ELECTION LETTERS
The Denton Record-Chronicle welcomes letters to the editor pertaining to the Nov. 4 general election. All regular submission rules apply. The deadline for letters concerning statewide races and local propositions on the Nov. 4 ballot to be received in this office was 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24. None will be published after Friday, Oct. 31.
Biased report
We were extremely offended by the very biased report about the Wendy Davis-Greg Abbott debate that appeared as the lead story on Page 1 of the DRC Saturday, Sept. 20, issue.
There are numerous ways that The Associated Press writer, Paul Weber, slanted the report in favor of Abbott. For example, Weber stated that Davis “uncomfortably skirted” her support for President Obama, “no real fireworks livened up a mostly dry debate,” the “underdog” reference to Davis, the “race that he [Abbott] has led from the start,” and he “managed to put Davis in a tough spot.”
These and many more comments are the writer’s impressions, not an accurate description of what actually happened in the debate.
In the future, please give correct and fair reports about the governor candidates based on disclosing all the complete facts without inferred opinions, not just those that the writer prefers. DRC opinions belong on the editorial pages, not dressed up as front page news.
Richard Hunt,
Denton
Gullibility test
Frack Free Denton could have spent a fortune trying to paint the pro-fracking contingent as serial prevaricators; as people who would say anything, do anything to push their agenda; and as unscrupulous campaigners whose tactic is to confuse voters rather than inform them. But no one would have believed them.
Fortunately, they have had a powerful ally in the form of the ham-handed, pro-fracking advertising campaign, which has spent a fortune sending out mailers, running dubious ads and making misleading phone calls, demonstrating perfectly what Frack Free Denton has said all along: “They don’t tell the truth.”
As for their motives, I don’t think the pro-frackers have made so many misstatements in their ads because they are stupid. I think they have done so because they think we are. In many ways, this election will be a gullibility test for the Denton voter.
One point the frackers make is that by limiting the highly industrial process of fracking in urban areas, we are “taking” something from them, something rightfully theirs.
However nothing could be more reasonable than for a city to regulate fracking, as it does lead smelters or feed lots.
Fear not, you mineral right owners, this proposal is taking nothing from you. Your gas will still be there.
It sat there for 200 million years waiting for someone to invent fracking and it can wait a few more until someone comes up with a cleaner process, one which does not harm your neighbor’s children or pollute our groundwater.
Mike Cochran,
Denton
Vote for bond proposals
I have been privileged to serve on several citizen bond commissions, usually on subcommittees involving streets and roads. Consequently, I have learned a good deal about street and road repair, and construction.
Most of the knowledge I have gained can be compressed into a few general truths.
First, growth, no matter how desirable and valuable, does not pay for itself. The infrastructure underpinning this growth must be financed somehow.
Second, these costs are too high to come out of general revenue funds.
Third, if streets and roads are not maintained, they reach a point in which they are not just expensive, they are exorbitant.
All this means there must be fairly large bond issues and tax increases. Happily, the growth that makes these expenses necessary also increases the tax base and helps keep tax increases at a minimum.
Several years ago the city issued some $20 million in bonds that did not require a tax increase. That amount, large as it seems, did not catch us up. Our streets and roads are in overall worse shape now than they were then. Sixty million dollars is a large amount, but it is what we need to get caught up and even a little ahead of the repair curve.
I urge Denton citizens to vote for the street and road segment of the forthcoming bond issue. It’s badly needed. I hope you will join me in voting for all the proposed bonds in the forthcoming election. These improvements, too, are badly needed.
G.L. Seligmann,
Denton
Vote against fracking ban
The Perryman Report of June 2014 estimates the adverse impact of banning fracking in Denton, estimating that the gross product loss will be $251.4 million over 10 years.
In his blog, Adam Briggle attempts to discredit these findings by the use of irrelevant percentages rather than real dollars, totally discounting the pertinent multiplier effects of a dynamic market.
The Texas Workforce Commission reported the average annual wage of oil and gas jobs in 2013 was $99,975 compared to $43,850 for other private sector jobs. Each of the 200 petrochemical jobs in Denton creates nearly 17 additional jobs. In addition, oil and gas expenditures create an additional $6 for every dollar spent.
Perryman reports lost tax revenue to the city of $5.1 million over 10 years or $500,000 a year.
