Chili Fest - OSU Tailgate Party

Yesterday afternoon & evening the Riverside Reunion Committee from the Wellsville Elks put on a heckuva of a party to raise funds for next year's reunion. Once again Hootch & the gang did an outstanding job getting things organized and giving us a very enjoyable time. Other than a few light sprinkles early it seemed that everything went without a hitch. They sold every last spoon full of chili and Mother Nature blessed the event by moving the rain out for most of the event.

The Generations Band - John & John Jr. Taylor - entertained us for the first half. It was the first time I heard them and they really have a good mixture of songs putting out a good sound. John plays a "mean" sax. During half time fellow Elks member Scott Taggart, his bride and their wedding party passed by on the Gateway Clipper Fleet party liner Empress. We all waved and got rewarded with a blast of the horn. Then there was a short tribute to three folks from the ville that have gone on ahead of us. After that they dropped the screen on the stage for the game. It was a 20 foot screen and the game was in HDTV. Made you feel like you were right there on the field out in L A land.

I'll let pictures tell the rest of the story. You can click on them to enlarge. If you didn't stop by you missed out.

Now you can breath a little Hootch but next time let's get a win, eh?

ole nib

"It's Not Rocket Science"

That's what CC Engineer Bert Dawson told those in attendance at Wednesday's OEPA hearing during the public comment portion. He was talking about Baard's proposed CTL plant in his impassioned plea to support this project, if not for us then at least, for future generations in our area. The ten time county engineer said the Baard proposal was the best thing to come along in a very long time. He remarked that the ville has been steadily declining since the rail roads left town. His remarks for the record hit home with a lot of people that were there and got a rousing round of applause. Here I thought engineers were sedate!

So it went for most of the evening with the third and final OEPA public hearing for permits for Baard's proposed ORCF plant. It was standing room only. The ER's Jen Matsick estimated there were 1,200 people there. That's a bit exaggerated by my calculations. I was counting ten rows of chairs with 16 chairs in each row. They were two deep on both sides and three to four deep standing in the back. I'm guestimating that the count was around half of what was reported.

Still in all it was an impressive amount of folks for an event in the ville. Also impressive was the number of boiler makers there. I think several locals were represented and I'd venture to say that they were close to half of the folks that came. Another impressive group was the politicians from the local level here in Wellsville, to those in the county level, state level and even national. Chris Gagin was there with a message from our U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson. The Sierra Club told us a few weeks ago that they would have "droves" of people there but I didn't see it. Newspaper reports said there were only five people that commented for the record against the proposed plant. If there was large numbers of opponents there they were very quiet. Wonder if the boiler makers had any influence with that? During the question & answer session one fellow in the back started talking about old CTL plants in Africa. One of the boiler makers up front reminded him that this is the USA and maybe that set the tone for speaking in opposition. I did notice that the lady from the National Resources Defense Council &Sierra Club's Nachy Kanfer seemed nervous when I got up close and personal with them.

Both of our local newspapers gave lengthy accounts on the proceedings but there were a few things that got my attention. At the JVS thing last Saturday someone brought up the question of coal dust. The OPEA announced that the coal for this plant will be transported by conveyor belt systems from the Port, up the hill and through out the plant. That will eliminate a lot of need for trucks which has cause us problems in the past from another operation in the village. I was told today that they are debating whether the conveyor will go over or under Route 7. Seems ODOT is not too much in favor of going over the highway. For cost considerations I'm in favor of going over the road. Whatever comes about a covered conveyor will mostly reduce any worry about coal dust. We won't have to be concerned about the dust being dragged out through that area of the village.

