DEERFIELD, N.Y. (WKTV) - The Town of Deerfield extends a moratorium on hydrofracking.

The year-long moratorium in Deerfield expired in Febriary. Monday night the town board voted to extend it by 180 days.

A couple dozen residents came to a public hearing on the topic held inside the Municipal Building on Walker Road. It wasn't just people living in Deerfield that joined the conversation, three people who spoke out actually reside in other parts of Oneida County.

All three echoed the same message. They say the bad outweighs the good when it comes to the natural gas drilling process. They cited studies and articles about the health dangers and the economic impact the process has long term in the communities.

The Deerfield Town Board is on the record as anti-hydrofracking. "Bar none, people are concerned with the health risks associated with it, and again, Deerfield is a bedroom community," said Town Supervisor Scott Mahardy. "They don't want heavy trucks coming and they don't want well pads. I mean, I spent time in Pennsylvania. You could see the flares coming from the hillsides. That's not what the Town of Deerfield is about."

Mahardy says the town clerk will file the moratorium paperwork with the Secretary of State and once that is approved the moratorium will go into effect.

Mahardy says the town will now sit back and wait on the state to decide on what to do in the long run.

The NYS Assembly has approved a statewide ban on fracking until 2015-- but that measure has not passed the NYS Senate just yet.