ThisWeek Community Newspapers Upper Arlington
Page C2
March 10, 2011
Block Watch getting off to Energy gold rush hits central Ohio landowners a good start in Marble Cliff Oil company contracts tricky, expert says
By ALAN FROMAN
By MICHAEL J. MAURER
Crooks may want to think twice before heading into the village of Marble Cliff to commit a crime. More than two dozen village residents attended a meeting last month to kick off an effort to create a neighborhood watch program. “It was quite a turnout,” said Marble Cliff Village Council member Kendy Troiano, who is helping to coordinate the effort. “We were thrilled with how many people attended,” she said. “It’s great to know so many people are interested in being part of a neighborhood watch program,” said Grandview police detective Carol Harper. Harper spoke at the meeting, providing an overview of what a neighborhood watch is and tips on protecting yourself from being a crime victim. “Basically, a neighborhood watch involves people watching out for their neighbors,” Harper said. Participants in a watch program learn what is suspicious activity and how to observe and recognize when such activity may be occurring in their neighborhood, she said. The idea of starting a neighborhood watch in Marble Cliff came after a number of incidents last year in which cars and garages in the village were broken into or disturbed, Troiano said. “We had a resident on Cambridge who had a car stolen and her house broken into and her purse and laptop stolen,” she said. “Very few people knew that had happened.” The resident had asked council if something could be done and Troiano volunteered to help coordinate a neighborhood watch for the village. “I thought if people knew what to look for, they
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Higher energy prices means energy companies are once again interested in Ohio lands for gas exploration, and the resultant rush to wrap up contracts with landowners risks leaving some landowners holding an empty bag. About 100 people attended a presentation Feb. 24 at the Ohio State University Newark campus regarding traditional oil and gas contracts and how current contracts have changed, potentially shortchanging landowners. Howard J. Siegrist, Licking County agricultural extension coordinator, said the state of Pennsylvania has seen a boom during the past three years in oil companies developing Marcellus shale and Utica shale in the Alleghenyrange area, extending all the way into central Ohio. Siegrist said it is unfortunate that most landowners simply don’t have the expertise to negotiate complicated leases and tax implications. “This whole process some of you are going through right now is not in the next six weeks or two months,” Siegrist said. “You might be fact-finding for several months.” Dick Emens, an energy attorney, said more than 1,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania during the current boom and another 500 in West Virginia. Ohio has fewer than 50 wells, but the number is growing. New York state, in contrast, has a much larger amount of Marcellus shale but has no wells because the state’s EPA is not allowing
A closer look About 100 people attended a presentation Feb. 24 at the Ohio State University Newark campus regarding traditional oil and gas contracts and how current contracts have changed, potentially shortchanging landowners.
wells until it completes an environmental study. Emens cited many examples of energy companies taking advantage of landowner inexperience by including contract clauses that are difficult for most people to understand. “Please don’t sign an oil and gas lease without understanding every word in it,” Emens said. “So many call up and say, ‘I signed this lease; what can I do to get out of it?’ It’s really sad.” Prices range a great deal, Emens said, adding that he has seen one landowner be paid $100 an acre while one neighbor receives $300 and another receives $1,500 for comparable land. Some leases insert complicated clauses in them about gas storage and about deep waste-injection wells, which are entirely different from gas-production wells, Emens said, and should have entirely separate contracts. “Those are very valuable wells,” Emens said. “People pay to get rid of wastewater. Some of these leases just have a little clause that says lessee has the right to drill injection or disposal wells. They
Home sales Upper Arlington
might pay you a dollar an acre or $1,000 a year, but you should get a lot more than that for an injection well on your property.” Another clause Emens has seen states that no “implied covenants” are in the contract. The problem with this, he said, is that landowners do not know what implied covenants are, and the covenants have been developed by courts exactly because oil companies take advantage of landowner ignorance. Examples are a duty to develop and produce, which is the only way landowners get paid a fair return for the lease, Emens said. Other provisions would allow energy companies to use the water resources on the land, but this could be dangerous because many drilling technologies use large amounts of water that could affect the landowners’ use of the land, too, he said. Landowners also are at risk of being misled into believing they are signing a lease for only five years, but that various clauses having to do with mineral rights, easements, gas storage and discretion of the oil company to extend the lease if its own opinion is that the land could someday produce gas could all result in the landowner being tied up for years, perhaps forever, with no revenue coming in, he said. Emens said the main thing was to be informed and to keep a copy of the lease. “I can’t tell you how many landowners don’t have a copy of their lease,” Emens said. “The first thing we tell them is, they have to go to the courthouse and get a copy of the lease.”
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
could let the police know if something unusual was happening in the village,” Troiano said. “I distributed fliers about the meeting to houses in the village, but I wasn’t sure what kind of a response we would get.” The police department encourages the formation of neighborhood watch groups, Harper said. “We can’t be everywhere 24/7,” she said. “Although our officers patrol the area as often as they can, they can’t be everywhere all the time. “Residents can be our eyes and ears when we’re not there,” Harper said. “They might be able to notice when something’s not right and call us to let us know.” Participants in a neighborhood watch should not confront a suspicious person themselves, but call the police, she said. It may be easier for residents in a small community like Marble Cliff to recognize when suspicious activity is occurring, because they know each other, Troiano said. “We have residents who walk their dogs around our community two or three times a day, and they may be able to keep an eye out,” she said. Block captains will serve to keep other participants informed about incidents that have occurred in the community, Troiano said. The Marble Cliff effort marks the first official neighborhood watch program in the Grandview/Marble Cliff area, Harper said. “We’ve had a couple of unofficial programs,” she said. “We’d like to see more neighborhood watch programs get started in our community.” The police department page on the city of Grandview’s website includes a link to information about how to start a neighborhood watch, Harper said. Troiano said she plans to schedule another Marble Cliff neighborhood watch meeting in May.
