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Welcome to the website of the Hidden Lakes Gas Lease Committee.
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Number of Visitors:
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BREAKING NEWS!!!! HL Gas Group reaches agreement
with XTO. Signings begin Monday June 23. See below for more information.
Click here for a PDF copy of the signing schedule
The Contract has been removed from the website |
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Latest News and Updates
Go to the "Update Archive" page for links to all of the HLGLC updates
The blog entries are archived monthly, to see the entries from a particular
month, select the month below.
| 2008.07.01 | 2008.06.01 | 2008.05.01 | 2008.04.01 | 2008.03.01 |
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Monday, July 21, 2008 July 13 HLGLC UpdateLandmen doing the title search on Bloomfield should be done the end of this week, they tell us.Mailing of packets and signing party should come very shortly after they are done. A separate email to our Bloomfield neighbors will be sent out when we know the mailing date and signing party date/venue. Thank you for your patience!! If you have not yet received a packet (and should have) from XTO (not Bloomfield), please call the landman assigned your village: Retreat / Enclave - Vivian Smith, 817-870-0026 Checks started going out last week for the signing parties in June. Please set aside some of the bonus check for Uncle Sam. The bonus will be taxed at ordinary income rates. Royalties will be at a lower rate (need to do more research on that rate). City of Keller has announced that they, too, will be taxing the royalties once they start to flow. Don't spend your bonus check before it arrives! There are many reasons why you might NOT receive your bonus check (already signed a contract, don't own your mineral rights, lien(s) on your home, etc.). Colt Exploration tells us that they may either have another "makeup signing party" for those who were on vacation or invite those few to come to the Bloomfield signing party. We, of course, will keep you alerted on any scheduled signing parties! In the meantime, you can always go get your received contract notarized and mail it back in the envelope that was included in your packet. UPS Store in Target center (at Davis & Precinct Line) charges $10 for notary service, BUT offers HL residents a reduced fee of just $6 (just tell themyou live in Hidden Lakes). To view previous HLGLC updates, go to www.HLhoa.com, scroll down, click on gas lease committee link.Friday, June 27, 2008 Last minute Q&A/ RemindersLast Minute Q&A / Reminders 1. HAVEN'T RECEIVED A PACKET YET? If you haven't received a packet yet from Colt Exploration, landman for XTO, and: - you don't live in a mineral rights reservation - you haven't already signed a contract - you recently bought your HL home and the seller did NOT retain the mineral rights PLEASE CALL THE LANDMAN ASSIGNED TO YOUR VILLAGE: -Ashbrook / Preserve - Carlos Aguilar, 817-986-3830 -Woodlands / Creekwood - Michael Smith, 682-553-5110 -Idlewood (all 3 villages) - Shane Jones, 469-744-4251 -Retreat / Enclave - Vivian Smith, 817-870-0026 2. DISAGREE WITH THE ACREAGE ON YOUR CONTRACT? Click on this link to see what Tarrant County has listed for your home's acreage: http://taxoffice.tarrantcounty.com/AccountSearch.asp As we are to be paid to the middle of the street, the acreage percentage on your contract should be a little larger than what is on that website. If it is not, please call the landman FOR YOUR VILLAGE listed above for a correction. Print out the Tarrant County page as proof! 3. ALREADY SIGNED A CONTRACT? Colt Exploration provided us in early May with a list of HL residents who had already signed a contract. It turns out that number (28) will be higher, as Petrocasa/Harding/DDJET did not file the contracts until just recently. Even if you received a packet in the mail, you will not be paid!! They will do another title search before cutting the checks. Save yourself time and frustration and don't go to the signing parties. Tena Fox, our attorney, has gotten dozens of calls from those who have already signed, wanting to get out of the contract. In her opinion, there is no way to get out of a prematurely-signed contract. XTO tells us that, in regards to those contracts, they will either trade land elsewhere to get ownership of them and/or make the other gas company a partner in the drilling process. The terms of YOUR signed contract will rule in regards to royalty percentages and such. We have heard shameful testimonies on how high-pressure the other gas company landmen were, even making promises that were false. Sorry, but we cannot do anything about their tactics. Kudos to the Gas Lease Committee Credits for Our Windfall Money
