Reality and realty

It’s not only the weekenders whose property will lose value. The weekend property and retirement home property is often purchased from lifelong residents. Our property values depend largely on the market that is created by people who buy property here simply for the beauty. While the farms have some value simply as farms, our per acre property prices have been bid up far beyond what a purchaser would pay for more productive farms in the midwest. A huge loss in property values will certainly occur if the county is turned into an industrial gas field.

Those who say we can’t afford to miss the economic boom that will come with drilling must be missing this. Drilling in Lewis or Gilmer County County will not bring such a huge drop in property values because the price of their land has not been bid up so much because of the beauty. Here the decline in all property values will be catastrophic and permanent. And that’s so whether or not the drilling can be done without endangering the water supply.

Some say we need to drill because America needs the energy. But America will not pay us for our lost property values. Some say that government shouldn’t interfere with private property rights by curtailing drilling. But it’s certain that the drilling will interfere with our private property values. Some claim that those who oppose drilling are soft-headed tree huggers, radical environmentalists. I do love the beauty here. I do love it just the way it is. I am terrified that drilling will ruin the sweet water that comes from my well. But a sizable portion of my opposition is hard-headed economics. I’ve made a large investment here and I don’t want to lose the money.