Natural Gas Hand Up for Renovo Slapped Down by the Unknowing
Renovo Borough Councilwoman
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[Editor’s Note: Renovo residents have lived with natural gas for decades but a new gas-fueled, job-creating power plant was killed by those who know and care not about the town.]
My name is Rhonda Balchun, and I am a councilperson for Renovo Borough, where our hopes for a natural gas powered electricity plant was recently squashed by BUGS. After reading the Big Ugly Grifters (BUGS) article, I felt compelled to respond from a local standpoint.
Renovo, Pennsylvania
I am a lifelong resident of Renovo, PA. I graduated from our local high school, graduated from college, and returned to work here locally. I have been very fortunate to not have to commute hours to and from work each day, like many of our residents. I have been employed by Keystone Central School District at Renovo Elementary as an Elementary School Secretary for over 32 years.
Being that I have known each child that passes through our school system, it makes me sad that many young adults leave the area for employment. We live in a depressed, socioeconomic area, and some people are unable to commute a minimum of a half hour one way to the next town to obtain work. We don’t have public transportation, ubers, licensed daycare, etc. to support our residents. This power plant could have lifted the impoverished and provided employment for our local residents who could have literally walked to work from town.
Our residents are our greatest asset of small town living. We have many volunteers for local organizations, such as our Recreation center, Food bank, Hospital board, Water and Sewage Authorities, etc. After commuting an hour or more per day, our residents still find the time to volunteer as Little League coaches, fire fighters, etc. all to keep our town going.
Another wonderful asset we have in Western Clinton County is our beautiful mountains, state parks, hiking and ATV trails, clean waterways, and abundant wildlife. We have natural gas pipelines that weave through our mountains connecting Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which is the largest underground storage facility of natural gas east of the Mississippi river, and other natural gas companies locally, with consumers far and wide.
These pipelines are maintained and planted with good food sources for wildlife, which allows for better viewing, a favorite past- time of local residents and visitors alike. In my 20 plus years of serving on the Renovo Borough council, we’ve never had anyone come to a meeting to complain about the various pipelines that have gone through the area. No one in our area looks at the natural gas industry as a polluter of the Earth.
Nearly all of our local residents wanted this power plant to be built here for the increased tax base, jobs, and the clean up it would have brought to the proposed site. The site currently houses vacant, decrepit buildings from former railroad businesses that were there. There is also a brownfield of hazardous materials buried underground that would have been cleaned up, had the power plant come to fruition. Having those chemicals underground certainly raises some health concerns with chemicals leaking into the ground, but no one seems to care about that.
The most frustrating part of all of this is the people who don’t even know where Renovo, Pennsylvania is. They have never visited here, walked the streets, visited the restaurants, and talked with the residents to get their opinions. They wrote articles against the plant all in the name of green energy. These people are so hypocritical; their homes, furnishings, clothing, and food were made and produced by hard-working people in those respected vocations. People who aren’t afraid of a hard day’s work, like our residents.
We need more advocates for the areas that have been denied the chance to be lifted out of poverty. We wanted a hand up, not a hand out. If anyone out there who is reading this, could lend a helping hand to boost our economy by raising their voices against this political corruption that is being shoved down our throats in the name of ‘green’ energy, we would love to hear from you. Renovo Borough Council meets the second Wednesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. Our office phone number is 570-923-2612 and our Borough’s email address is: [email protected].
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