Defending the Mound

[white cloud]

Hard to hide an elephant!!!!:evilfrown:


FLOWER MOUND — Ever since this former frontier settlement was incorporated 50 years ago, town officials and residents took pride in protecting their slice of rural paradise along Grapevine Lake.


DRC/Barron Ludlum
Williams Gulf Coast Production screened this natural gas processing plant, located on Scenic Drive in Flower Mound, to look like a barn.
View larger More photos Photo store Town leaders fashioned one master plan after another to protect surrounding ranches, open landscapes, clusters of live oaks and other “ecological resources” from the threat of urbanization as the town flourished, eventually becoming one of America’s fastest-growing cities in the late 1990s.

The town even installed a wrought-iron fence around the town’s namesake — a 50-foot-high mound brimming with wildflowers — to protect the area. But a new intruder looms — bulldozers plowing up the old prairie to make way for gas wells, compressor stations, storage tanks, drilling pits and pipelines.

Some residents who have witnessed rampant oil and gas development in other regions of the country fear that Flower Mound could become an industrial eyesore.

Fearing the worst, some town officials and a growing number of residents are fighting back — with protests, lawsuits and drilling moratoriums. Town officials, wary of safeguards promised by state and federal officials, recently set up their own regulatory apparatus intended to protect people from the environmental hazards that can come with nearby gas drilling and production.

But the question that lingers for many residents is whether it’s too late. They wonder whether the rolling, tree-lined piece of prairie upon which they built their homes, their schools and their lives may be lost to heavy industrialization. Some residents are moving out, a study found some real estate values are dropping, and those left behind fear the Flower Mound they knew is disappearing by the day.
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http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_flowermound_0328.228a7ab69.html



:evilfrown:

[tanyev]

1. Nov. 2010 election results - precincts in the Town of Flower Mound

Precinct 303
Republican Party 389 76.3%
Democratic Party 120 23.5%
Libertarian Party 1 0.2%
Green Party 0 0.0%

Precinct 304
Republican Party 784 82.2%
Democratic Party 159 16.7%
Libertarian Party 7 0.7%
Green Party 4 0.4%

Precinct 307
Republican Party 800 83.4%
Democratic Party 150 15.6%
Libertarian Party 7 0.7%
Green Party 2 0.2%

Precinct 314
Republican Party 510 82.4%
Democratic Party 106 17.1%
Libertarian Party 3 0.5%
Green Party 0 0.0%

Precinct 317
Republican Party 768 81.3%
Democratic Party 175 18.5%
Libertarian Party 1 0.1%
Green Party 1 0.1%

Precinct 320
Republican Party 800 79.8%
Democratic Party 192 19.2%
Libertarian Party 8 0.8%
Green Party 2 0.2%

Precinct 323
Republican Party 409 80.0%
Democratic Party 101 19.8%
Libertarian Party 1 0.2%
Green Party 0 0.0%

Precinct 409
Republican Party 1112 85.5%
Democratic Party 177 13.6%
Libertarian Party 11 0.8%
Green Party 1 0.1%

Precinct 420
Republican Party 550 83.3%
Democratic Party 101 15.3%
Libertarian Party 8 1.2%
Green Party 1 0.2%

Precinct 423
Republican Party 603 85.2%
Democratic Party 98 13.8%
Libertarian Party 6 0.8%
Green Party 1 0.1%

Precinct 424
Republican Party 642 81.8%
Democratic Party 136 17.3%
Libertarian Party 7 0.9%
Green Party 0 0.0%

Precinct 425
Republican Party 516 79.0%
Democratic Party 129 19.8%
Libertarian Party 5 0.8%
Green Party 3 0.5%

Precinct 428
Republican Party 523 87.3%
Democratic Party 71 11.9%
Libertarian Party 4 0.7%
Green Party 1 0.2%

http://elections.dentoncounty.com/go.asp?Parent=75&Link=1185

[sonias]

2. Gas drilling's promise, perils rile townsfolk

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_on_sc/us_gas_drilling_torn_towns;_ylt=Au_DCKFbAotk6TNxL2kB_TgDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTMwazRydDdwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDEyL3VzX2dhc19kcmlsbGluZ190b3JuX3Rvd25zBHBvcwMxNQRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2dhc2RyaWxsaW5ncw--">Yahoo News 4/12/11
Gas drilling's promise, perils rile townsfolk

Ron Hilliard came back from church one Sunday to find hundreds of plastic $5, $10, $20 and $100 bills hanging on his fence in Flower Mound, Texas, another message from townsfolk angry at him for signing a lucrative natural gas drilling lease for his suburban Dallas property.

In Damascus, Pa., about 1,500 miles away, drilling advocate Marian Schweighofer awoke one morning to the word "LORAX" — from the Dr. Seuss book about environmental destruction — spray-painted on the road near her family's 712-acre farm.

Hilliard and Schweighofer have never met, yet both are living with the nastiness and rancor erupting in communities nationwide over the volatile issue of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Very interesting article to illustrate the divide. The "drill, baby, drill" crowd is in complete control right now. Lets see how they feel in about 5 years. Actually by then the people that sold their mineral rights will just take the money and move.

:shrug: