At Monday’s Oil City Council meeting I brought up the idea of exploring a municipal consolidation or merger with Cornplanter Township and Rouseville Borough.
More than a few people told me I was crazy.
I learned early in life that not every idea I have is a good idea. A few times that lesson was painful.
Over time I also discovered that ideas others have had that I dismissed out of hand as being about the dumbest thing I ever heard were in fact brilliant. Sometimes that proved painful as well.
It’s taken me a while, but now I try to fully investigate an idea or proposal and learn as much as I can before passing judgment one way or another. That’s my take on the question of municipal consolidation.
On the surface municipal consolidation sounds to me like it would be a good idea. But I could not cast a vote for municipal consolidation at this point because I don’t know enough.
Still, I think it is something well worth taking a look at. Finding new and better ways to do business in this changing and troubling world is something we owe our children and grandchildren.
The first step would be to learn all we can about the process for municipal consolidation; what is involved, how it is done, etc. City council agreed in principle to invite representatives from the state Department of Community and Economic Development and PA Futures, a consulting firm specializing in municipal government cooperation and management, to a public meeting to discuss those issues.
The next step after that would be to fully evaluate the potential benefits and pitfalls and take a hard look at the impacts, gathering as much information as possible. There is a possibility the state would fund an independent study to help provide the needed information. Only then would we be in a position to weigh the question of whether to move towards a ballot referendum.
Taking a serious, studied look at municipal consolidation has no downside. There is nothing to lose, but perhaps a lot to gain. The reality is municipal consolidation will only happen if it carries benefits that outweigh any negatives for each municipality.
Let’s at least see where things would shake out.
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I agree on the surface municipal consilidation is well worth looking into. I too do not know enough about the subject. But if there are potential benefits, we won't know about them unless the subject fully researched. And that goes for the pitfalls as well. According Mike Keller of PSATS, mergers and consolidations are the biggest challenges to township governments across the state. Groups supporting mergers and consolidations insist all of Pennsylvania's financial woes are caused by fragmented local government. PSATS says local government is the solution. I beleive the answer will be found between these positions. One size doesnot fit all and a cookie cutter appoach is irresponsible. Clearly, some things will benefit from consolidation...perhaps schools, emergency response, utilities. Collaborative efforts are the way to do things now. The Agility prograqm with PennDOT is a good example.Lets find out all we can and then make a good decision.
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