That boom you hear is coming from Bradford

TOWANDA — If New York residents want to know what happens when the gas industry rolls into town, they don't have to look farther than Bradford County, Pa. Once a quiet expanse of sleepy boroughs pocketed amid sprawling tracts of farmland, Bradford has skyrocketed to the forefront of the Marcellus Shale natural gas rush. The drilling industry has added thousands of new jobs and millions in royalty payments to the county over the few short years it took to become the most actively drilled place in Pennsylvania. But at the same time, the unanticipated influx of roughnecks, roustabouts and other drilling industry workers has stretched housing and other social resources to their limit. "I don't know how we could have prepared for this," said Anthony Ventello, executive director of the Central Bradford Progress Authority, the regional economic development agency. On a drive along Route 220 through Wysox and Towanda townships this week, Ventello could barely keep up with the snail's-paced traffic — snagged by an endless line of haulers pushing their way through town — as he pointed out signs of the economic renaissance....

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