JACKSON TWP — Township supervisors Thursday evening voted to hire special legal counsel to begin potentially negotiating a Marcellus Shale lease for township-owned properties. The supervisors hired attorney Patricia L. McGrail at $90 per hour with the condition that her time in negotiations with Rex Energy not exceed 20 hours. Township officials said only Rex Energy is currently operating natural gas drilling operations in Jackson Township. The township owns three properties with a total of about 65 acres on Magill Road where its municipal building is located and property at Porters Cove and off Tollgate Road. A representative of Rex Energy, based in State College, told the township that one of three horizontal wells planned in the four township area of Jackson, Lancaster, Forward and Connoquenessing has been completed. A second well is under construction. The third is scheduled to be completed by next summer. Because of this, the township's lease is likely to be for extraction of the natural gas, not as a drilling site. The company already has signed leases for a number of township residents' properties.
