One Year Later.

It has now been one year since we had the ordeal that would forever change our lives. This was the results of an entire week of my two young children having frequent nose bleeds while they were sleeping at night. These incidents coincided with strong odor from the natural gas compression station and processing facility in our area. It was at this point when me and my wife made a decision to put our home on the market and move from DISH.

This was a very tough decision and one that me and my family put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into. I often ask people, "what would it take for them to uproot their family and move away"? While considering that, think about how much time and effort I have put into this little community. This community was a big portion of my life for six years, and that is difficult to walk away from. Also, I believe I made a difference in those six years. Although we were well known for changing the name of our community, and our public battle with the natural gas industry, we accomplished so much more.

We cut the town's debt by over 50%, built a very nice municipal park and library which provides computers with internet access to the community, as well as wii fit systems to area residents. We also have won the Governor's challenge on fitness four of the six years I was involved and two of the four years I served as mayor. Another proud moment was when we installed solar panels on our municipal building. We did all of this without raising taxes or putting undue burden on the taxpayers. Another thing that I am very proud of, is that we partnered with area churches to develop programs to help our area youth. This was very successful and well attended by our area youth. However, the thing that I am most proud of, is that we came together as a community and stood shoulder to shoulder to protect our turf. For these reasons, it was an extremely difficult decision to walk away from; to ensure my children's health, I did just that.

We have also managed to get some improvements on the natural gas processing facility and compression stations. However, there are still some needed improvements, and I will continue to support the citizens of DISH TX in making this facility as good as it can possibly be. I did not want to move from DISH, but rather felt that I had no other viable option.

Although, I have moved out of DISH and off of the Barnett Shale, I will still be very involved in the issues surrounding natural gas production, as well state and local politics on a variety of subjects including private property rights, and holding our state agencies accountable. Even as a private citizen, I hope to make a difference both in the State of Texas and around the country. We are also fine tuning how Shaletest.org will work around the country. We expect to make big strides with Shaletest.org in the near future.

You will not see me running for higher office anytime soon. I am thankful to those who have urged me to take that step; however, at the moment, I think that I can make a bigger difference in my current roles. After spending the last few months dealing with the legislative session here in Texas, I have little confidence that I could make a difference there. I also have a family that have sacrificed a great deal over the last six years and I have a lot of making up to do. So I will choose my roles very carefully and do my best to make a difference.

I am still speaking and have done several events recently, telling my experiences and discussing Shaletest.org, which also has a mission to educate the public on shale gas issues. However, I am limiting myself to one weekend a month to do these type of events. Please seeShaltest.org, to schedule an event with me or other members of the Shaletest.org team. I still do not charge a speaking fee and never will, and hopefully our story can be helpful to others around the country.

Another thing that I would like to do in the future is a series of videos that dissects a portion of this issue and discuss steps I believe we need to take to improve the situation. I will try to do a couple of these a month as my schedule permits. If someone has something in particular you would like me to discuss on camera in one of these videos, I would certainly do that. Perhaps I could even talk about something specifically, that you could show your local officials or other groups. I will let you, let me know, what you would like in that area. I would like to thank the citizens of DISH, and others around the United States as well as the World who have supported me and my family through all of this. Please know to all of you that have adopted me as your mayor, that I am still your mayor and will support you however you need me too. Thanks again.

Calvin Tillman
Former Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640

"Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it"