Carbon sequestion was huge on a lot of people's minds. Burning coal produces large amounts of carbon dioxide. The opponents say it is an unproven technology. The truth is this is not so. With tests and what Baard plans to use, they can capture 93% of the unregulated CO2 produced. I told you I can be slow at times but I didn't know that CO2, a gas, can be compressed into a liquid form until Wednesday night. That's exactly what Baard plans to do. It can be stored in tanks and sold for commercial purposes. They have been conducting tests up around Canton in some old oil fields. They are finding that residue oil in those old wells can be pumped out and when completed they can cap the well with cement to contain the CO2. Tests on surrounding wells have shown that the CO2 does not leak. The Canton area has very similar geology to what we have here. Many don't realize that in this area there are a lot of old oil & gas wells, old clay & coal mine tunnels long forgotten. Just look at the old mines they sealed off between here and East Liverpool on SR 7. That's just a minute example of what is available in this area for carbon sequestion. CO2 won't be a problem with the ORCF plant

As mentioned previously CO2 emissions is not a regulated pollutant. Opponents are questioning why Baard does not make a legal commitment to this aspect of the operation. How can you make a legal commitment to something that as yet is not regulated by any environmental legislation in the nation? Baard says they are going to deal with it and I have no reason to disbelieve them. Regulation may come about sometime down the road. If it does Baard will be ahead of the game and may even set industry standards dealing with this greenhouse gas.

Also brought out is that the OEPA says there are 78 emission monitors with 45 control devices that will be incorporated into the plans and operation of this plant. Now that is a legal committment on Baard's part. They have to make regular reports to the OEPA and if there is something in the permits that isn't being adhered to they won't be in business. Even though it's wasn't part of the air emissions permit that this hearing was concerned with I learned that there is a commercial opportunity for Baard to capture mercury and sell it. They won't be dumping it in the river. There's a market for it.

Having followed developments of this proposed plant since news first came out I was glad I was able to witness this final hearing. It was a learning experience for me and I'm sure for a lot of other people too. Someone commented on yesterday's post about the smell of naphthalene. With the location of this plant and our prevailing westerly winds even odors won't be very much in evidence. I made it to two out of the three hearings and I'm convinced that this plant will be nothing less than a golden opportunity for the whole tri-state area.

It's a normal human trait for folks to be apprehensive if not down right fearful of something new and different in what we're use to in our everyday lives. So far I have found there is nothing with this proposed plant to worry about. It will be a definite plus for our village and the whole area.

Wellsville should indeed welcome Baard. The deadline for submitting written comments to the OEPA for consideration is September 15. After that they will make a final decision on the air emissions permit which will be forwarded to the Director for a final determination. Spokesmen for the OEPA said this will probably take a month, maybe less. Once this permit is approved Baard will be permitted to break ground. As I said a year ago in June, bring it on.

Pictured above is Caroline Markworth from the OPEA's Public Interest Center and the other OEPA officials getting things started Wednesday night.

ole nib

Sierra Club's Town Hall Forum

Ok, modem's working fine, life is good...

This past Saturday the Sierra Club of Ohio held a town hall meeting over at JVS concerning Baard's proposed Ohio River Clean Fuel, LLC. It was touted as a "non-partisan informational event" with "several panelists". Come on, non-partisan, being sponsored by the Sierra Club?

The several panelists turned out to be three. There was a lawyer from the environmental activist Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and local residents Matt Stewart & Roxanne Burns. Stewart was chosen because he was a local reporter in the area and a blogger. Burns is also a local resident and a biologist. Both Stewart & Burns emphasized that they were there as representatives of the local community and not there speaking for KSU-EL. The Sierra Club's Nachy Kanfer was there as the event organizer. Baard folks declined on their invitation to join in.

It was a good time to hold such an event, late Saturday afternoon when not much is happening. It got them lengthy front page write-ups in both of Sunday editions in our local newspapers. Mike McElwain from the ER estimated there were around 36 people in attendance. Kanfer even got a whole column in Tuesday's MJ.

After reading the reports in both of our local papers it was pretty much as I suspected it would be. The word platitude stuck in my mind. I'm probably attributing an incorrect definition for that word. There were implied warnings of being doomed and being backward in our thinking if we support this proposed plant. From what I read we're condemned to regressing back to the Industrial Age if this plant is allowed to be built.

