FLOWER MOUND - Residents packed the town's council meeting Monday, hoping for a decision on drilling.
A petition calling for a moratorium has hundreds of signatures but a decision on the next step did not come last night.
More than 5,600 people signed the petition for a moratorium ordinance. Many of them showed up to the meeting, hoping the council would make a decision.
They had two options and about a month and a half to decide what to do next.
Town secretary, Paula Paschal, informed council members they had two choices: adopt the petition's ordinance, as written, or call a November election, allowing voters to decide on the issue.
The prosed moratorium would suspend permits for centralized natural gas production facilities for 180 days.
Petition supporters say time is of the essence.
"Right now, any natural gas company can submit a permit and as I understand it, according to what the town attorney said in previous meetings, that permit would be grandfathered under the current regulation which we feel, right now anyway, is inadequate," said Ginger Simonson, petition organizer.
Last night, members of council had nothing to say about the presentation and said they decided to wait and talk about this at their next meeting on May 3rd.
E-mail: chawes@wfaa.com
