SENECA, Pa. (EYT) — “Crexit” is over… for now.
In a media release Wednesday, Heidi Murdoch, part of the “Crexit” movement to move a portion of Cranberry Township to Rockland Township, said her group does not plan to appeal the decision last week of Venango County Senior Judge H. William White to disallow the petitions that would have put the move on the November ballot.
“I’m choosing not to pursue any appeals within the judicial branch of our government,” Murdoch said. “As it stands, the Honorable H. William White has made what I believe is an honest decision on this subject based on his legal wisdom.”
Murdoch said the lack of any state law directly addressing township boundary changes was a “major” contributing factor to the language difficulties encountered with the petitions — the lack of a clear definition of what part of Cranberry Township would move to Rockland Township on the petitions was part of why White disallowed the petitions.
“Everyone involved with this project had to wrestle with that reality,” Murdoch said.
“To his credit, Judge White mentioned that part of the problem in his opinion. The Pennsylvania Legislature seems to have overlooked an admonition within the Constitution to create a provision within the election law so that the people could more easily apply this provision. Having been adopted in 1968, one would think it should not require a generation of time to accomplish such a feat of bill drafting.”
Despite electing not to appeal the decision, Murdoch hopes the “Crexit” movement gives the Cranberry Township supervisors a more clear understanding of what some of the people in the township want from their government.
“We pray that Cranberry Township’s Supervisors will see the danger of their current policy direction and that they will give proper consideration to the people’s wish for a reversal of it,” Murdoch said.
”Many of us desire a governing posture more in line with the private property liberties provided within our Commonwealth Constitution. I honestly still believe that many voices and perspectives of our people are not being heard within the leadership of Cranberry Township.”