Bottom Line Results: Recalling that the first offers were about $500, the HLGLC efforts resulted in a order of magnitude increase. It is estimated that over $10,000,000 (that's millions) in bonuses will be paid to Hidden Lakes Residents; over $20,000,000 total to the Hidden Lakes coalition (including HL). Isn't Hidden Lakes a great place to live! We owe a real debt of gratitude to this dedicated team who achieved so much for Hidden Lakes residents. Clarification: The Hidden Lakes HOA Developer Board of Directors chose not be involved with the gas lease activities. The Hidden Lakes Gas Lease Committee operated as an independent group of residents working on behalf of the community, not officially representing the HOA or Board. Goal: The committee's goal was to provide a recommendation to the residents of Hidden Lakes regarding leasing the mineral rights of their property. HLGLC was made up of all volunteers who are HL residents. Communications: Since early January when it formed, the HLGLC has had over 7100 hits on the HLGLC website and also over 3350 emails received to date. Each email was answered - sometimes multiple times from different HLGLC members. When email was sent to gaslease@HLhoa.com, it was redirected to all 14 members of the committee. In addition, over 150 new email addresses were garnered from door-to-door deliveries! Other coalitions / HOAs are in awe of the fact we can quickly communicate with over 94% of our residents. The committee met 20+ times, some with other gas lease coalitions. Coalition: Word got out and surrounding HOAs and large landowners emailed, asking to join the HLGLC coalition. Hidden Lakes is 700 acres, but the coalition grew to 4500+ acres! Unfortunately, XTO did not want to drill north of 1709 at this time, so the size of the current coalition is approximately 1500 acres. The Team: There were several "experts" on the committee who work in the oil and gas industry and patiently explained the complicated issues to the rest. Some wish to remain anonymous as they have business dealings with all the major gas companies and do not wish to get any flak from any company not the winning the HL coalition business. -Deb Gatzke (Retreat) was the catalyst and lynchpin who organized and invigorated the committee, essentially making it her full time quest since January to achieve the best possible deal for HL residents. Deb again demonstrated why she was Hidden Lakes' very first Volunteer of the Year in 2003. She set up all the meetings with the various gas companies and kept the HL residents informed with regular updates. Her persistence led the team through various difficulties. She spent much time on the phone with residents, neighboring HOAs and coalition leaders in other cities. She responded to every email received, over 3350 of them. -John Mitchell (Bloomfield) was the committee's moral compass and most consistent contributor, attending EVERY meeting held. John may be a man of few words, but when he spoke, the rest listened! -Jeff Kurtz (Bloomfield), a landman, spent many, many hours, researching the HL common areas' mineral rights ownership. He and Dianne Knodel (Woodlands), who is also one of the HL Association Managers, worked together to make sure Hidden Lakes rights were documented properly. -Pete Novak (Ashbrook) took it upon himself a few weeks into the HLGLC's formation to create a website and keep it current with the many updates and other helpful information for HL residents. The website has had more than 7000 hits! -St. Clair Newbern (Creekwood), Troy Hoefer (Bloomfield) and Ken DePriest (Creekwood) all work in the O&G industry and provided valuable guidance in so many complex areas. The rest of the committee reported they would have been lost without them! -Tena Fox (Preserve), attorney (www.leachlaw.com), provided, at no charge, her legal expertise in negotiating the final contract to make sure Hidden Lakes' interests in ALL areas were protected. Tena was fantastic so consider her if you need legal work done (wills, estate planning, probate work - click on her website for more info). -Bill Bradley (Idlewood Estates and also Co-chair of Long Range Planning) and Bill Stoner (Idlewood Estates and also Co-chair of Safety) could always be counted on for insightful thoughts in discussions. Both made calls to expand the contacts and increase the coalition size through networking. Both Bills could always be relied on when needed! -Todd Almand (Ashbrook, also a previous Volunteer of the Year), when he was