WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA Panel wants to talk to governor about Shenango consolidation

The committee hopes to speak to the governor Wednesday.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
FARRELL, Pa. -- Members of a committee studying the consolidation of five Shenango Valley municipalities into one want to discuss the idea with Gov. Mark Schweiker.
"If this is going to happen, the state is going to have to make a major commitment of additional resources," said Tom Tulip, area director in the Sharon office of the Pennsylvania Economy League, which is a consultant to the committee.
Members of the committee, known as the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee, are hoping to have at least a brief meeting with the governor during his visit to Sharon Wednesday "to make sure he's aware of what's going on," Tulip said. The committee, which began its work two years ago, comprises municipal officials and their designees.
Weed and Seed: Gov. Schweiker will be at the Quinby Street Service Center at 9:15 a.m. to launch the state-funded Weed and Seed program of enhanced law enforcement and community revitalization in a 60-square-block area of Sharon and Farrell and to take a walking tour of the area.
For the cities of Sharon, Farrell, and Hermitage, and the boroughs of Wheatland and Sharpsville to be consolidated into one entity, additional state money would be needed for sewer improvements and for equalization of pay scales among municipal employees, Tulip explained.
The plan calls for the consolidation, which would form a new city of 44,000 people covering 40 square miles, to cause no job losses among municipal employees, except through attrition by resignation or retirement, he said. The consolidation would be intended to eliminate duplication of municipal services and give the area more economic development leverage.
Deadline set: The committee, which met Thursday in Farrell, set a March 31 completion date for reports from eight subcommittees studying various aspects of the consolidation, including how police, fire, water and sewer and other services would be affected. The subcommittee reports would then be approved or revised by the full committee, which would then endorse a final report later next year.
Officials in each municipality would then decide whether to put the consolidation question on the ballot. If they decide not to do so, residents could petition to put the issue on the ballot. Tulip said he thinks the earliest possible date for a ballot issue to form the new municipality, for which the name City of Shenango has been proposed in committee documents, would be in November 2003.
Sewer system: L. Robert Kimball and Associates of Pittsburgh, a committee consultant, is studying the needs of the area's aging sewer system. Kimball representatives will soon visit the sewage treatment plants along the Shenango River in Sharon, Farrell and Hermitage.
The next committee meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 8 in Sharpsville at a location to be announced at a later date. The public is invited to attend and speak at the meeting, Tulip said.