Briggle demeans this by assessing that this loss is insignificant, and dismisses $1 million in royalty and lease payments. This is enough money to support one fire station and fund our road budget. Would you rather raise taxes by $1.5 million or close one fire station and suspend the road budget?
According to the Perryman Report, “For DISD, the benefits over the period [10 years] are estimated to be approximately $28.6 million.” Do you want to raise taxes $2.86 million or fire 52 teachers? A million here, a million there, before you know it, we are talking real money.
Vote for responsible drilling. Vote no.
Bill Lawson,
Denton
Vote no on ban
A Halloween scare tactic from the Frack Free Denton mailer alleges that fracking is the reason Denton has the most unhealthy air in Texas.
The facts refute this myth: Since 2000, ozone levels have fallen while the number of gas wells has increased in the entire 10-county area of North Texas.
A study at Southern Methodist University concluded that there is no clear relationship between Barnett Shale natural gas production activities and the highest average ozone levels.
Most Barnett Shale natural gas wells produce dry gas, meaning that they produce no other liquids.
Road and non-road vehicles produce more than 75 percent of the unhealthy emissions, and Denton’s air also is affected by coal and other pollutants coming from points south by our prevailing winds.
More than 4.6 million air concentration values were gathered by extensive air monitoring operated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the last 12 years.
When measured concentrations were compared to federal and state health-based air compression values (HBACVs), investigators found that none of the air concentration values exceeded applicable acute HBACVs.
As the air samples were collected over such a long period, a full range of shale gas activities was captured, including drilling, hydraulic fracturing and production. These results show that shale gas operators are not impacting air quality through communitywide ambient concentrations. This is especially important given the exponential increase in the number of wells over the last decade.
Base your vote on facts, not false scare tactics. Vote no on the ban.
Dianne Edmondson,
Denton
Vote for fracking ban
I hope Denton citizens vote for the fracking ban. It will be a victory for local control and a defeat of bullying, bribery and fact-bending by petroleum giants, an accomplishment with seismic reverberations nationally. Readers of the Denton Record-Chronicle and everyone with a mailbox have been barraged with misinformation by managed opponents.
There are, as usual, yard signs for political candidates, as well as pro and con signs on the fracking business. By my count, ban-the-fracking signs outnumber the “Vote no” signs by at least 4 to 1. And they vastly outnumber the candidate signs. Homeowners have spoken.
Unable to persuade many homeowners to display yard signs, and, you may be sure, they’ve done their darndest, the naysayers bought billboards on the highways. What does that tell you?
The biggest battleground in this contest is the Denton Record-Chronicle, with daily full-page ads about dire consequences of banning the fracturing.
But, in the place where it counts, letters to the editor, people support the ban by a large margin.
I’m grateful to the DRC for its coverage. I hope Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe gets a prize for her work, then maybe a raise. If you haven’t read her Oct. 17 analysis, look it up online.
Of course, the editor and the Chamber of Commerce leaders asked us to vote “no.” But what could we expect?
Thanks to the cadre of dedicated volunteers who led the fight. And kudos to council member Kevin Roden who had the guts to resist the chamber.
Dale Branum,
Denton
What Frack Free Denton looks like
Picture a room full of people: professionals, stay-at-home moms, teachers, business owners, students, retirees, professors, office workers — people from all walks of life and all political affiliations who get together once a week to organize and get their assignments (canvassing, distributing fliers, looking up phone numbers), which they complete on their own time, for free.
That is what Frack Free Denton looks like.
Some of these people’s lives have been directly impacted by fracking, others are there simply because they have educated themselves enough to know that heavy industrial activity does not belong in neighborhoods.
The members of the Frack Free board are dedicated citizens who never wanted a ban in the first place. Adam Briggle is a professor who, years ago, while untenured, took it upon himself to educate citizens by organizing balanced information sessions in preparation for the rewriting of our fracking ordinance.
Ed and Carol Soph addressed the City Council countless times over the years to help craft a stronger ordinance.
Cathy McMullen, a nurse, and Rhonda Love, a retired professor of public health, have both devoted hundreds of hours to researching, speaking to the City Council, and engaging in productive debate.
They are not unreasonable people. They have all invested a great deal of time trying to negotiate a compromise with the fracking industry. If now they are asking for a ban, it’s because our attempts at regulation have failed.
Vote for the fracking ban on Nov. 4.
Pauline Raffestin,
Denton
