The Brooke County Schools administrators recently approved natural gas drilling beneath school property, but want to reassure the public that all safety precautions are being taken and many people won't even know it's happening.

The well will not be on any actual schools' properties, but the horizontal -- or underground drilling -- will go under the school system's property on Bruin Drive.

The drilling pad will not be on any property owned by the school system and, though officials haven't said where it will be, they said it will not be near a school.

The school board gave Chesapeake Energy permission to drill underneath school property at the end of April, Superintendent Kathy Kidder-Wilkerson said.

It could be two or three years until the area is drilled for natural gas, but even when it's happening, many people might not notice because there won't be an actual drill on the school system's property.

"Well, we were just really concerned if there would be an explosion. We were also concerned initially with a well pad about the noise," Kidder-Wilkerson said.

The school system will receive more than $600,000 for the drilling, and that money will go toward matching grants and school improvements. Only horizontal drilling will take place under the property, which the school board insisted on before giving its approval.

"If something would happen on the well pad, we were told it would only affect those people that would be on the well pad itself, but we just did not want to take that chance," Kidder-Wilkerson said.

Some Wellsburg residents agreed that as long as there's no drill pad on the property, the operation will be good for the county.

"No, there's no dangers. It's the same as drilling where we're standing. There are probably going to be pipelines down there. I don't think it's going to do anything to the building here or to the ground here, because of the depth they're at," said Jim Dodd.

John Hosler, also of Wellsburg, said, "I think in the long run, the pressure will be put on (gas drilling companies) and they'll be forced to hire more local."

The board of educations' approval was just the first step in the process. Now, they must wait 120 days for Chesapeake to do a title search and make sure the board has mineral rights on the property. Next, they'll decide where the drill pad will be placed.

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