= Sunday, June 5, 2011 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 DALLAS TOWNSHIP Chief backs off on storing mercaptan near schools STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timeslieader.com 9... Mountain residents have one less thing to worry about if Chief Gathering LLC is allowed to build a meeting station off Hildebrandt Road - the flamma- ble odorant mercaptan will not be stored there. Kenneth Komoroski, an attor- ney with Fulbright & Jaworski in Canonsburg representing Chief in an application for a spe- cial exception to construct and operate the station, stipulated before the board on Tuesday that the company was no longer seeking permission for an 8,000- gallon mercaptan tank at the site. The presence of mercaptan at the site was a major point of contention for area residents as well as for Dallas School Dis- trict officials. The site is about 1,300 feet from the Dallas schools. The school board has official- ly opposed the metering station since March because members felt it could harm the health and safety of employees and about 2,800 children attending district schools. The board last week had ta- bled a decision to enter into an WHAT'S ICYTO WHAT S NEXT? LW | I The Dallas Township Zoning Hearing Board will next meet at 6:30 p.m. June 16 and 6:30 p.m. June 23 to hear continued testimony on Chief Gathering LLC's application for special exceptions to locate a natural gas metering station off Hildebrandt Road. agreement with Chief stipulat- ing that Chief would not locate natural gas compression equip- ment or odorant equipment and storage containment of mercap- tan at the proposed site, but Ko- moroski said those conditions hold true regardless of whether the school board approves the agreement. The hearing on the applica- tion continued Tuesday with testimony from Chief Gathering Operations Manager Steven Ha- milton. Komoroski called Hamilton to testify primarily because Ted Waurfel, Chief’s vice president of Environmental, Safety and Reg- ulatory Affairs, was unable to answer some questions at the previous hearing session and de- ferred questions from attorneys and the public to the company’s operations manager. Hamilton testified that the 10- foot-high flare that would have been used to burn off mercaptan gas when pressure became high would not be needed at the site, either. He said the controversial compressor station that Chief initially wanted to locate at the site would be about 25 miles away. Hamilton explained the oper- ations that would take place at the metering station — measur- ing the amount of natural gas that Chief would feed into the Transco pipeline and removing moisture and any other debris from upstream gathering pipe- lines whenever they are cleaned with an electronic “smart pig.” Transco and Chief equipment would also be used to monitor the flow of gas for quality and pressure, and a 100-foot-tall ra- dio tower on site would allow Transco to adjust or shut down the gas flow remotely. Attorney Mark McNealis, rep- resenting nearby land owners, questioned Hamilton on numer- ous aspects of site operations as See CHIEF, Page 13 HONORING SOLDIERS he Daddow-Isaacs Dallas American Legion Post 672 held its traditional Memorial Day Parade this year. The parade began at the Dallas American Legion Post building and continued to the center of Dallas, then to Woodlawn Cemetery to Chapel lawn Cemetery. ),ally Mock, daughter of deceased member of Post 672 Walter Galka, was parade marshal. Marchers included Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Brownies, American Legion baseball teams, Lions, Shepherds, the Dallas High School Band, fire trucks, ambulances, antique cars and more. The Rev. William Lewis, a retired Army Chaplain and chaplain of Post 672, was the main speaker. The Hometown Heroes Project sponsored by the Dallas Lions was recognized. N CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Members of the Aciukewicz family, of Shavertown, felt “connected” to son and brother, Zach, currently serving in Irag as they watched the Dallas Memorial Day Parade underneath a flag honoring the serviceman. From left, are Josh, Beth, Aaron and John. The Dallas High School Marching Band stands at attention during Memorial Day services. Veteran Joe Hudak from American Legion Post 672 Daddow- Issacs in Dallas remembers the fallen. HARPIN' ON THINGS Where would we be without all these newfangl he other day we had a friend stop by for a visit. After he left, the Mrs. spot- ted one of those blueberry things on the kitch- en coun- ter. She asked if mine was in my pocket and I replied, “Yes. It must be Paul’s. HEFFERNAN “He should not be home yet, she said. “Call him and tell him he left his phone.” Being the obedient husband (and come to think about that, I remember the word obey being spoken by me during our wed- ding ceremony but I don’t recall hearing her say it) and doing as instructed, I punched the as- signed speed dial key for Paul's cell phone. Lo and behold, his cell phone rang on the counter. “He’s getting a call,” she said and then, like a light bulb turning on, the realization hit her that it was me calling his cell phone. “Don’t say a word,” she grow- led as I worked my way towards the front door. “T’ll get his home number from the phone book and let him know his phone is here,” she said, adding “Did you finish the hole for the tree?” Resuming the first chore of the day on the “Harp Do” list and do- ing my best to make sure I had a 50-foot head start to avoid flying objects, I thought about some of the modern conveniences we have at our disposal today. Take, for instance, cell phones. Today, you can either push one key to make a call or just say a command and the call is placed. I remember the first cellular ‘phone I had. It was the size of a briefcase and had a cord to the handset. It plugged into the ciga- rette lighter in the car and worked primarily on the moun- tain going to Bear Creek or be- fore the rock cut. Two cans and a piece of string worked about as well. Gone are the days of searching for a working phone booth to call home because you were two hours late due to traffic, making sure you had a dime or quarter to use the phone, finding one that actually worked in an area where you didn’t have to be afraid of get- ting mugged while out of the car. Miniature ear pieces have re- ed conveniences’ placed the need to have someone else in the car hold the phone to your ear because your left hand was steering, right hand was shifting, left foot was on the clutch and right foot on the gas. Or, and this was just in the 1980s, trying to call home from Quebec using the radio at the fishing camp and having to say ‘over’ when you were done speak- ing so the radio operator could change the switch. We may have sounded like we were speaking in an old diving helmet, but contact was made. How about the convenience of an EZ Pass for traveling on toll : roads? I remember a trip home from Florida where I had driven to visit my grandparents in St. Pe- tersburg. I'm not sure if Jim Hun- ter, Bob Coolbaugh or someone else was with me on that trip since we used to be able to pick up and go at basically a moment’s notice with just enough money to cover gas and a bucket of Ken- tucky Fried Chicken. We were coming home and had taken a different turn somewhere around Washington, DC. The map was a few years old and a new road appeared. We were out See HARP, Page 13
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