SVI Consolidation forum to be held Monday at Sharon auditorium

Concentrations of poverty, restricted housing and economic polarization are some of the issues to be discussed.
SHARON, Pa. -- Shenango Valley Initiative has issued a general invitation to the public to attend a public forum on consolidation.
The event is set for 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Penn State Shenango Auditorium, 147 Shenango Ave.
The program is designed to present Shenango Valley residents with a look at the social justice aspects of the possible consolidation of five valley municipalities now being studied.
Visitors
The meeting is part of a two-day visit to the area by David Rusk, former mayor of Albuquerque and a former member of the New Mexico legislature, and Professor John Powell, director of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Both men have worked with and written about regional strategies in the United States.
Shenango Valley Initiative (SVI), a congregation-based local activist group, said the look at consolidation of the five governments of Sharon, Farrell, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland should also examine such a plan from a social justice perspective.
Issues such as concentrated poverty, restricted housing markets, declining social needs and economic and social polarization should be a part of that picture, SVI said.
The group took it upon itself to arrange the visit by Rusk and Powell, who will examine the local plan and discuss the social justice issues.
In addition to the public forum, the two will meet with local clergy and elected officials in private sessions.