Black Gold ... Texas T ....

[Woody]

We hit OIL ....

Our Seventh day Adventist School has been offered a pile of green backs to allow a company to drill for Oil on the school grounds. Black Gold .... Texas T .... Only difference, we are not headin to Hollywood. But they have found oil.

The Board has not yet voted on the issue. The company just presented their proposal.

Shane .... what do you think? Anyone else have knowledge on this subject? Any problems with them using the schools land. The benefits are pretty good !! And we would be helping our country supply Oil for our thristy need.

[Woody]

Thanks dgrimm60 ...

I do need to clarify that it is a private company as far as my understanding. SO, it has nothing to do with the government.

[Liz]

Wow, and you found it without havin' ta go shootin' for some food?

Seriously, I think it is pretty cool. I have some cousin's that were left a ranch (lots of rachers and farmers in my family); and a highway ran through it, so they decided to live and ranch on one side and sell the other. Which they did. Then the people that bought the other side drilled for oil and found it. So my cousins started drilling their side for oil----nothing. teehe

A lot of good could come from the extra income.

[Dr. Shane]

If they hit oil it should only take 18 - 24 months before the school starts getting checks. Absolutely the school should allow it. Given enough income they could subsidize all their members education. However don't count the chickens before they hatch. There have been a lot of dry holes drilled. Sometimes they hit oil. Sometimes natural gas and sometimes both. The quality of the oil makes a difference too. If it is light or dark, sweet or bitter. If it isn't what they want they may abandon the well without it ever producing.

[Woody]

Wow, and you found it without havin' ta go shootin' for some food?

Seriously, I think it is pretty cool. I have some cousin's that were left a ranch (lots of rachers and farmers in my family); and a highway ran through it, so they decided to live and ranch on one side and sell the other. Which they did. Then the people that bought the other side drilled for oil and found it. So my cousins started drilling their side for oil----nothing. teehe

A lot of good could come from the extra income.

Thanks Liz for your interesting story. How sad though they sold the land with oil and couldn't get any on their land. The closest I ever came to finding oil was on my 10 acre ranch. When I dug a second well ... we had to go some 200 feet and after testing the water ... they said it had petroleum . Not enough to drill for though. It just made our water taste strange. We used that well for our drinking water for many years and to this day I wonder about the damage it did to us.

And Shane. Thank you also. I will have to look at the terms of the company more closely but I think they are going to start paying right away. I was not at the meeting. I'll have to ask my wife more questions. I think it is just a flat rate lease. I'll check.

[Neil D]

What is the church going to do with all the $$$ it is going to recieve from the oil drilling?

I would hope that it goes into a fund to finance the school education and reduce the costs of tutition to the students, all of them, but not so much that they get a free education. Paying for some education can make it so that members appreciate the education....

Just my thoughts on the subject...

[Woody]

Some good thoughts Neil.

Just a few more details ...

This summer the Board nearly closed down the school and sold the property. They were not having enough students . They were continuing to go in debt. It looked grim. Then on a leap of faith ... they decided to go one more year. The plan was to close the school this next year if enrollment did not improve. From NO where .... we got almost twice as many students as expected. This totally could not have been expected at the end of last school year.

Now we have OIL .....

AND students.