Attorney Shannon Fisk from NRDC was quoted as saying the proposed plant would be a "major new source of global warming pollution". On the whole he seemed to be casting aspersions on Baard's commitments from polluting to economic benefits and to their business acumen. Fisk commented on the poor air quality ratings that Jefferson County already has and scornfully asked if Baard thinks their polluting ways will stop at the county line. Does this man know that part of the plant will be in Jefferson County? Even with his refusal to take Baard for their word he failed to mention anything about the multi-million dollar renovations with new scrubbers at the Stratton electric plant. He failed to mention Baard's commitment to using the best and latest available technology in making this a clean fuel plant. That's a commitment that has to be adhered to and, in my opinion, will be. After last night I really believe the difference in our air quality will be negligible once this plant gets going. Yea, there's going to be a lot of tax payer money involved but in spite of what Fisk tells us Baard's financial commitment is huge on their part. They say you gotta spend money to make money. Our spending now will be returned in ways too numerous to mention. Once this plant gets going the benefits will not be all going to Baard.

Being a panelist I was surprised that Matt Stewart was not all over this on ORL. I guess he really means it when he said he "ambivalent about the project". He was quoted as saying that he sees "a plant like Baard being a step backward" in our post-industrial economy. Huh? We lost a lot of industry in this area over the years but this country is still largely industrial producing our goods and services. We've been slowly moving to a world economy but lessening our dependence on foreign sources is still very important. Nothing that I can think of hammers that point home more than oil. I see nothing backwards with that line of thinking. We're working on alternative sources of energy in this country but I seriously doubt I will live long enough to see our energy sources change that drastically. We just can't quit using one type of energy source while we're waiting for those alternatives to be developed and made feasible. The interim from one point to the other is still many, many years apart.

Matt mentioned growing up in East Liverpool he recalls not being able to see across the river to WV because of the pollution and I have to wonder about that. My memory goes back to the early fifties and I don't remember anything like that around here. Pittsburgh surely with their old soot days but not here. Maybe he was thinking about fog. That still happens in today's times especially now as we approach the fall season. If it's thick enough you can't see across the river. Was he confusing fog with smog in those early years?

Roxanne Burns offered us a cynical view point with her quoted as saying "it's all right to ruin the river because there is money to be made". She mentions deadly chemicals will be dumped into the Ohio but doesn't mention anything about quantities that the EPA finds permissible. She tells us that technology doesn't exist for the complete caption of carbon dioxide. True. The key word is complete. She failed to mention that CO2 is not a regulated pollutant. You exhale CO2 when you breath out. She didn't tell us that technology does exist to capture a large percentage of CO2 in what Baard proposes. Capturing CO2 and sequestering it is not a pipe dream that is being foisted upon us by Baard. The technology is there. It's real.

I introduced myself to Nachy Kanfer of the Sierra Club last night. As I mentioned he had a follow up column in Tuesday's MJ filled with vague ambiguities. I already commented on the nano grams of mercury he mentioned. He's still trying to convince us that the Air Force can't use the CTL fuels because of the section in the Energy Security & Independence Act not allowing them to use any fuel with a higher carbon emission than petroleum. He didn't tell us that it's already been proven that CTL fuel is equal to or less than petroleum fuels in carbon emissions thus not preventing the boys in blue to use without violating that section. He still naively proposes that the cost of coal is surely going to doom Baard's proposed plant before the first shovel of dirt is turned. With that line of thinking does he believe we'll all starve to death because of the cost of groceries? Give me a break.

Nachy seems like a nice young man. He graduated from Princeton with a music degree. After that he went to Palestine to help with their efforts in cleaning up their water supply. He told me he was there for two years with that endeavor. Now he is a full time employee of the Sierra Club. Shocking to me he's only been a member of that organization for four months. When he started working for them he said they gave him a membership. Previously I got the impression that he had been a long time member. He asked me how I knew who he was and I told him it was from his picture in the paper. I asked if I could take his picture and he was unsure. He mentioned something about not wanting to take anything away from local members of the club. I took his picture anyway but I'll keep my word to him and not put it on the blog. It's a good picture Nachy. If you want a copy for your folks let me know. I'll e-mail it to you. Nachy is a clean cut guy and is dedicated to his beliefs. Even though we may disagree I respect a fellow like him. He's a good man for his job.

