No-to-Nestle Campaign Updates – March 25, 2018

Our Community Our Water: Citizens speak out against Nestle Water’s proposed agreement with Spring Township Water Authority

  • What: Spring Township Water Authority meeting
  • When: March 28, 2018 at 7 pm
  • Where: 1309 Blanchard St., Bellefonte

Contacts:

Concerned Citizens of Pleasant Gap:

Nittany Valley Environmental Coalition

LITIGATION PLANNING

A legal team got together and has consulted with an attorney to represent us as we go forward with legal options for stopping the Nestle water extraction and bottling plant plans. The same attorney helped Kunkletown, PA in Eldred Township find a legal solution to get Nestle out of their community before they could get started, which took two years of litigation.

OUTREACH

Door knocking continues today and tomorrow 1-5 pm in Spring Township to obtain petition signatures to say NO to Nestle, recruit volunteers and answer questions community members might have. If you are interested in helping, please contact Courtney Morris at creolemaroon83@gmail.com or Lynne Heritage at llheritage@comcast.net.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Volunteers needed! Can you volunteer to lead or serve on a team to help with the following efforts?

  1. Volunteer recruitment: Coordinate phone calls to people who signed up to volunteer at one of our events and ask them how they’d like to help.
  2. Data entry: Enter names and contact information for people in Spring Township that have signed the No to Nestle petitions into a Google spreadsheet (like using Excel).
  3. Door Knocking: A Spring Township resident who can organize people to knock doors in their Spring Twp neighborhood asking for petition signatures and/or drop flyers.
  4. Public information flyers: As time passes and new events occur, we need someone who can design new handouts to provide information to residents.

YARD SIGNS

Lynne is ordering No to Nestle yard signs and will get them out to people who have signed up for a yard sign or want one in the future. They will cost about $5 per sign.

SOURCE DOCUMENTS

Source documents from Right to Know requests and other public sources can be found at the following link:

https://stopnestlewaterextraction.wordpress.com

documents are roughly organized by source as listed in the right sidebar.

TALK TO YOUR ELECTED AND APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVES

We strongly encourage residents of Spring Township to talk with your supervisors and/or Water Authority Board members in person to tell them how you feel about the plan to allow Nestle to take over as Primary user as one of your wells.

This will affect you whether you are a water customer or a private well owner, especially if you live in Spring Township, Bellefonte Borough or Potter Township.

Also, the Centre County Commissioners have been involved in facilitating Nestle’s plans and they need to hear from you as well if you are not happy about this. You can contact any of the people on this list below and get a meeting. It works best to have two or three people go together. Contact info below.

You could also write them a letter.

SPRING TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS

Email for all supervisors: supervisors@springtownship.org

Spring Township Supervisors

  • Terry Perryman, Chair
  • David Capperella, Vice chair
  • Frank Royer

Spring Township Water Authority:

  • Doug Weikel, Chair – 1109 E. Springfield Drive, Bellefonte
  • Larry (Teko) Palchak – 602 Pine Ridge Circle, Bellefonte
  • Gary Catalano – 173 Arbor Bluff Drive, Bellefonte
  • Jason Martin – 141 Arbor Bluff Drive, Bellefonte
  • Nathan Barnhart – 105 Limestone Drive, Bellefonte

Barnhart is the one who abstained from voting on the non-binding Terms agreement at the February 28, 2018 STWA meeting, saying he did not have enough information since he is new to the board.

Benner Township Supervisors: BENNERTWP@aol.com

  • Randy Moyer, Chair
  • David Wise, Vice-Chair
  • Mark Capriani

Centre County Commissioners:

  • Mike Pipe, Chair
 – mike@centrecountypa.gov
  • Mark Higgins – mark@centrecountypa.gov
  • Vice-Chair Steve Dershem – sdershem@centrecountypa.gov

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Write a letter to the Editor of the Centre Daily Times, the Gazette, or other news source. Terry Melton is leading that effort and can help you with how to submit a letter and even write a draft for you to edit and submit. Contact her at terrymelton321@gmail.com

PUBLIC COMMENTS AT PUBLIC MEETINGS

Attend and let your voice be heard during public comment period at meetings, or just come to support those who are there to speak against Nestle.

PLEASE attend the March 28 meeting of the Water Authority. The Spring Township Water Authority may vote on the Agreement with Nestle at that meeting and we need to be there to speak against it or at least support those who do.

The event on April 18 is also important. Lara Fowler is an expert in water law and will be mediating discussion among key stakeholders about the Nestle proposed water extraction plan.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

All addresses in Bellefonte or Pleasant Gap

  • Wednesday, March 28, 7 pm, Spring Township Water Authority –Spring Township Building, 1309 Blanchard Street
  • Monday, April 2, 7 pm, Spring Township Board of Supervisors – Spring Township Building, 1309 Blanchard Street
  • Wednesday, April 18, 6:30 – 8:45, Water Resource Public Forum – Forum of stakeholders organized by
Spring Creek Watershed Commission. Moderated by Lara Fowler, PSU Law School. Location: Central PA Institute of Science and Technology 540 N. Harrison Road, Pleasant Gap
  • Wednesday, April 25, 7 pm, Spring Township Water Authority –Spring Township Building, 1309 Blanchard Street
  • Monday, May 7, 7 pm, Spring Township Board of Supervisors –Spring Township Building, 1309 Blanchard Street

Above information as 2-page PDF: 3.25.18 No to Nestle Update