FOCUS ON ... Bedford: Drilling for natural gas

Judging from Dorothy McWhorter’s May 14 letter (“Bedford’s choice?”), she’s having a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction.  She apparently thinks that the majority of the City Council “caved in to the wishes of a few liberal environmentalists who opposed drilling.”

As one of those (I guess) “liberal environmentalists,” I supported the council majority in its decision to set drilling standards that were in the best interest of Bedford. The council majority, in reality, is the majority of Bedford residents.

McWhorter should take the time to realize that our council is elected by a majority of the residents who vote.

Nothing in the ordinance prevents gas drilling in Bedford. As proof of that, our church had competing bids from XTO Energy and Chesapeake Energy during the past month, and we just signed a three-year lease with XTO.

Maybe Bedford Citizens for Responsive Government should turn its attention to trying to organize Bedford neighborhoods into negotiation teams to work with the gas companies?

I don’t see that happening. We still have much divisiveness in Bedford, but that’s what should be happening. Start working together.

Our church, on six acres, bargained alone and received a decent offer.

Although no company has yet been approved for drilling, it might happen soon. Chesapeake made certain that I knew it has a site ready to go at Bedford Plaza.

— Hank Henning, Bedford