02/16/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting Minutes 2-16-09 Page 3 COMMENTS FROM MAYOR RINKER: Before Mayor Rinker swears in Mr. Feudo, he would like to bring us all up to speed and address this issue that has been raised -tonight as far as the drilling. He was prepared to suggest that Council vote this with the thought that Council would probably vote it down because it seems that no matter what we have done, we are kind of damned if we do and damned if we don't. But when he hears expressions from residents in the Village saying that they have just learned about this or they axe concerned about getting more information, probably two things ought to be said. One, he spoke with Dr. Parker before tonight's meeting, who is the Councilman for your Ward, one of your neighbors. He asked Mayor Rinker and Mayor Rinker said he would be happy to attend a neighborhood association and talk about these issues at length. Mayor Rinker has also said that he wants Dr. Parker to collect all of the Minutes, all of the memoranda, analyses, legal memoranda, we will copy in all of the documents. Mayor Rinker did not bring it in with him, but he has a gusset about this thick. He knows it is not even all of the documentation that we have generated over the last year and a half. We have been very sensitive and mindful of the fact that in any neighborhood where drilling is being proposed, it has been alarming to people to say the least. It is appropriate that we underscore the fact that this Council and our Planning and Zoning Commission has been very much concerned about the lack of our ability to control this. This is a state mandated matter and we have really had our hands full. We don't control it with zoning. The most that we can do is either through direct negotiation or at least regulating in some fashion the issues. We have compared notes with Gates Mills for example which has about four dozen wells. They have had more experience with this. Our Fire Chief has talked with theirs on some of these calls. We have tried to understand that. We have looked at a variety of ways. Planning and Zoning probably studied this issue over the course of several months, very open and really very creative ways of looking at trying to map literally where these wells might be in this area because we happen to be in a gas-rich location, especially south of Highland Road. Mayor Rinker could go on and on, but he is not going to. We had one meeting and when Mr. Coughlin showed up at that meeting, he came in about halfway through to what turned out to be an over three-hour meeting that we had in the auditorium last Fall. We have had a lot of ineetings since then. We had a number of ineetings before that. We have really tried to be very exhaustive. Until one recognizes however belatedly that this may be coming in next door to a house, coming to a neighborhood near you, it is very upsetting. We understand that. Frankly, we have had so much dialogue on this and studied so many different ways. We have had a number of well-attended meetings. If someone has not attended that or they have not compared notes with their neighbor or their neighborhood association has not been able to convene and the fact that you felt that you had to sign a petition to get our attention, it's not that you have had our attention, Mayor Rinker just does not know if we have had yours. Mayor Rinker does not want to look at this and say that we have failed anybody. He does not think anyone on Council does either. He is not sure what we can accomplish other than he