BY STACI WILSON

As Leatherstocking Gas moves forward with plans to bring natural gas to New Milford, company representatives provided an update to borough council on Thursday, Sept. 3.

Initially, the project was going to be supplied from Carey Rd., in New Milford Twp. That has since changed and Leatherstocking is looking to begin the service line with a metering station on Sutton Road instead. Permitting for that is in the final phases.

Chris Corelis of DDS Engineering said the focus has also been on obtaining easements. He reported about 95 percent of the easements needed to bring the main line into the borough are in-hand. He assured council members that there are alternate routes available if the company does not receive those easements.

But council members were not pleased when they found out that gas would not be available everywhere in the borough.

“We went door-to-door to get your customers,” councilman Rick Ainey said.

Leatherstocking’s Matt Cook said, “We will feed all we can feed, but economic decisions have to be made. We can’t just run main everywhere.”

“You’ve got a couple of bosses,” Ainey said. “We’ve got 1,000.”

Cook explained, “As people want gas, we will extend (the lines). That’s what we’re going to do.”

Mario Martello, also with Leatherstocking, said that the backbone of the natural gas system was installed in 2013; and about 70 percent of the service was run in 2014. He said the service lines will expand over the next three to five years, “ ‘til no one else wants gas.’”

Councilwoman Kathy Wages said that at a past meeting, New Milford residents had been assured they would be able to hook to the gas service. Wages said, “He said, ‘If you’re in the borough, you’re going to get gas.’”

Corelis said that as he has contacted residents regarding easements needed for the pipe, some are expressing a hesitation to convert their over to gas.
Johnston is one of the borough streets where Leatherstocking doesn’t plan to install lines in its initial build plan. Martello said that of 20 homes on the street, only four homeowners have expressed interest in hooking up to natural gas.

Corelis said that while Johnston, and some other borough streets, are not part of the initial layout, they can be added at a later date. “We will go to Johnston if we get 10 or 12,” he said.

Ainey, who spearheaded efforts to collect interest letters from borough residents in an effort to bring natural gas to the borough, said, “My goal was to get 160 (residents interested in hooking up to natural gas), when I got to that I stopped.”

Cook said Leatherstocking hoped to being construction this year but noted several big issues could setback the project. Issues include the receipt of permits, firming up plans for a Sutton Road station, and easements from homeowners still needed in order to lay the pipe in the ground.

“Without those, it’s hard to bring the line in,” Cook said.

Leatherstocking will continue to work on getting the necessary easements from homeowners in order to put in the gas service lines. It was noted that a property owner does not need to sign up for gas service but can allow for the line to be run on the property.

Katrina Colvin-Stilts, of Leahterstocking, said that with the cost of propane and oil down, people are not thinking about making a conversion to gas at this point, and some can’t afford it right now.