Next up will be my thoughts on the EPA hearing last night. It was an extremely interesting evening for me before I had to leave. Talked to and saw a lot of folks. See ya tomorrow...

ole nib

Briefly

Duh.... Sometimes I'm kind of slow. Here I was blaming Google and today discovered I should have directed my wrath toward my ISP. My cable modem needed recycled. I could sign in to get my regular e-mail and surf the net all over the place but couldn't sign into anything with Google. This has been going on since last week-end.

Briefly there are a couple of things I wanted to mention:

Tonight is the EPA hearing for the air emissions part of Baard's plan for the proposed CTL plant. It is the third and final permit required by the OEPA. I'll share my thoughts on that and the Sierra Club activities in the next couple of days.

In a "guest columnist" article Sierra's Club Nachy Kanfer said that Baard will be discharging 1700 ng of mercury every day. This is just one example of the kind of information that came out with their dog & pony show held last Saturday and Mr. Kanfer's column.

A nano gram is 1 billionth of a gram. A gram is equivalent to 0.035 ounces. So 1700 ng is actually .000001700 grams. You would need a high powered microscope to see that amount and looking at it that way makes it insignificant. It was so insignificant that the OEPA has no problem with it.

To use an old football cliche the Sierra Club is employing a lot of misdirection plays to scare the devil out of us. I'll have more thoughts on their townhall meeting and Kanfer's article later on.

Also, wanted to remind you all of the Chili-Fest & Tail Gate party this coming Saturday being held by the Riverside Reunion Committee. It "kicks off" at 4 PM with the Generations Band playing until seven. Then there will be a "half time" intermission to get ready to watch the OSU Buckeyes take on #1 ranked Southern Cal on a giant tv screen. All activities are being held in front of the Wellsville Elks. All proceeds will go toward next year's reunion. Sounds like fun. Come on down. It will be a chance to show off some of your new fall fashions. Sure hope the rain holds off. If you want a seat bring something with you.

That's it for now...

ole nib

Newest Mural

Pictured here is another outstanding effort by artist Gina Hampson. It's the old fire station that sits on Main Street in Wellsville and is dedicated to honor all firemen past, present and future.

That building started out as a Catholic church and when the Catholics moved to 11th Street I believe the building was given to the city for use as a fire house. It was the fire station for as far back as I can recall. Wonder if there are any pictures anywhere from when they converted that building from a church? They moved when the present day Village Hall & Fire Station was built.

Thanks to the Class of 1957 for sponsoring this mural. It's a nice addition to Gina's other paintings. Gina has already started another mural on the marina side. Anybody know what that one will be? Just being nibby... As always you can click on the picture to enlarge.

ole nib

Life Is Good

Since reading reports of Tuesday's Council Meeting in yesterday's papers I've been asking myself what's up with Councilman Don Brown? He never seemed like a fellow that would disregard the health & well being of others. I've always had a lot of respect for Don but he's taken himself down a couple of notches on my respectability scale with his "nay" vote a couple of weeks ago to by-pass the bidding process so they can get the digester tanks cleaned in a hurry.



From what I learned from reports in the papers and from others those tanks are regularly emptied to the tune of several thousand gallons a month. After being treated in the digesters the "stuff" is dried out and then shipped to an EPA approved landfill. However the tanks are not completely emptied. There is always some left in the bottom plus a residual build up on the inside walls of the tanks. It's this residue that needs to be cleaned out. That's what is causing the stench that is making life miserable for village residents, especially those folks that live close to the filtration plant. You get "stuff" like that and the hot weather we've been having and you got conditions that are quite offensive. It's evidently making some sick. For me that is reason enough to get something in motion to get the problem taken care of as soon as humanly possible. If it takes by-passing business as usual then that is what has to be done. People's health & well being has to come first.

