Community Bill of Rights May Morph into Anti-Fracking Resolution

By Christina Georgiou

There is a good chance the recent proposal that the City of Easton adopt a Community Bill of Rights will yield an anti-fracking resolution proposal shortly, Mayor Sal Panto said at Wednesday evening's city council meeting.

Discussing the previous evening's city council workshop meeting, Panto said he feels a resolution that addresses citizens' and council's concerns regarding the dangers associated with extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation and subsequent disposal of related materials is an appropriate legislative tool to deal with the issue. He added he feels it is less risky for the city than the bill of rights a group of citizens have offered up and have been pushing to be adopted by council.

The citizens have already offered a revision to the "bill of rights," making it oriented toward natural gas extraction, but both the mayor and city solicitors, along with some members of council have stated they have worries the language in that document is too broad and would leave the City of Easton open to a variety of legal issues if implemented.

Panto said Councilwoman Elinor Warner and Councilman Mike Fleck will head-up an ad hoc committee “to form a resolution that at least four members of council can approve.”

To that end, Panto recommended that the two council members contact citizens who have previously publicly spoken on the issue and conference with them to come up with a solution.

Fleck, though initially stating he wasn't sure how to proceed, agreed to the plan.

Warner, who originally proposed the Community Bill of Rights for Easton on behalf of the citizens' group at their request, was not present due to being away from the city while traveling on business.

Panto said he hopes the ad hoc committee will complete their work in about a month, and that the council will have a resolution to address potential fracking and gas-extraction issues in the city in about a month.