2-06-08

The country may have just experienced Super Tuesday, but the day before was a Super Monday for BOHN residents.

Chesapeake Energy officials from its Oklahoma City headquarters office
stated that they have "practically written off" the New Beginnings
International Church drill site because it appears to be "unpermitable."

Now that Chesapeake Energy has bought Paloma Resources (and therefore
Holland Acquisitions), it is up to Chesapeake to decide whether to apply for
a high-impact well permit on the land Paloma acquired at the New Beginnings
International Church, and Chesapeake has apparently decided not to apply for this permit. I can only hope that the Chesapeake officials don't go back on their word on this matter.

We can pat ourselves on the back for voicing our objections to this VERY
high-impact well site, but the folks to whom we owe the biggest debt of
gratitude are the ones in the 600-foot high-impact area who refused to sign
a waiver even with the temptation of a $2,000 check. If all of them had
signed a waiver, we would have 12 wells running nonstop for at least 12
months in the back door of a large number of BOHN homes, and Crescent Place would become a ghost town for the duration. The resident property owners in Crescent Place would experience the worst of the quality of
life/safety/environmental effects of the drilling and the most devastating
financial consequences on their property values with the added irony that
they don't even own their mineral rights.

Earlier I stated that the Greater Meadowbrook Mineral Leasing Task Force
would not be discussing details about the negotiation process during the
negotiation period. This one piece of information came out of one of our
meetings, but I believe it is important to share with you without waiting.

We still need to be vigilant in trying to get the City to impose a moratorium on high-impact well permits until the new City gas ordinance task force completes it work. The City needs to be more cautious in setting the
rules for these circumstances; they must err on the side of caution--not on
the side of the gas company lobby.

Another word about Paloma's last-ditch effort to get property owners to sign leases before their contract expires on March 1: They are using their
typical high-pressure, make-you-feel-that-you-are-going-to-miss-out-
if-you-don't-sign-right-away sales tactics they have been using since August of 2007. There are no state regulations that require landmen to follow ethical business practices. They can--and often do--say practically anything to get leases signed. They are threatening that the signing bonuses will drop from $10,000/acre to $3,000/acre on March 1.

Paloma/Holland landmen have no basis for saying what will happen after they are out of the picture on March 1; they are just trying to get all they can get their hands on before March 1. Our message is still "Don't sign yet." I would love to promise that our negotiations would be complete by the end of February, but I can't promise that. We do believe that is probably a matter of weeks, not months, for us to reach an agreement that we believe will be much more advantageous for you.

Rita M. Vinson, President
Brentwood-Oak Hills Neighborhood (BOHN) Association
817-451-4907 home
817-368-6317 cell