SHENANGO VALLEY Group raises concerns on social justice

Two experts will visit the area to explore other issues of consolidation, including poverty and housing.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- A community-based interfaith activist group says the look at consolidating five Shenango Valley municipalities into a single entity should include a "social-justice perspective."
Accordingly, Shenango Valley Initiative has decided to organize what it's calling a "regional summit" June 17 and 18 to look at consolidation from a viewpoint different from just the nuts-and-bolts issues of government operation that the municipalities are examining.
SVI is bringing in two experts to address such social-justice issues as concentrated poverty, restricted housing markets, declining social needs, economic and social polarization, major differences in tax millage and municipal competition.
The agency, whose members represent economic diversity from urban, suburban and rural congregations, is uniquely situated to provide public information on the consolidation issue, said the Rev. Miles Bradley, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Sharon and chairman of SVI's Intergovernmental Task Force.
Members of the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee representing the five municipalities, as well as the business community, political leaders, clergy and the general public will be invited to a series of events over the two-day summit, he said.
Who's speaking
SVI is bringing in John Powell, professor at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School, and David Rusk, former mayor of Albuquerque, N.M., who is considered to be a champion of regional strategies.
Rusk's book, "In Cities Without Suburbs," contends that regions creating metropolitan governments by annexation or consolidation are less segregated by race and class and are economically healthier.
Studies by the Institute on Race and Poverty show many of the social ills facing the United States are the result of the increasing concentration of poor people in communities that are racially and socially isolated.
Rusk has been in the area before, looking at urban problems in the Youngstown area in 1995 and 1996. He recommended that the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area work as a unified force to improve its economy and quality of life.
He also suggested that the Mahoning Valley would become a better community if suburban neighborhoods accepted more poor families in new homes, which would ease the concentrations of low-income residents.
Support from communities
The regional summit has limited support from the five municipalities working on the consolidation study. All were asked for some financial backing for the event, and Sharon contributed $500. Hermitage, Farrell, Sharpsville and Wheatland have not given any financial support.
That won't prevent SVI from putting on the summit, said Robert Clarke, SVI director.
The project will cost between $10,000 and $12,000, and SVI has arranged other funding to foot the bill, he said.
Rusk and Powell are scheduled to arrive in the Shenango Valley on June 16 and will join SVI officials and others on a motor tour of the five municipalities to familiarize themselves with the area.
Sessions with clergy, elected officials and the public will be June 17 and 18.