CENTER TWP — Township officials are still waiting for a meeting with Rex Energy to discuss leasing township land for natural gas drilling.

The township supervisors Wednesday night said that Rex Energy is interested in leasing about 22 acres of township property. The lease would be a nonsurface oil and gas lease.

But the land management representative for Rex Energy has failed to show up for scheduled meetings with the township multiple times this year.

“He was supposed to be here Monday,” said supervisors Chairman Ed Latuska. “He never showed up.”

No representative was at Wednesday night’s meeting.

The township opened bids for a natural gas drilling lease in February after the company expressed interest in its land, but Rex Energy never followed through.

Latuska said he has had enough with the delays and missed meetings.

“I called (the representative) and told him to stop wasting my time,” he said. “I told him I don’t care how much money he would pay for a lease. If he doesn’t set a date now, it’s done.”

The township now is scheduled to meet with the representative Aug. 11. Solicitor Michael Gallagher said he will call Rex Energy to try to sort out the problem.

Board members estimated Rex Energy would pay about $2,500 per acre as an upfront fee. The township also expects it could get about 15 percent on royalties if gas is actually produced.

The township will have to re-advertise and seek bids again. The board said it expects Rex Energy to pay for the additional ad required.

Also Wednesday night, the supervisors decided not to appeal a legal case involving the state Office of Open Records.

The state Commonwealth Court ruled last month the township needs to provide legal bills to the agency so that agency could determine whether making the documents public would violate attorney-client privilege.

The case stems from a right-to-know request by former township Supervisor Beverly Schenck, who requested in May 2013 township officials give her attorney invoices from December 2012 to April 2013.

The township provided the invoices, but blacked-out description of Gallagher’s services for litigation, claiming attorney-client privilege.

Gallagher said Wednesday the case was a lot for a small township to handle.

“The lawsuit is extremely complicated,” he said. “It’s a big expense and burden on a small township.”

Latuska said the township would not appeal the decision.

“This has cost the township $60,000,” he said. “We don’t want to put any additional burden on the taxpayers.”

Gallagher said it is now up to the open records office to determine if the information should be made public.