PETERS TWP. — Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey held a press conference in Peters Twp celebrating the first day of the green phase in Washington County. Timothy Warne hosted Toomey at his Bartram House Bakery. Warne said he is happy to be able to further open his bakery here and to be able to reopen others that he had been forced to close because of restrictions. Toomey described the economic shut down as historic and needed until we had an understanding of what the Covid-19 virus was capable of doing. Toomey pointed to government bail out programs like the Paycheck Protection Program as vital to survival for small businesses. The conversation also turned to the topic of using the military as a police force to contain violent protests over the death of George Floyd. Toomey is not in favor of the use of the military as a civilian police force. He says that Pennsylvania has plenty of resources to protect citizens in the form of municipal and state police and the national guard. Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler supported Toomey’s remarks and called for police funding for additional training and mental health support for officers that may suffer from depression or PTSD. Local republican representatives on hand included Commissioners Dianna Irey Vaughn and Nick Sherman, State Senator Carmera Bartolotta, and Representative Natalie Mihalek.