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JERSEY SHORE - As the move toward exploration and exploitation of natural gas resources progresses in north central Pennsylvania, area municipal officials got an education Wednesday on what needs to be done to keep the process as positive as possible.

About two dozen municipal officials attended a program at the Wheeland Center in Jersey Shore to learn about natural gas issues and how to open up the lines of communication among them, gas companies and the agencies that regulate gas drilling, organizers said.

The event was sponsored by the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

"The main audience is elected local officials," said Neal Fogel, Lycoming County extension economic and community development educator.

"This (event) was held to enhance communication between elected officials, regulatory agencies and the gas industry," Fogel said.

According to Fogel, municipal officials' hands often are tied when it comes to controlling where and how gas exploration will take place in their municipalities.

"The Oil and Gas Act of Pennsylvania ... pre-empts you in some instances of regulating things in the gas industry," he said. "Under the law, there are pre-emptions, so local officials don't have control over some land issues."

A panel comprised of state Department of Transportation, state Department of Environmental Protection, Conservation District, county and extension officials and representatives of the gas industry spoke during the program.

Tracy Mausteller, roadway programs manager for PennDOT's regional District 3-0, discussed bonding and posting weight limits on municipal roads.

According to Mausteller, the agency has posted weight limits on eight roads in the district that are not structurally capable of supporting equipment used by the gas industry.

By requiring bonds from gas companies, money can be available to maintain roads, she said.

Donald Free, a municipal services representative for the department, said the process of posting a road "cannot be done overnight."

A municipality must hire an engineer to perform a study of the road, an ordinance must be passed, weight limit signs must be installed and law enforcement agencies notified of the limits, he said.

"The process can take two to three months," he said.

Bonding, Free said, "is not a way to make improvements to roads; it's a way to keep them at (previous) conditions."

Lycoming County Commissioner Rebecca A. Burke discussed the activities of a gas exploration task force that she chairs.

"We're trying to make this very positive," Burke said. "I truly believe these gas companies want to to be a positive experience for everybody, including the municipalities."

Burke said the task force made a trip to the Barnett Shale region in Texas, where many companies operating in Pennsylvania originate.

Gas exploration accounted for 84,000 jobs in that region. Burke said she doubted the industry would create that many jobs in Pennsylvania, but expressed confidence that it would spur employment and economic development for many years.

Dan Vilello, DEP local government liaison, urged municipal officials to contact the agency if they have concerns about water quality problems related to gas exploration.

The agency has a list of chemicals gas companies use for hydrofracturing operations and that list is available to the public, he said.

Kurt Hausammann Jr., director of the Lycoming County Department of Planning and Community Development, said two cases are being considered in the state Supreme Court involving zoning and land development issues that may, depending on the court's ruling, change municipal officials' ability to regulate the gas industry.

The court could allow local officials to regulate hours of drilling, location of pipeline, noise control, site restoration and other issues, he said.

Former city Mayor Mary B. Wolfe, who now works as a government relations consultant for Andarko Petroleum Corp., said the gas industry wants an open line of communication with municipal officials.

"This is an opportunity for the natural gas industry as well as the townships, and we need to develop a relationship," Wolfe said.