Butler County is paying a company to market subsurface drilling rights in Alameda Park.

The county commissioners on Wednesday hired the Dick Landowners Group of Central City, Somerset County, to market oil and gas rights for roughly 400 acres of the park in Butler Township.

The company would receive 7.5 percent of any flat fees paid by a driller to the county.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, stressed the county is only permitting subsurface horizontal drilling in the park.

“We cannot drill in the park itself,” he said.

The vote to hire the company was 2 to 1. Commissioner Dale Pinkerton sided with McCarrier while Commissioner Jim Eckstein dissented.

Eckstein opposes any type of drilling in the park.

“You have to draw the line somewhere,” he said.

Several county residents who attended the meeting agreed with him.

Diane Arnold of Middlesex Township said drilling leads to problems such as water contamination.

“This is not something I want to see happen in Butler County,” she said.

Dave Kerr of Lancaster Township said the limited revenue culled from a drilling lease would not be worth it.

“We’re chasing crumbs,” he said.

Kerr said the commissioners shouldn’t be willing to allow drilling in the park.

“Is there nothing you will not sell?” he asked.

Kerr said he was disappointed with the commissioners’ decision.

Diane Sipe of Jackson Township said people are not getting enough information about natural gas drilling so it’s premature to seek a lease for the park.

“There has not been enough public discussion,” she said.

Sipe pointed out some states and countries ban such drilling.

“What do they know we’re not looking at?” she asked.

But one county resident defended drilling in the park.

Mark Krenitsky of Connoquenessing Township, who uses the park, said his grandfather drilled so he knows major problems only occur when the site isn’t set up properly.

“It’s a bad cement job,” he said.

Cement is used to fill the space between the well casing and the drilled hole, stabilizing the well.

Krenitsky said a drilling lease in the park would benefit county coffers.

“That’s just less money put on the taxpayers,” he said.

Kerr pointed out that he suggested the county implement a truck task force 18 months ago to ensure vehicles traveling to drilling sites aren’t violating safety standards.

“I got no response at all,” he said. “The commissioners apparently thought it was stupid.”

McCarrier said in an interview such enforcement would fall under the state police and the Legislature.