Regarding the Eagle’s editorial jeer of Oct. 26 to Section 27 Alliance of Butler Township. The jeer alleges S27A members used “over-the-top rhetoric” and “death-and-destruction scenarios” which frightened children in attendance at the Oct. 20 Butler Township Board of Commissioners meeting. Said members were addressing the commissioners during the public comment period regarding the Krendale gas well pad approved by the township in September.

Section 27 Alliance is a group of concerned township residents trying to stop the Krendale well pad through legal action. A number of legal actions targeting residential well pads are ongoing in Pennsylvania; one case in Lycoming County has already been decided in favor of the plaintiffs.

Our point is this: if an explosion such as the one that occurred in Greene County in February were to happen at the Krendale well pad, the homes nearest to the well pad, 550 to 1,500 feet away, would be incinerated and no one in those homes would survive. That is not fear-mongering or over-the-top rhetoric; that is fact.

The children at the commissioners meeting were there because of a fire safety awareness poster contest. There was nothing in any of our statements that was contrary to the goals of safety awareness. If parents were offended by what was being said they could have: 1.) taken their children out into the lobby until the public comment part of the agenda was over or 2.) asked the commissioners to announce the winners of the contest first and then proceed with the public comments.

Personally, I would have been much more comfortable if the commissioners had done the latter. In June, when they asked and found that there were 20 of us in attendance because of their drilling ordinance, they rearranged the agenda so that new township police officers could be sworn in prior to public comments. How about a jeer for the commissioners for having not accommodated the children in similar fashion?

To suggest Section 27 Alliance does not care about children because we refuse to sugar-coat the truth in the presence of children when speaking to municipal officials is absurd and pathetic. In fact, after the public comment section of the agenda, Commissioner Dave Zarnick told the kids they had received a “history lesson.”

This is what democracy looks like. It’s not always pretty and sometimes it’s scary. The kids will survive this “little trauma” better than the actual trauma of a well-pad explosion, the possibilities of which are always remote while they’re happening somewhere else. Hopefully S27A’s legal action will be successful and township residents near the well pad won’t have to worry about whether there will be a fire or explosion at this industrial site suddenly plopped into a residential neighborhood.

Section 27 Alliance is attempting to keep a very bad thing from happening — bad for property values, bad for the public’s health and safety. So why is the Butler Eagle using such lame statements as “you’re scaring the children so you mustn’t really care about them” to throw S27A and every other similar group in the county under the proverbial bus?