Residents Pack Mt. Pleasant Fire Hall for Conditional Use Hearing

Hundreds of residents again turned out to the Mt. Pleasant Fire Hall on Tuesday—this time to voice their concerns over the pros and cons of the conditional-use process.

John Smith, who serves as special counsel for the township for Marcellus Shale-related issues, began the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation that gave an overview of the issues at hand: from the job-creation potential the industry represents to the drilling process, to the differences between permitted and conditional-use processes.

After that, the hearing was opened up to the residents—some of whom needed to be reminded by the board solicitor Bill Johnson that the purpose of Tuesday's meeting was to take public comment, not to engage in a give-and-take with supervisors.

"This is not to be a dialogue between the audience and the supervisors," he said. "We're not going to do it this way. If you want to speak, come to the microphone and state your name."

What followed was resident after resident standing up and asking questions about everything from bunk housing to the the pros and cons of the conditional-use hearing.

The meeting came hours after a letter from Range Resources to Mt. Pleasant indicating they would be willing to sit down with the township and a mediator.

Read the whole story on Canon-McMillan Patch Wednesday morning.