BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A group of citizens in Beaver Township hopes that if their local government achieves home rule status their community will have more power in the fight against fracking.

It's called the People Power Drive-Thru. It's a citizen's initiative to make Beaver Township a home rule government. They're collecting signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.

Julia Fuhrman Davis says, "Home rule gives the residents and trustees more authority to protect our rights which would include individual property rights, public safety, community health. Basically, the way it is now, the state has a lot of control over us."

The group hopes that a home rule government might have more power to challenge gas drilling permits that are issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

"Then we could have a citizen led initiative to put that on the ballot and then we would have to go against the state and I think we need to do that," Davis said.

Patti Gorcheff will be outside the old South Range High School from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Cars can just drive up and drivers can sign the petition. They need a minimum of 350 signatures. They already have 200.

"And then we'll be holding public meetings in September and October to inform people of the issue number," Gorcheff said.

Beaver Township Trustee Larry Wehr tells 21 News that more study and research is needed to determine if home rule will be worth the additional expense to the township. He's not sure if the township qualifies as being big enough for home rule status and once it has that status it has to hire a township administrator and township solicitor.