we live. And, we believe there are few other places on this earth that are as beautiful as our area.

I, for one, want to keep it that way. My suspicion is just about every one of the other 1,600 plus town residents feels the same way. We will find out, because some of the members of this town will be going door to door, asking people to sign a petition, requesting the Town Board to modify our zoning to exclude specifically heavy industrial activity.

If you think about it, that’s not asking for anything unreasonable, since the intent of our current zoning code already is made to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the community and to protect, preserve and enhance the scenic qualities and rural character of the Town of Spafford. (Article 1-2, Zoning Code of the Town of Spafford). Heavy industrial activity is obviously not within the purview of that intent. So, our Town’s people are and will be requesting that our zoning code be modified to reflect that exclusion.

Why do we want heavy industrial activity specifically excluded? The answer is pretty simple: we do not want high volume hydraulic fracturing operations carried out within our town.

Why?

We do not want the water quality of our two lakes and watersheds jeopardized by hydrofracking operations.

We do not want the water quality of our wells, ponds, streams and creeks jeopardized by hydrofracking operations.

We do not want our soils poisoned by potential spills and run-off from flow-back or truck accidents involved in hydrofracking operations.

We do not want to breathe contaminated air, poisoned by invisible methane gases that are emitted from each and every well involved in hydrofracking operations.

We do not want our dairy farmers to suffer severe losses of milk production caused by cows terrorized by underground explosions, bad air, and incessant truck traffic involved in hydrofracking operations.

Above statement submitted by W. R. Hier to Town of Spafford August 11, 2011.