MERGER STUDY Wheatland calls a town meeting

Most of Wheatland's representatives on the study committee have dropped out, the council president said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- The debate is heating up over the fate of an intergovernmental study looking at the possible merger or consolidation of five Shenango Valley municipalities.
There have been some suggestions in three of the participating municipalities that they drop out of the study, and one of them, Wheatland, intends to ask its residents what they think.
"We're going to have a town meeting on the merger," said David Cusick, council president.
Council will discuss the issue at a public workshop at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the municipal building and is expecting to hear from residents who are serving on the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee as well as the general public.
Cusick said he isn't sure what members of the study committee will have to say.
Borough's representatives
The borough had six representatives on that body when the study started three years ago, but nearly all of them have given up and dropped out, he said.
The study, covering Farrell, Wheatland, Sharon, Hermitage and Sharpsville, was only supposed to take 18 months and cost about $50,000.
It's been running three years and isn't expected to be completed until sometime next year.
The cost has risen to $155,000 for the bulk of the study and $70,000 more just to look at a related sewage issue for the five municipalities.
The state has come up with most of that money, though some private foundations and other contributors have put up $50,000.
Wheatland Mayor Thomas Stanton, who has attended the study committee meetings, called for the public debate on the issue.
"I was hoping a lot of town people will come. Let them decide to continue or drop it," he said this week.
"I think we're at a point now where we need to put our heads together and say, 'Hey, we've been studying this for three years. Do you want to study it further?,'" Stanton said.
Other communities
Wheatland isn't the only municipality where people are having second thoughts about the study.
Some Sharpsville councilmen have publicly said they don't support a merger or consolidation, and 1,000 Hermitage residents have signed petitions asking their city to drop out of the study. Hermitage officials have said the will see the study through to the end.
None of the other municipalities has called for a town meeting on the issue.
When study started
When the study started, it took a broad approach, intending to look at providing joint services to cut costs as well as a merger in which one municipality would absorb another, and even a consolidation of one or more municipalities into a new government entity.
However, the committee soon put its focus on creating a model of a consolidation of all five municipalities to determine if a consolidation would be beneficial.
Most of the subcommittees, formed to draft consolidation proposals for police and fire services and street departments and other government functions, have finished their work. The police subcommittee and the finance subcommittee have yet to present their findings.
Once all of the proposals are in place, the study committee will have to vote to determine whether a consolidation is feasible, and if it is, that recommendation will then go to the individual municipal councils.
Those councils can vote it down or vote to put it on the ballot for their residents to decide.
However, if they vote it down, citizens in their municipality can file petitions with the county election board to get it placed on the ballot anyway, forcing the issue to referendum.
Although its meetings are open, the study committee has been reluctant to offer its preliminary findings to the residents of the five municipalities in any public hearings, preferring to wait until it has a model prepared and a recommendation to make.
Stanton said he suggested recently that the study committee vote right now to put the issue on the ballot in November 2003 without any recommendation.
That would give the committee about one more year to complete its work on the model. If it can't be done by then, that gives people a reason to drop out, he said.
"We need to wrap this up," he said. "It's kind of hard to figure out where to go. In the beginning, we were all bound and determined to finish the study. Now, I'm not sure we're all headed in the same direction."