Former Mayor Nunzio Lombardozzi questioned Councilman Brown on his negative vote on this at Tuesday's meeting. Brown was quoted as saying he "wanted the right people with the right equipment" in the MJ. In the ER he was quoted as saying "that he wanted to go through the bidding process in order to ensure a quality job was done for an appropriate price". Appropriate price my rosy cheeks! I'm getting the impression that Mr. Brown's callous attitude has more to do with politics than being worried about getting our money's worth. That ain't right when you have health issues at stake. It makes me wonder where Mr. Brown's interest really lay.

I've been told that the machine to get the digesters cleaned arrived in the ville today. It takes a special machine to get the job done. The machine came from Carson, California and it was being assembled this afternoon. Tomorrow they are going to get the electricity hooked up and hopefully will get started on the job. Wonder if they are going to use Saracco's new generator? At any rate the job should be accomplished within the next week or so. Relief is coming to those folks that are affected with this situation. If Mr. Brown had his way we'd still be waiting for getting the legislation drawn up, voted on and then maybe by Thanksgiving put it out for bid.

In other council news there seems to be some finger pointing going on about the shelter repair costs up in Hammond's Park. Here we go, another shelter incident. I have to wonder why the construction company that did the work is balking at providing an itemized bill. The cost increased somewhere around $4,500 from the original estimate because a generator had to be purchased. Maybe we went with the wrong construction company if they didn't have the tools to do the job. I'm sure we'll hear more about this. The bill was tabled until an itemized bill is received.

Thanks to the ladies that reported on the council meeting for writing up Fiscal Officer Dale Davis' explanation on what a "then and now purchase order" is. According to Mr. Davis that assures us that the funds were available when the purchase was made and are still available to pay the bill once council approves it. If the bill is under three grand it can be paid without a vote of council. If I'm reading it correctly it is similar to using a petty cash fund for things that need taken care of right away. Most businesses have a petty cash fund for fixing things that go awry like a plumbing problem.

Speaking of things going awry I'm hearing that a manufacturer's rep is coming in to check out our street sweeper. Hopefully the repairs won't be cost prohibited and they can get that thing running. I remember when General Lee Martin use to run a street sweeper years ago. He did a heckuva job and it made a remarkable difference in the appearance of our streets.

In closing I would like to say I've been hesitant to write my thoughts on our legislators and executives doings in the village lately. Just mention the name Joe Surace and the bashers come out. Although I think it is pretty much the same people all the time they don't give up. Lately it's been about the mayor not being in the office a whole lot. Some even think he should be there 24/7. They are the people that won't admit that the mayor is not required to be there at all times. I'm sure he is in contact via cell phone at the least if something arises. The last few months he's been doctoring to find out why he's been feeling punk. Now he has a surgical procedure coming up but like an old Timex watch he keeps ticking. The surgery is minor or so I've been told. The point is he'll probably be a target once again when that time comes.

My feeling is that once the elections are over the politics in a small village such as ours should be put aside. Everyone should be pitching in and working together to make our home the best it can be. I get weary of all the negative stuff. I'm not a quitter. I'll keep plugging away. This village we call home isn't perfect but it's still a darn nice place to live. Those that won't let go of things in the past are really missing out on a good thing. There will be other elections but in the meantime enjoy what we got. Life is too short to pass up the good things we got in this piece of God's country.

ole nib

Schools Are Open

Been meaning to mention this but got side tracked. As everyone and their brother knows schools are now open and that means students will be all over the place. After a summer of not seeing a whole lot of kids crossing streets taking short cuts and such it's time to be extra aware of them and looking out while driving. In the morning a lot of them are still a little sleepy and only concentrating on getting to school. In the afternoon they're all excited about getting out of the classrooms and not thinking too much about being careful. It's an age old symptom of getting educated in the early years. I remember it well.

So it's up to us to be especially alert with watching out for those promising scholars. Slow down and use extreme caution especially during the time for the school day to begin and the time they let out. Saving a little time getting somewhere in a hurry is certainly not worth putting a child in danger.

The cartoon was found on Google Images from a web site called The Puzzle Mania.

Man! I can't believe summer is over for all intents & purposes.

ole nib