I’m not sure how I feel about this, while I realize people have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this work, it really seems to take the “community” aspect out of these groups…

Be prepared to jump through a few hoops before getting a look at a lease for natural gas rights under Vestal property owners’ land.

The lease, drafted by a residents’ coalition, will be unveiled at 5 p.m. Sunday, but anyone wishing to review it must first sign a notarized confidentiality agreement. The lease will later be shopped to energy companies.

Leaders of a resident-formed coalition want to protect the group’s work and members’ negotiating power, according to the coalition’s Web site, www.coalitionconnection.com.

“You have no idea the amount of time and money we’ve invested in this thing,” said coalition steering committee member Jeff Decker. “We just want to protect all the people here we’ve worked so hard for.”

The confidentiality agreement is available on the group’s Web site, and will be provided at the meeting site, Our Lady of Sorrows School on Main Street. Anyone who plans to sign the confidentiality agreement at the meeting should bring proper identification to show notaries.

Coalition members will have about 30 days to review the lease before it is distributed to energy companies. Those companies also will be expected to sign confidentiality agreements. Members hope to reach an agreement on a bid by mid-August. Several companies have already expressed interest in making offers once the lease is finalized, Decker said.

About 250 families and individuals, who own 7,000 acres, belong to the group.

Coalition members, with the help of an attorney who’s also a member, aimed to create a lease that would protect landowners and the environment but would still be attractive to gas companies.

Coalition organizers also will charg $2 per person to pay for the space rental and insurance at Sunday’s meeting.