not flying, attended meetings, but was always a contributor when brainstorming ideas and options via email. His often wacky insights added welcomed levity to all. -Jim Niewald (Enclave), when he wasn't able to attend meetings, could always be counted on to deliver updates to those HL residents who did not provide their email address. In fact, most HLGLC members were recruited for that duty in their respective villages (and sometimes elsewhere). -Don Boyer (Idlewood Oaks), sent out all the HLGLC bulletins to residents. Thanks, too, to Stewart Grounds (Preserve) and Dale Bankhead (Ashbrook) for delivering updates door to door and their opinions at meetings. Lastly, a big thanks to those who wish to remain anonymous. The committee is extremely grateful for your guidance! Hats off to this team of volunteers who worked tirelessly on behalf of HL residents! If you are fortunate enough to receive some of this windfall money, don't forget to join with your neighbors to let the individual members of this committee who made it happen realize how much you appreciate their efforts. Saturday, June 21, 2008 June 21 Update: Reminders and answers to recent questionsThe following info contains important reminders and answers in response to recent
questions and comments
6:45 pm | link(1) Packets from Colt Exploration, landman for XTO Energy, started arriving USPS today (Saturday, June 21st), they weren't mailed out until Friday. ***(Anyone going door-to-door or calling is NOT Colt/XTO, beware!) (2) The contract that HLGLC negotiated has been posted online, so you can review with your attorney (or have more time to review if you live in one of the villages closing first). For some reason, that only XTO knows, the contract you will receive (and the one online) have crossed-out lines. Signing parties start Monday, June 23rd, with Ashbrook (at Sky Creek Ranch from 4 to 9 pm). Full signing schedule in previous update sent out. Go to www.HLhoa.com and click on link for gas lease committee updates to view contract, schedule (and previous updates). (3) Page 1 of the packet give the total acreage for your village; go to the back of the packet to "Order of Payment" to see your designated amount of bonus and "individual" acreage. (4) Royalties: Just posted online, in addition to the contract, is an article from Powell Barnett Shale Newsletter about royalties, how they are calculated and how much to expect. Remember, it's just a good-faith guess at production levels, actual numbers won't be known until they get down there. Price levels of natural gas fluctuate as well. (5) Two more files were just posted also: XTO Energy's brochure and XTO's presentation, showing the various steps of natural gas drilling. (6) Going on vacation? Heard from dozens of you going on vacation and not able to attend signing parties. A return envelope will be in the packet coming in the mail. You can get your signatures (both if both are on the title) notarized at your local bank (or other places) and just mail the contract back (by August 1st). (7) Yes, you can get a Power of Attorney for a missing spouse and/or the one going-to-be-out-of-town spouse can get their signature notarized and the other spouse can bring it all to signing party to sign theirs in person there. (8) IMPORTANT: (a) You can only come on the night assigned for YOUR village's signing party (or to makeup date on July 1st). (b) Only come to signing party WITH A PACKET. If you do not receive a packet (3 major reasons why listed in previous update) by June 27th, contact deb@HLhoa.com. DO NOT COME TO YOUR SIGNING PARTY WITHOUT A PACKET. (9) QUESTIONS ABOUT IF YOU OWN YOUR MINERAL RIGHTS? If you receive a packet from Colt Exploration/XTO Energy, then you do. If you do not receive a packet, odds are you (a) live in a mineral rights reservation, (b) already signed a contract, or (c) purchased your home and the seller retained the mineral rights. The HLGLC cannot do mineral rights searches! If you do not receive a packet and are not in those three groups, we will forward your request to Colt Exploration for determination, but NOT until after June 27th. They are at full workload capacity trying to get through all our signing parties (as well as finish up the title searches for Bloomfield neighbors!). Friday, June 20, 2008 Informational Files AddedXTO Contract available XTO Lease Contract (38K) Additional Information Signing Meeting Schedule (66K) Revenue Estimates from Neighborhoods This paper is a excerpt from the Barnett Shale News provides answers to the questions of how much to expect from a gas lease. (121K) XTO Corporate Brochure (286K)
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