Guest column
Commissioners shouldn't sell for a bowl of stew
Keith A. Rasey
There once was a father, as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, who had two sons. Near the end of the father’s life, there was quite a difficult situation in his family. The legal structure of the society he lived in required him to leave his property only to the oldest son, and to leave nothing for the youngest.
One day – it was the servant’s day off – the oldest son went hunting to get something to eat, as the household larder was empty of protein. The youngest son stayed home and made a vegetarian stew out of the vegetable odds and ends he had scrapped together out of the last of the larder.
It was a bad day of hunting for the oldest son. He returned famished from the long, fruitless hunt. When he smelled the delicious stew his younger brother had made, he begged him for some of it. The younger brother drove a hard bargain: he agreed to give him a bowl of stew in exchange for the older brother’s inheritance rights.
Out of his mind with hunger, the older brother agreed. He sold his ten-billion-dollar inheritance for a bowl of stew.
This is what the Medina County Commissioners have done with the NEXUS pipeline and the compressor station in Guilford Township. They have sold our invaluable future inheritance of clean air, water and land for a pittance.
The City of Green, unlike the Medina County Commissioners, did not roll over and meekly accept the crumbs that fell off the master’s table. The pipeline travels 8 miles through the City of Green rather than 23.38 miles through the County of Medina. By standing up to these environmental oppressors, the City of Green negotiated $7.5 million, 24-hour monitoring and 20 acres of land to extend a park. Medina County got $350,000. That’s $7.5 million for 8 miles through Green and $350,000 for 23.38 miles through Medina County.
The Medina County Commissioners have portrayed the pipeline as an unalloyed good, with no shadow side. The reality is that epidemiological studies indicate the compressor station will adversely impact the health and well-being of Medina County residents. An endocrinologist, who works with children impacted by the noxious chemicals involved in fracking, and Dr. Randi Podlaknik, a Ph.D in environmental studies, have urged members of Sustainable Medina County who live within 10 miles of the NEXUS Compressor Station to move to protect their health and the lives of their families and pets.
Economic studies of the impact of the compressor station on property values in Guilford Township are difficult to interpret, as many of these studies are paid for by the energy companies. These deliberately biased studies prattle the industry’s position that there is no impact.
Independent studies, done by university researchers, tell a different story, especially after an incident. The closer one is to a toxic, loud compressor station, common sense tells one, the higher the impact on your property values.
This is borne out by the large number of anecdotal stories from newspapers across the country of the difficulties homeowners have in selling their properties with pipelines and energy installations on them.
Property insurance companies, since they have interlocking directorships with banks, are loath to publicly say too much about property insurance concerns for territories through which pipelines travel. If the pipeline lowers the appraised value of the property below the value of the bank’s mortgage, this impacts the bank’s financial strength and market value. The banks, insurance companies and appraisers who serve them all have a vested interest in the Panglossian view that all is well.
The Medina County Commissioners, noting the tax income the pipeline is supposedly going to bring in, have sold our patrimony for a bowl of stew. How much money is a human life worth in Guilford Township and southeastern Medina County?
If property values in Guilford Township are going to go down 5 percent every year, how long before the pipeline tax money just replaces the tax income lost from decreased property values? What profit is there in selling our future just to have the equivalent of a measly bowl of vegetarian stew?
Astute observers will realize that the story that began this piece was from one of the sacred texts passed down to the human race as the received wisdom of our forbearers. It is from Genesis in the first five books of the Torah. It is the story of Esau and Jacob.
We ignore this wisdom at our own peril.
One day – it was the servant’s day off – the oldest son went hunting to get something to eat, as the household larder was empty of protein. The youngest son stayed home and made a vegetarian stew out of the vegetable odds and ends he had scrapped together out of the last of the larder.
It was a bad day of hunting for the oldest son. He returned famished from the long, fruitless hunt. When he smelled the delicious stew his younger brother had made, he begged him for some of it. The younger brother drove a hard bargain: he agreed to give him a bowl of stew in exchange for the older brother’s inheritance rights.
Out of his mind with hunger, the older brother agreed. He sold his ten-billion-dollar inheritance for a bowl of stew.
This is what the Medina County Commissioners have done with the NEXUS pipeline and the compressor station in Guilford Township. They have sold our invaluable future inheritance of clean air, water and land for a pittance.
The City of Green, unlike the Medina County Commissioners, did not roll over and meekly accept the crumbs that fell off the master’s table. The pipeline travels 8 miles through the City of Green rather than 23.38 miles through the County of Medina. By standing up to these environmental oppressors, the City of Green negotiated $7.5 million, 24-hour monitoring and 20 acres of land to extend a park. Medina County got $350,000. That’s $7.5 million for 8 miles through Green and $350,000 for 23.38 miles through Medina County.
The Medina County Commissioners have portrayed the pipeline as an unalloyed good, with no shadow side. The reality is that epidemiological studies indicate the compressor station will adversely impact the health and well-being of Medina County residents. An endocrinologist, who works with children impacted by the noxious chemicals involved in fracking, and Dr. Randi Podlaknik, a Ph.D in environmental studies, have urged members of Sustainable Medina County who live within 10 miles of the NEXUS Compressor Station to move to protect their health and the lives of their families and pets.
Economic studies of the impact of the compressor station on property values in Guilford Township are difficult to interpret, as many of these studies are paid for by the energy companies. These deliberately biased studies prattle the industry’s position that there is no impact.
Independent studies, done by university researchers, tell a different story, especially after an incident. The closer one is to a toxic, loud compressor station, common sense tells one, the higher the impact on your property values.
This is borne out by the large number of anecdotal stories from newspapers across the country of the difficulties homeowners have in selling their properties with pipelines and energy installations on them.
Property insurance companies, since they have interlocking directorships with banks, are loath to publicly say too much about property insurance concerns for territories through which pipelines travel. If the pipeline lowers the appraised value of the property below the value of the bank’s mortgage, this impacts the bank’s financial strength and market value. The banks, insurance companies and appraisers who serve them all have a vested interest in the Panglossian view that all is well.
The Medina County Commissioners, noting the tax income the pipeline is supposedly going to bring in, have sold our patrimony for a bowl of stew. How much money is a human life worth in Guilford Township and southeastern Medina County?
If property values in Guilford Township are going to go down 5 percent every year, how long before the pipeline tax money just replaces the tax income lost from decreased property values? What profit is there in selling our future just to have the equivalent of a measly bowl of vegetarian stew?
Astute observers will realize that the story that began this piece was from one of the sacred texts passed down to the human race as the received wisdom of our forbearers. It is from Genesis in the first five books of the Torah. It is the story of Esau and Jacob.
We ignore this wisdom at our own peril.
