22.4 degrees, with a bright sunrise!
The sky was nearly clear, just before dusk last evening, and then ......
WOW!!!!
the lights all came on, and they were GRAND!If you missed them last night, they'll be on again this evening and then turned off until the formal lighting ceremony.
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(Photo by Jeff Reynolds.)The first art exhibit in the Hallway Gallery of the Waterville Public Library features the photography of Elliott Townsend, shown here with his parents at the opening reception.
"Girl with Lunchbox Purse" and "Colors Flying" are among several works that will be on display at the Library and at "Michael's" for the next weeks.
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Mr. Reynolds also sent two of his own photographs to me - these taken in Springfield on his commute to Cooperstown.
Also in yesterday's E-mail was this letter from Megan Barnes. I think you'll find it as interesting as I did!
Back in February a natural gas company called Ardent Resources was drilling for gas and got their drill bit stuck. To free the bit, they pumped TONS of air into the ground to break the rocks around it and pull it free. Finally after 17 hours (which I'm sure is another lie and it was actually a lot longer) they got the drill bit free. The air filled up the rock layer that holds all our water and is where all our wells are. The rock layer was blown to bits from this and the only way for the water to get out was through our wells. It blasted water like a geyser out of 39 wells and made the creeks all look like they were boiling.
To make a long story short, all but about 10 wells are clean again. The 10 that aren't fixed are all messed up in a different ways but it's been almost 8 weeks without really useable water for us. As an example, my well is full of colliform bacteria, still muddy and has so much methane in it that I can actually light my sink on fire. Other people ....... had their barn well for about twenty years which never went dry in that time and now not only does it go dry four days a week but it's also muddy and full of bacteria too. They were told they could get free clean water trucked in for the cows but then the lawyer for the company said they couldn't get anyone to deliver that far. So they have seen a drop in milk production since then.
The lawyer has been pushing this filtration system for each house plus some money to compensate us for the required maintence fees these filters need every year. They said they aren't obligated to drill new wells because there is a chance they would be drilling into the same muddy water. The two filtration systems they have put in so far worked for a few hours and then turned the water all soapy and made it smell. Some days my water clears up but then yesterday another seam in the rocks broke open and made it brown again. We've had no contact or support from Lauren Corbin, the town supervisor and the lawyer for the company told the D.E.C. that things were clearing up so much that they actually applied for another permit to come back and drill for gas again! We kind of feel like we've been left to fend for ourselves and have had very little success in dealing with the lawyer who is treating us like we have no idea what's going on. I've decided that we need a meeting at the firehouse next Thrusday, April 5th at 7pm to discuss this. It was a story that went from front page news to being totally forgotten about. It's hard to be patient after this much time of having to go somewhere else to shower, do dishes, laundry etc and only be given free bottled water and a free cheeseburger at Klings.
Comments? I'll send them along to Megan!
