County to Submit Comment on Pipeline Proposal

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — A proposal for a 125-mile natural gas pipeline that once seemed dead is alive again, and has prompted the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors to submit public comment on the proposal.

The matter came up at the BOS Friday, Jan. 16 meeting. The pipeline to be built and operated by the Constitution Pipeline Company, an affiliate of The Williams Companies, is slated to start in Northeastern Pennsylvania and then run through several areas of New York State, including the Town of Summit.

"I'm personally concerned about this," said new Summit Supervisor and county BOS member Roger Gural at the Jan. 16 meeting. "I ask the county to stand in solidarity with us."

After a discussion among board members and county Attorney Mike West, it was decided that Gural would write up the comment on behalf of the BOS and then submit it to West for review and then to BOS Chair Bill Federice to sign off on before it's sent in. Federice told Gural to not be afraid to make the comment lengthy and include whatever he felt was appropriate

Gural said that included in his comment will be a request to limit the use of chemicals in the construction and operation of the pipeline, among other areas of concern.

According to a recent letter from Mike Atchie of Constitution's Community and Project Outreach Department to stakeholders (of which Summit is one), Constitution originally applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for construction and operation of the pipeline in June of 2013. A copy of Atchie's letter was provided to this newspaper by Gural.

The letter continued on to say that a certificate was issued in December, 2014 and then extended through December of 2020. Constitution did not request another extension and the certificate was vacated in January 2022 as moot.

However, two executive orders issued by President Trump in December, 2025 that were favorable to traditional energy providers have revived the possibility of the Constitution Pipeline. The company filed a petition for reissuance of certificate authority, the letter stated.

"Should the petition be approved and all applicable authorizations obtained, the project will be constructed with an anticipated pipeline in-service date in the fourth quarter, 2027," it added.

In other news from the Jan. 16 county BOS meeting, a discussion about the county's membership in one or another regional planning groups led to some tense exchanges among some Supervisors. 

Schoharie County has long been a member of the Southern Tier Eight Regional Planning Development Board, but the BOS has planned to transition to another group, the Northern Border Regional Commission, starting Sept. 30 of this year.

When a resolution came up to appoint three people to another term on the Southern Tier board, including county Supervisor Alicia Terry of Gilboa, there ensued a discussion on how long the terms should be, and whether maybe it made sense to continue being members of Southern Tier, or maybe be members of both Southern Tier and Northern Border. 

That appeared to puzzle Supervisor Donald Airey of Blenheim, who remarked that he thought the transition to the Northern Border had been all decided and set. Federice had similar thoughts. When he asked Terry what her current role was with Southern Tier, she answered she was now Vice-Chair of the Board and Chair of the group's Finance Committee.

"I'm very curious about why we're now having this discussion," Federice said. He went on to make a comment that seemed to question where Terry's "loyalty lies."

That prompted county Supervisor Earl VanWormer III of Esperance to come to Terry's defense.

"There is no more honorable person on the board than Alicia Terry," VanWormer said. "I take exception to this discussion. It seems like a personal attack."

Terry then entered into the discussion again.

"It's my fault for not bringing this up earlier so that there was enough understanding, so that everybody understood the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to either (regional planning board)," she said. "I just want to try to do my best for Schoharie County."

The resolution appointing the three people to another term on Southern Tier ended up being tabled.

Also at the Jan. 16 meeting, the BOS approved a resolution appointing members to the Schoharie County Soil and Water Conservation District Board. Appointed were Terry for a term to expire at the end of this year; Richard Prokop (at large) for a term to expire Dec. 31, 2027; Brendan Scoralick (Farm Bureau) for a term to expire Dec. 31, 2028; and Claude Coons (Grange) for a term to expire at the end of this year.

According to the resolution, the compensation for board members other than Supervisors will be "$90 for each calendar day that they are actually engaged in the performance of their duties and mileage to be paid at the current county rate per mile for going and returning from places where they are required to go in performance of their duties."