Butler and three other Western Pennsylvania counties are threatening to support legal action over being placed in the restrictive red phase of Pennsylvania's corona virus reopening plan.

In an open letter to Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday evening, commissioners from Washington, Fayette, Greene and Butler counties appealed to Wolf to elevate the counties to the yellow phase and to be included in discussions about how to move the counties forward in pandemic response.

“While we recognize that this is a health emergency, counties on behalf of their citizens have repeatedly issued letters and made requests to be engaged in planning and discussion around response to this unprecedented event,” the letter stated. “Calls to have real conversations beyond mere question and answer sessions remain unanswered.

“Our phones and emails are flooded with calls and appeals for help. As such, we are left with no other option but to support legal action by our residents and businesses to protect their constitutional rights, safety and welfare as citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," the letter continued. “It is sad that we have come to this place. But, we must help our constituents protect themselves now and into the future and are sorry that you have chosen not to engage us in in representing our communities.”

Reached by the Eagle this evening, Leslie Osche, Butler County board of commissioners chairwoman said the county has difficulty getting information from the state and that decisions from the state seem arbitrary.

“We want to protect our own county, but we can't even do that. We don't have the information. And we don't know what the metrics (for reopening) are,” Osche told the newspaper.

Osche said the state released its risk assessment tool used to determine how counties would move between the different phases of the reopening plan on Friday. But by the time county officials even had the opportunity to review it, the decision of which counties would move from red to yellow this week had already been announced.

She further pointed out how the tool included five very different indicators - four more beyond the much publicly discussed indicator of an incident rate of 50 cases per 100,000 residents.

The state moved neighboring Lawrence and Venango counties to the yellow phase, which, would allow more businesses to open and partially lift the stay-at-home order for residents.

“A lot of people are going to travel to Lawrence County or Venango County to do business, which puts our businesses at a disadvantage,” Osche said.

Osche called into question other aspects of the reopening plan as well.

“Furniture stores can't open, but big box stores can,” Osche said. “It's really unfair treatment. Do they even know or see what's happening. We hear all these stories from business and residents.”

This is an excerpt of a larger article that will appear in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. To read the full article, make sure to pick up tomorrow's newspaper or subscribe online.