Metro Park district The following is a list of Metropolitan Park District of Columbus and Franklin County programs for this week. Blendon Woods Metro Park 4265 State Route 161 E., Westerville • Preschoolers: Ssssnakes!, 10 a.m. Saturday at the Nature Center. Discover snakes through song, story and role-playing. • Mysteries of Flight, 2 p.m. Sunday at the Nature Center. Discover how nature invented flight and how animals fly. • Homeschoolers: working Worms, 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Nature Center, for ages 6-12. Enjoy stories from the book “Diary of a Worm” and explore the world of real worms.
at the bulletin board at the picnic nic Area. Take a two-mile walk shelter at the main park entrance. in search of frogs, migrating birds Take a one-mile hike and discover and other signs of the season. salamanders at the vernal pool. • Timberdoodle Time, 6 p.m. Saturday at the Glacier Knoll PicHighbanks Metro Park nic Area. Take a one-mile walk 9466 U.S. 23 N., Lewis Center to watch the aerial courtship of • Metro Five-0: Level 2 —Wel- the American woodcock. come Spring, 1 p.m. Friday at the • Backcountry Wandering, 2 Nature Center, for ages 50 and p.m. Sunday at the Glacier Knoll older. View a slide show and take Picnic Area. Take a three-mile an optional short walk to see signs on- and off-trail walk to search of the changing season. for migrating birds and singing frogs. Inniswood Metro Gardens • Calling All Coyotes, 7:30 p.m. 940 Hempstead Road, Thursday at the Glacier Knoll Westerville Picnic Area. Discover ways coy• Meet the Artist, 2-4 p.m. Sun- otes live with humans and ways day at the Innis House. Meet artist humans can live with coyotes and of the month Paul Williams and try to call some in with howls on view his photography. a two-mile hike.
C. Petro, $188,000. Columbus/43228 525 Garden Rd, 43214, Mau2302 Siskin Ave, 43228, Guy 2265 Atlee Ct, 43220, Penelope reen L. Flynn, $183,000. B. Selsor and Constance E. Foos, J. Perkins, $337,500. 162 Sheffield Rd, 43214, Fan- $159,500. 4249 Castleton Rd, 43220, Lyn nie Mae, $144,000. 1432 Bellow Falls Pl, 43228, and Cheri Amaral, $255,000. Kanisha L. Goff, $154,509. 3507 River Avon Cir, 43221, Hilliard 1444 Bellow Falls Pl, 43228, Pamela J. Liebert, $589,900. 2768 Carifa Dr, 43026, Aaron Shawn W. Uhas and Allison M. 3498 Riverview Dr, 43221, Pickerington Ponds Richard H. Pin and Lydia Gior- P. Sanderson and Abbey G. Luczka, $137,609. Sanderson, $179,000. Glacier Ridge Metro Park Metro Park dano, $391,500. 5588 Villa Gates Dr, Units 6- Check out recent home sales in 9801 Hyland Croy Road, 7680 Wright Road, 3577 Redding Rd, 43221, Ralph 5588, 43026, Judith F. Twiss, other central Ohio neighborhoods Plain City Canal Winchester A. King, $177,500. • Salamander Search, 2 p.m. • Search for Spring, 2 p.m. Satat www.ThisWeekNews.com. Click 1904 Zollinger Rd, 43221, $174,000. 2944 Culver Dr, 43026, on Recent Home Sales. Saturday and 6 p.m. Wednesday urday at the Glacier Knoll PicCaitlin J. McLain and Scott J. Matthew I. Verhotz and JacqueChaffin, $158,500. 3236 Brookview Way, 43221, lyn M. Verhotz, $149,900. 5794 Trailwater Ln, 43026, Francis T. Gallo, Jr.; Condo, Beau J. Brammer, $135,500. $127,300. 2669 Whirlwind Cove Ct, 43026, R. Sheets and Grandview Heights AshleighNicholas R. Sheets, $124,700. 1449 Arlington Ave, 43212, 1896 Dry Wash Rd, 43026, Michael P. Leach, $475,000. Michael S. Zimmerman and Gayle N. Zimmerman, $124,000. Clintonville/ 5561 Bluegrass Way, 43026, Beechwold American General Financial Ser154 Kelso Rd, 43202, Michael vices, $90,000.
Interpreters and assistive listening devices for persons with hearing impairments are available for any program. Call 891-0700 (TDD 895-6240) to schedule these services.
Weight loss surgery is a real solution for teens struggling with obesity. Learn more. Tickets
March 10–27, 2011
9-18
$
Park Street Theatre 512 Park Street, Columbus, Ohio Sponsored by:
3 Ways To Purchase Tickets: Call CCT at 614-224 - 6672 Call CAPA 614 - 469 - 0939 Visit TicketMaster.com
Based upon the book by E.B. White, Adapted for the stage by Joseph Robinette Recommended for everyone age 3 and older –60 minutes.
Bariatric Surgery Information Session Nationwide Children’s Hospital Monday, March 28, 2011 5–6 p.m. 700 Children’s Drive, Columbus Education Center, Room 131 Join us for a FREE Information Session to learn about the 3 types of weight loss surgery available for teens to combat obesity and the risks, advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as information about available financing. Hear the benefits of bariatric surgery from surgeon Dr. Marc Michalsky and a past bariatric surgery patient. For more information and other upcoming information sessions, visit www.NationwideChildrens.org/Bariatric-Surgery or call (614) 929-2029.
www.ColsChildrensTheatre.org