NORWICH – Natural gas exploration activity in Chenango County has prompted economic developers and planners to hit the books, so to speak, for any and all information they can quickly glean.

A meeting of the Chenango County Planning Board Tuesday brought officials representing several towns together with a professional forestry and natural resources consultant and Town of Smyrna Supervisor James B. Bays, who has been calling on the Chenango County Board of Supervisors for two years to be prepared for the gas activity here.

A meeting tonight at the Unadilla Valley High School in New Berlin is expected to bring together landowners who have an interest in leasing their property to natural gas companies as part of a coalition - in hopes of getting more lucrative contracts.

Chenango County Economic Development Director Maureen Carpenter, who met with representatives from Nornew, Inc. last week, said she is “trying to get a grasp on what this project really means for residents and the business community as a whole.”

During the meeting, the Commerce Chenango president and executive officer of the Industrial Development Corporation said she learned more about the economic development potential with the new industry’s presence here, but no action has been taken on the part of the county.

Carpenter said she would be reaching out to businesses and industrial parks to see if the energy source would benefit them. She would not say, however, whether she knew where the actual natural gas pipelines were being laid out for Chenango County.