Tuesday, July 27, 2004
The group needed at least 600 signatures from the five municipalities.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Citizens for the Valley has the signatures needed to get the issue of a five-municipality consolidation on the Nov. 2 election ballot. Now, the group has to convince the majority of voters that it's a good idea.
Gregg Buchanan of Sample Road started the effort in the wake of a five-municipality study that failed to recommend any type of merger or consolidation among Hermitage, Sharon, Farrell, Wheatland and Sharpsville.
Started petition drive
He and others thought that decision should be made by the people and launched the Citizens for the Valley petition-signing drive to make that happen.
The petition asked if the five municipalities should consolidate as a single city to be called Shenango Valley and to be governed by a home rule charter with a nine-member governing council.
They didn't need many signatures, only 5 percent of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election.
That amounted to 265 signatures in Hermitage, 179 in Sharon, 80 in Farrell, 65 in Sharpsville and 11 in Wheatland.
Buchanan said 18 people helped circulate the petitions and the required number have been secured. People can still sign the petitions through Wednesday, he said.
Filing planned Thursday
The group plans to file the petitions at the Mercer County election office in the county courthouse at noon Thursday, he said.
The election office will then confirm the signatures and put the question on the Nov. 2 ballot, he said.
Now the task of persuading voters to support the consolidation begins, Buchanan said.
The group has a marketing effort ahead, he said, noting the drive hopes to secure the endorsement of the state and local elected officials.
It also intends to put out a flier outlining the anticipated benefits as well as the negatives of a consolidation. However, it has yet to decide how to best distribute that information, he said.
Buchanan said he is encouraged by the fact that getting the petitions signed at first was difficult but became easier as the process moved forward.
The more people know about the financial situation and other conditions of the Shenango Valley, the more they want to hear about the idea of consolidation, he said.
Even some of those who were adamantly opposed to the idea before support it now, he said.