Two Beaver County municipalities consider merger (Reading, Beaver Falls: 2013, house, school districts)

[Evergrey]

Beaver County municipalities of Fallston Borough and Patterson Township are considering a merger.

Pa. communities often turn to merger or consolidation to ease financial strains | TribLIVE

A view of Fallston Borough in Beaver County on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. Stephanie Strasburg | Tribune-Review

Two years ago, Fallston Borough in Beaver County spent nearly half its $108,000 budget to repair one road.

Officials in the municipality of 266 residents began talking about a merger with neighboring Patterson Township, which provided police protection for Fallston under a shared-services agreement. Officials in both communities thought a merger made good financial sense.

...

[Katarina Witt]

Strange bedfellows indeed, but not a bad idea.

Add: Reading the article, it doesn't sound like it's about to happen.

[Evergrey]

They should invite Patterson Heights to be part of their mega-municipality.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

They should invite Patterson Heights to be part of their mega-municipality.

I can tell you how THAT would go over! Although, the Beaver Valley Country Club used the fact that some of the golf course is in Fallston, not PH, to get a liquor license all those years ago!

[Copanut]

That's like Pitcairn merging with Monroeville, ain't gonna happen.

[Craziaskowboi]

If I was the governor of Pennsylvania, I'd require every municipal government to either provide their own police, fire, emergency response units and school districts. That'll cut the number of municipal governments in half.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

If I was the governor of Pennsylvania, I'd require every municipal government to either provide their own police, fire, emergency response units and school districts. That'll cut the number of municipal governments in half.

It would cut them by at least 80%... which is where we should be.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

It would cut them by at least 80%... which is where we should be.

My wife graduated in Ohio with a senior class of 65. Ten percent of my senior class, bigger ain't always better. I went back to a reunion and met 5 people that I never knew in the 3 yrs of high school.

[JoeP]

Well it's an extreme now with tiny, tiny municipalities. It's not efficient at all.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

If I was the governor of Pennsylvania, I'd require every municipal government to either provide their own police, fire, emergency response units and school districts. That'll cut the number of municipal governments in half.

What is your "or"? That these municipalities should disband or merge with another community?

I am all for intergovernmental cooperation. The schools have been consolidating for >50 years now. I'll give you a little history of Patterson Hts. schools.

When my parents bought their house in PH in 1956, the borough ran a two-room, grades 1-6 school. In years past, it had been a 1-8, but by that time, kids going into grade 7 had to choose where to go, and the borough would pay their tuition through high school. By 1961, the state, uh, "encouraged" consolidation, and Patt. Hts. merged with the newly formed Highland Suburban district, which had a jr. high, grades 7-9. The same situation existed at the end of grade 9, where to go to high school. Again, students of the district had a choice of any public school, and the district paid their tuition. Most went to Beaver Falls High School, and the dist. did provide transportation to BFHS for those who lived the required 2 miles away. Some did choose to go to Beaver, New Brighton, and the old Northwestern.

By the late 60s, BFHS was becoming overcrowded, they had had to build some additions, some classes were held in the jr. high across the street. Every few years, BF would threaten not to take any more tuition students. Their reasoning was that the tuition students were overcrowding the school (true), and they couldn't plan b/c they never knew how many tuition students they were going to have. This latter is probably untrue; they had decades of numbers of the percent of students from the outlying areas who chose to attend BFHS, but no matter.

Anyway, the state continued on with their encouragement of consolidation, and in 1970 the Blackhawk SC was formed and operating. This district was a merger between Highland Suburban and Northwestern Beaver County School districts which did have a high school. A new high school was build and named Blackhawk HS which I believe opened in 1971. (But don't quote me on that and I can't find anything on the web.)

New School Districts After State-Mandated Jointures

I do support the idea of every muni in the state being in a school district that provides education from grades K-12. However, this can be accomplished w/o requiring mergers of municipal government.