BUTLER TWP — The hot button topic of natural gas drilling reached a new incendiary level Monday evening in the township, when the leader of a citizens group was escorted from the township commissioner’s meeting by a police officer after taking to the public podium, raising his voice and using profanity.

“That’s never happened in the seven years I’ve been here,” township manager Ed Kirkwood said of both the cursing and the police involvement.

The outburst by Joseph McMurry, president of Section 27 Alliance, came at the end of the meeting when residents were given the opportunity to speak. Previously, the opportunity to speak occurred at the beginning of the meetings.

In an e-mail to township officials and community members earlier in the week, McMurry bemoaned the change saying his group, which is dedicated to halting a gas well planned for the Krendale Golf Course, now would “ ... have to sit through a whole crapload of township business ...”

The e-mail further went on to allege that the board’s invitation to David Spigelmyer, president of the industrial group Marcellus Shale Coalition, to speak at the meeting — first on the agenda — was “extreme provocation.”

Commissioners Chairman Joe Hasychak during the meeting drew attention to the e-mail and said he believed all of the agenda items, which included introduction of the township’s proposed 2015 preliminary budget, were important. He asked McMurry to explain his e-mail.

McMurry said his group is focused on stopping the Krendale gas well pad because the township forced its hand.

“We don’t like it any more than you do ... it’s a lot of work,” he said. “If you hadn’t changed the god**** ordinance ...”

At that point, township police Detective Lt. David Fish was told to escort McMurry to the parking lot. McMurry was compliant and will face no citations, Fish said later.