Open letter #fracking

thx melanie, for suggesting is put these words on paper...meg

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Mary E. Gerdt, RN. I have been a nurse for 34 years, working in hospitals, home care, insurance and State Government. I am a resident of Monkton Vermont where I live on My husband’s fourth generation homestead. We work hard, living is hard in the hinterlands. It is a stunningly beautiful, idyllic Camelot kind of place. The residents are weathered, hard working people. It is harder to make a living all the time. The truth is, it never was easy.
We draw our water from a shared aquifer. We pay over $6,000 a year in property taxes. I have recently become disabled and have watched my savings dissolve pending social security. Our living here is unsustainable, in a home we inherited.
This background is important because I share a neighborhood with the victims of the Proposed Pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Ticonderoga, NY via my neighbor’s garden in Monkton, Vermont.
My neighbors are a lot like me. Some elderly, some disabled, all challenged by rising prices, taxes, fixed incomes, employment challenges.
Even though a person may own a piece of property, their ability to protect that property diminishes with age, infirmity, and level of tolerance for adversity.
As a nurse, who has worked extensively in long term care, I am appalled at the tepid response to the underhanded practices by Vermont Gaz and or their land agents towards elders, disabled and frankly all landowning US citizens.
I had asked several people to call Adult protective services, the CVAA, anyone. ? The state’s attorney? Legal aid?

For the first time in my career I am unable to pick up the phone and advocate. I am having my own health issues which have taken over my life.

This letter is what I can do, a letter to explain that what the Canadian owned Vermont Gaz is doing to vulnerable people must stop.
The bullying of vulnerable or ANY people must stop.
The threat of land takings must stop.

Whoever decided the route for this proposed pipeline through private property needs to step up and explain. It appears a lot of vulnerable people are at risk. Was there consideration of that fact?

Who is looking out for the vulnerable?

Respectfully,

Mary E. Gerdt RN, retired
Alvarita1@aol.com
http://traveloguefortheuniverse.blogspot.com