Two Warren County companies are among four that have sued Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine over Wolf’s order to close non-life sustaining businesses.

The filing seeks “extraordinary relief” on an “emergency application” to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Two of the four entities are Blueberry Hill Public Golf Course and Lounge, Russell, and the Caledonia Land Company, which has a Cherry Grove Road, Clarendon address.

They argue that the governor’s order “violates the following fundamental, constitutional rights” and makes several specific Constitutional claims regarding unreasonable seizures, protecting of private property and free association, among others and assert that the waiver process “includes no information or reason for the denial.”

“The governor’s Order, the decision making process employed in determining which businesses are life-sustaining and which businesses are not life-sustaining is arbitrary, capricious and unfair” and they assert that they can continue operations while implementing COVID-19 “prevention and mitigation practices.”

The word “disease’ does “not appear in the definition of disaster in the Code” and assert that the Disease Act does not apply to them because they, with one exception, “are all legal entities and not persons, let alone infected persons.”

The filing argues that the Governor nor the Health Secretary have shown how the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania is the ‘most efficient and practical means for the prevention and suppression of disease.’

“The most efficient and practical means for the prevention and suppression of COVID-19 disease is not to close down all businesses identified by statewide category in the fact of the fact there are many counties within Pennsylvania that have no identified cases of COVID-19 and in the fact of the fact that many of the identified businesses are operated or can be modified to operate such that employees have no physical contact with other employees or the public.”

They argue state code “does not specifically empower the Secretary to close physical businesses or prohibit private property owners from accessing their physical premises” and state that the Secretary “has no statutory power to control the Petitioner’s property” and assert that “neigher the Governor nor the Secretary have presented any evidence that there has been a report of a disease at Petitioner’s physical operation.”

Blueberry Hill specifically argues that they must “still expend significant sums to maintain fairways and greens so that the grass thereon does not grow out of control such that the greens and fairways are ruined for golf activities” and that the order means they have “been denied the opportunity to make use of such greens and fairways to derive the income necessary to pay for the maintenance operations.”

They further claim they are “without funds to purchase the necessary maintenance supplies” and also do not have funds to “honor the purchase agreements” for equipment or potentially make an April payment on a promissory note.

“The golf course business is competitive,” they write. “For over a decade Blueberry has operated on a slim budget that barely balances.”

They further explain they are “ready and willing to put into place COVID-19 prevention protocol if permitted to reopen, including but not limited (to) requiring golfers to walk or if golfers wish to ride in cards, require golfers to use individual carts for each golfer.

“The Governor and the Secretary of Health have repeated admonished and advised (sic) Pennsylvanians to take walks, get exercise and breathe in the fresh air; the Petitioner can provide the outdoor public space for members of its community to do just that.”

Caledonia Land Company notes they own “4,000 acres of primarily timber land” and were initially on the non-life sustaining list but are now considered life-sustaining.

“However, Petitioner is still harmed because the Governor can change his mind and place Petitioner back on the non-life-sustaining list,” the filing states.

The order had resulted in a requirement to “summarily terminate timber harvesting projects” and that Wolf’s order “interfered with the Petitioner’s ability to enjoy its property and interrupts the flow of revenue to Petitioner.”

They specifically explain that the value of white ash “will be forever lost” if not “immediately harvested” and explained that the work “occurs in the woods and is usually performed by a one man crews (sic) and a single truck driver. It is not necessary for these contractors to come into contact with other persons in order to perform their work..

“The timber work produces timber to mills that turn it into paper products such as toilet paper and tissues that are critical in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.”

Online court records don’t indicate that as of Thursday the Supreme Court has acted on the petition.