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People React To Celebrity Visit In Susquehanna County

DIMOCK — A day after some celebrities visited Susquehanna County to tour natural gas drilling sites, many people who live in that area are still talking a...

DIMOCK -- A day after some celebrities visited Susquehanna County to tour natural gas drilling sites, many people who live in that area are still talking about the spectacle.

It's back to normal in Susquehanna County.

Folks head to work, run some errands, and water trucks can be seen riding up and down Route 29, one right after the other.

Just 24 hours earlier, a handful of celebrities who included, Susan Sarandon, Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon,and the grandson of Ghandi came to tour well pad and compressor sites in the Dimock area.

The celebrities are part of a group called "Artists Against Fracking" and they're trying to stop natural gas drilling from coming to nearby New York State.

"It's like Rachel Carson where birds were falling out of the sky, God we have to pay attention," says Susan Sarandon, Artists Against Fracking.

Folks we spoke with say, they have no idea what the stars are talking about.

"They need to go back to where they came from and never darken our doors again. They don't have a clue the good it has brought to this area this was probably one of the poorest areas in Susquehanna County and we are now doing so much better,"says Rebekah Lee, owner of Americana Roads Antiques.

Rebekah Lee and her husband Don own Americana Roads Antiques in Springville. The business has been around for 100 years. The couple says they have benefited from fracking.

Thanks to a drilling contract, and from the gas workers.

They say the natural gas industry has helped keep their business, and many others, afloat.

"They are bringing a lot to the area, just in 2012 in Springville alone, Springville township, there was $37.7 million dollars in royalties paid,"says Don Lee,  owner of Americana Roads Antiques.

While there are many people out there who believe fracking can be dangerous and is not good for the environment, others tell us that is just one part of the bigger picture.

"I think there's only a few people who were negatively affected by it and the rest of it is positive, I mean people were losing their farms before fracking came in," says Melonie Drumm of Dimock.

Currently fracking is not allowed in New York.

But that could change as early as next month, as that state's governor decides whether to change regulations.

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