By Patrick W. Connelly
SHENANGO TOWNSHIP — Now that voters have turned down a chance to consolidate Shenango Township and West Middlesex, township supervisors said Monday it’s time to move forward and think about the future.
“The people have spoken,” Supervisor David Garrett said.
Almost 1,800 voters came out on Election Day to decide the referendum that would have made the two towns the same municipality in 2012.
Only 762 voters in the township agreed to the merger, canceling out the borough’s overwhelming approval of it. State law requires it pass in both towns.
While merging would have been a benefit to the borough almost immediately, township residents likely wouldn’t have gained from it for 10 to 15 years, Garrett said.
One of the main reasons he ran for a seat on the board was to see the question make a ballot, he said.
Garrett cast the deciding nod in July to take it to voters. Hopes of consolidation were thought to be all but gone in January 2007 after Supervisor Bill Williams and former supervisors Richard Flack and Chuck Gilliland ended talk on the subject with borough leaders. Council revived discussion last spring.
Garrett said he’ll focus on the township’s future as a separate entity now that the referendum failed.
The near future, at least, won’t dig deeper into the pockets of the township’s taxpayers with supervisors agreeing Monday night to advertise a preliminary 2009 budget without a tax increase.
The budget was whittled down to avoid a 3-mill hike, chairman Robert Palko said.
Secretary Lynnett Beck said she was able to make cuts from a budget proposed last week, including eliminating funds earmarked for a potential new hire to the road crew and some insurance costs.
Putting consolidation back on the table isn’t something Garrett said he’s considering.
“I don’t see that any time in the near future the people of the township would have anything to do with it,” he said.
But working with the borough may not be completely out of the question, Palko said.
“I’d like to contact West Middlesex to see if we can work on some shared services,” he said.
