Lower Allen Township - State House District 88
Dear Members, I am a resident of Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County ("LAT"). On January 3, 2022, the LAT Board of Commissioners wrote to you recommending changes to the 87th and 88th State House Districts to avoid splitting important communities of interest in and around LAT. Specifically, the Board suggested that Mechanicsburg Borough, Upper Allen Township, LAT, and New Cumberland Borough be kept together in the same state house district 88. While I agree with the sentiment of the letter, I won't rehash it here, but would like to provide additional context and suggestions to make the recommendations more feasible. First I would note, while the letter doesn't explicitly state it, I believe the Board intended to include Shiremanstown Borough in their recommendation since Shiremanstown students belong to Mechanicsburg Area School District. Second, although the recommendation in the letter by itself would result in too much deviation from the ideal district population in the suggested 88th district, this can easily be solved by incorporating Lemoyne Borough into the 88th district. This would further the spirit and intent of the Board's letter because Lemoyne students belong to West Shore School District, keeping their community together with the rest of the West Shore SD community. Also, the inclusion of Shiremanstown and Lemoyne within the 88th State House District (along with the LAT Board's recommendations) results in a much smaller deviation (+393; +0.6%) than the State House Preliminary Map (+1,467; +2.2%), bringing the 88th closer to ideal. Finally, although these recommendations would require changes to the 87th and 103rd State House Districts as well, I believe there are relatively minor adjustments the Commission can make that would keep them close enough to the ideal population while preserving their own communities of interest. Thank you for your time and your hard work on this project. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding these comments.