ZELIENOPLE — Glade Run Lutheran Services is looking to its future as it is poised to start a renovation project and also as it is considering a Marcellus Shale gas lease for its 275 acres along Route 68.

Tom Woodring, Glade Run’s director of facilities management, told the borough council Monday night that the plan is to raze four older storage garages on the campus and replace them with a new 9,600-square-foot building that would be behind the volunteer fire department’s garage off Route 68. A 2,000-gallon gasoline fuel tank also would be relocated to that area.

Woodring said this is the first phase of several phases of renovations planned at the main campus.

Borough council is expected to vote July 8 on that plan.

Lutheran Services provides mental health, social services and educational services to more than 1,500 children, teens and families through its residential, in-community and school programs. In addition, it runs St. Stephen’s Lutheran Academy on a 325-acre campus off Route 68 in the southern part of the borough.

Woodring told council that Rex Energy has talked with the agency about a natural gas lease, which it is reviewing.

Glade Run contacted Rex Energy two years ago about a possible lease and didn’t hear from the company until recently.

Woodring believes that several of the neighboring farms have signed leases, which prompted Rex Energy to contact Glade Run.

Because it’s early in the process, Woodring didn’t know where or if a gas well would be drilled on the property.

Borough manager Don Pepe pointed out that this is new for the borough. He said that drilling is regulated by the state, and there are only a couple aspects of the drilling site that can be regulated by the municipality.

In addition, the Glade Run Foundation, the owners of the 275 acres, has sold the timber rights to the property. Select timber harvest will begin in the fall.

All the timber won’t be removed immediately since the foundation continues to consider the future of that property. Woodring said no definitive plan is in place.

A preliminary land development plan for that property presented in 2008 envisioned the largest land development in the history of Zelienople. That included a mix of residential, office and commercial buildings along Route 68.