ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA. Some suggest communities should merge

Fourteen municipalities have fewer than 1,000 people.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- One hundred and thirty municipalities, each with its own government and services, are squeezed into Allegheny County -- and some academics and politicians suggest that is far too many.
The county had only seven townships when it was established in 1788, but municipalities started to form at an average rate of one every 18 months between 1788 and 1978 to provide services that townships couldn't or wouldn't offer, according to research by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
With many smaller communities now facing financial hardship, some suggest allowing municipalities to consolidate for the same reason they were first formed: the quality of services.
The area was originally settled by those who traveled west with the British during the French and Indian War during the 1750s, and later by lawyers, land speculators, Revolutionary War veterans and surveyors. The county originally had seven townships: Elizabeth, Mifflin, Moon, Pitt, Plum, St. Clair and Versailles. Pittsburgh was incorporated six years after the county was founded.
Growing communities
The state followed the township system of municipal government, in which counties served a secondary role and townships provided most public services. Communities started to form around agricultural and traveling crossroads, railroad lines and industrial complexes -- especially the latter between 1890 and 1910 when 41 municipalities -- nearly one-third of the total -- were founded.
Growing communities demanding more services took advantage of an 1857 state law that allowed a majority of property owners in an area to petition the courts to hold an election on separating from the township. For example, residents of Forest Hills formed a borough in 1919 because Wilkins Township took such poor care of the community's main road.
Today, more than one third of Allegheny County's municipalities occupy less than one square mile of land. Fourteen municipalities have fewer than 1,000 people. But under a 1963 constitutional change, municipalities can't merge unless a majority of voters in each community approve the idea.
"[When governments] start losing their police departments or can't fix their roads and sewers, then maybe they'll look at doing more things together," said Brian Jensen of the Pennsylvania Economy League.
Merger suggested
David Miller, an associate dean at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, has suggested that the 39 communities along the Monongahela River southeast of Pittsburgh, known as the Mon Valley, could merge into "Rivers City."
The communities now have a total of 391 elected officials, 35 police chiefs, 36 planning commissions and three councils. Five of the towns have been labeled as economically distressed under the state's Act 47, and 15 more are troubled, Miller said.
But the idea has gotten a chilly reception from local elected officials, most of whom would lose their jobs under the proposal. Some, such as McKeesport Mayor James Brewster, said they doubt that residents would embrace the bureaucracy of a big city.