NORWICH – The Chenango County Board of Supervisors threw its full support behind a consultant who is charged with developing business opportunities within the natural gas industry.
The board voted unanimously Monday to hire on Preston businessman Steven Palmatier of Walking Ridge Development LLC for the remainder of the year and throughout 2010. Palmatier already serves on Commerce Chenango’s governmental affairs committee and the county’s natural gas committee, and has actively pursued economic development, educational and training contacts on behalf of Chenango County for the past several months.
Planning and Economic Development Committee Chairperson Linda E. Natoli said the board’s previous questions regarding a possible conflict of interest in hiring Palmatier, who is a well owner, were “not a conflict in the name of economic development.”
“We are all very aware and we are confident that he will contact us if anything comes up that is questionable in terms of ethics,” she said. “We need to move ahead with this opportunity. We don’t want to blow it.”
Natural Gas Committee member Supervisor Ross Iannello, unaffiliated-New Berlin, said the salary for Palmatier, $10,800 through December and $38,000 for next year, was “a heck of a break.”
“It would cost us five times more to afford this,” he said.
According to a report to company shareholders this spring, Norse Energy identified 1,850 sites for drilling multiple wells into the Herkimer, Marcellus and Utica formations in Central New York over the next 10 to 15 years. Palmatier has suggested as many as 16,000 plus wells could potentially be drilled within 50 miles of Chenango County, creating more than 2,600 jobs and attracting well supply, trucking and other natural gas related industries to the area.
Members of the board discussed the need for an ethics committee to review possible conflicts of interest that might arise from the development of natural gas. Many town supervisors, and indeed the county itself, could profit from land leases and natural gas production.
