Tales of Two Pad Rats.

This reminds me of a story a guy - a prominent guy with the county - once told me. Back when fly-by-night contractors were all industry hired to run their operations, he and I were commiserating on how deadly the county roads had become. He said one night this driver about ran him off the road over by the Mamm Creek / airport road intersection, so he jumped out of his pickup and took a quick picture of the driver's license plates with his cell phone. Then he called his wife because he said the driver had quickly pulled over and was "approaching" him with a "menacing" look. The truck driver threatened to pound him, but the prominent  guy said he had his wife on the phone so if the driver killed him, she would know who did it. I guess the driver glowered, squeezed and released his stubby fingers a few times, spat then finally moseyed on. The prominent guy lived.

I have to kind of chuckle at this situation. One of EnCana's head construction pad rats of yore once approached me in a like manner. Of course, neither the prominent guy nor I had the sense to move. In fact, as the pad rat in my unfortunate encounter approached, I stood conspicuously waiting to get clocked. He advanced so fast and was so close that his weird tan loafers scuffed dust onto my tennis shoes.  Since we stood at about the same height, I could smell the nicotine rolling out from under his brown teeth and see the nose hairs in his flared nostrils. His beady eyes glinted, and the vein on his neck stood out like a tiny, pulsing noose. I suspected, that in it's dilated condition,  it was choking off blood to his brain. He and I had been having a conversation about his trucks. See, we have this one-lane road, and a number of us landowners were concerned that if the road weren't widened to accommodate industrial traffic - like you see above - and a truck broke down, emergency personnel couldn't access some of the residences. Well, this pad rat sniggered and twitched and said something about how his trucks didn't break down. And even if they did, he could push them out of the way.  I think I said something like, I don't know... "buuullllshit!", and, I guess the sun beating down on his bald head and all that walking up and down the access road in his weird loafers with no arch support just got to be too much for him.  Pad rats aren't known for their social graces. So, there I was waiting to have my plow cleaned.... but the pad rat changed his mind - probably only because there were witnesses - dubious though some of them were.  Good thing for the pad rat.  I have been known to bite.

Now-a-days EnCana's stakeholder relations folk have informative meetings with other operators and their contractors, and they have incentives and things which keep their contractors a little more lined out - and some of their contractors even sometimes do the right thing without incentives - like help out folk on the side of the road (not like the other guy in the story above, though). Good guys always do good things without having to be asked, recognized or rewarded. This new communication / hiring structure EnCana has where operators share stories about their contractors seems to have elevated the quality of  worker they retain quite a bit.

Thanks - all you truckers who bring common-sense and a little courtesy to your operations. Us regular folk sure do appreciate it. 

Entry 04-13-08

Well Progress Update - do you hear the howling wind? Because that's all we hear....

In the Post Independent...
www.postindependent.com

Garfield County OKs temporary housing regs:
New rules streamline construction of well-pad facilities
[04-08-08]

Part of the article is quoted here: "Garfield County commissioners on Monday approved changes that would streamline county regulations for temporary housing at area well pads.

The rules the commissioners approved would allow energy companies to establish state-inspected small temporary housing facilities for up to eight workers at area well pads without needing to obtain special use permits. The county calls that process “use-by-right.”

Here's my summary:  Um... buuullllshit! 

A letter to the editor will be forthcoming....

In the Grand Junction Sentinel...
www.gjsentinel.com

GarCo approves new man camp zoning rules
[04-07-08]

And still more of the same, where, as usual, Tresi is outgunned and a whole lot of landowners are having a fit and industry sits back and grinnnns.

"Love your enemies, just in case your friends turn out to be a bunch of bastards."

-- R.A. Dickson

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