The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

November 1, 2008

VOTERS GUIDE: Merger foes: Devil is the lack of details

By Patrick W. Connelly

SHENANGO TOWNSHIP, WEST MIDDLESEX — At one time, Shenango Township and West Middlesex often shared services in an effort to defray costs, township Supervisor Walter “Butch” Gelesky remembers.

That all ended when the township believed it was paying too much for what it could run itself, he said.

“We were flipping the bill for everything,” Gelesky said.

The township had paid the borough annually for fire protection, but officials chose to split once realizing the municipality could run it’s own department for less, he said.

Much of that same sentiment still exists in the township today and, for many, will keep them from supporting a ballot question Tuesday to consolidate the two towns, Gelesky said.

Gelesky has likened the whole notion to the financial bailout federal lawmakers approved in October as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

He’s posted signs around the township encouraging people to turn consolidation down.

The biggest roadblock to supporting a merger is projecting a realistic potential budget for the proposed West Middlesex Township, he said.

When supervisors and council came together in a series of meetings since February to crunch numbers, potential job cuts weren’t factored in.

The proposed budget does eliminate some of the duplicated services both municipalities currently provide, but doesn’t consider eliminating either the borough’s or township’s secretary or combining fire departments or sewer authorities once joined.

Without doing so, Gelesky said a true measure of what the finances of the new town may look like can’t be completed.

Township officials have fought against change in recent years and even put an end to the consolidation effort in January 2007 once already.

Supervisor Bill Williams, also the township’s fire chief, and then-supervisors Richard Flack and Chuck Gilliland voted against pursuing any prospect of the idea further.

Council voted to revive consolidation research earlier this year before money from a state grant for the study expired. Supervisors agreed and later also approved a motion along with council to put the referendum on Tuesday's ballot.

Williams maintains his distaste for consolidation and said he doesn’t see anything the township can gain if voters approve it.

Flack said he also disagrees with the merger and he and Gelesky took aim at the borough through the township’s sewer authority for the installation of a flow meter in West Middlesex council agreed to put in.

The authority asked for the meter to measure waste leaving the borough’s plant traveling to be treated in the township so it could complete its state-required plan to gauge future needs.

Gelesky questioned how officials of both towns could ever work together under the same government if they couldn’t even agree to work on a simple project like the flow meter’s installation.

“There’s a big divide,” agreed Gilliland, who also said he agrees with consolidation, but not under these terms.

“I think if this is done right, it could work,” said Gilliland, who suggested that an independent committee with few supervisors or council members study the pluses and minuses consolidation could bring.

With our nation’s economic woes also taking a toll on the state budget, Gilliland said there’s not going to be as much money as people think available for grants.

The new township’s population numbers would bump the municipality into a new level where it would be eligible for more state grants and funding programs than Shenango or West Middlesex currently are separately.

But being eligible and being approved are two different things, Gelesky said.

Grants are gifts and a municipality can’t bank running its annual operations on them, he said.

The borough also has too much that needs updated or improved for consolidation to make sense for Shenango Township voters, Flack said.

“Their infrastructure’s in bad shape down there,” he said.

Many of the borough’s curbs and sidewalks are in shambles and some roads haven’t been paved in over a decade, Flack said.

If consolidation is approved, the township will spend much of the money it has banked over the years to fix problems borough council has ignored for years, he said.

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