MARSHALL, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On Tuesday night, the Marshall City Clerk delivered a formal document to those petitioning the Ford Motor Company’s proposed Blue Oval Battery Park plant establishing that there was a lack of valid signatures. 

The Marshall City Clerk’s Certification of Insufficiency Letter determined that the petition failed to meet the requisite number of signatures and also was broader in scope than it was supposed to be, and asserted that more people circulated the petition that were supposed to. 

MORE NEWS: Trump Takes Michigan

According to attendees, a legal review of the petition determined that only 136 signatures were valid.  

Those who attended the meeting were told the city did not accept the signatures because the signature gatherers were not from the City of Marshall, according to member of the Committee to Save Marshall-Not the Megasite, Julie Bryant. She added that requirement is not in the City Charter. 

Members of the group driving the petition effort have stated that they collected more than 800 signatures, while they only needed to obtain a minimum of nearly 600 signatures. 

When the petition was originally submitted, the group had hoped that the results of the petition would have prompted other options. 

“The petition was to overturn the council’s approval of the rezoning of the property,” Glenn Kowalske said following the petition submission. 

Marshall Township Resident, Rick Bryant, addressed the next steps regarding the petition results. 

MORE NEWS: Michigan Supreme Court Oversees Much of Everyday Life and Now is Heavily Democratic

“It’s going to go to litigation,” he said, “They already have attorneys in place, it’s just a matter of engaging them now, because they figured this was going to happen.” 

Another member of the group, Regis Klingler, has already taken action to seek an evaluation of the certificate of insufficiency from the City Council. 

“Please consider this letter as a request for the City Council to review the Certificate of Insufficiency at the next regularly scheduled meeting,” he said in a letter dated June 20, “The Committee respectfully requests that the City Council disapprove the insufficiency of the petitions.” 

The letter also asked the City of Marshall Clerk Michelle Eubank, City Manager Derek Perry, and Mayor Jim Schwartz to consider letting the petition process continue. 

“The Committee also respectfully requests that the City Council allow the referendum petition to move forward for a vote of the people,” the letter said. 

The Choose Marshall CEO, Jim Durian has his sights on moving forward with the project. 

“With this petition drive now rejected, we can focus on the exciting work ahead of creating local jobs for people today and long into the future so young people in our community won’t have to move away from the Marshall area to find a career,” he said. 

Advocates of the project have declared that the plant would enhance the number of jobs, and is expected to “generate more than $29.7 billion in personal income over 20 years.”