The Zelienople and Harmony volunteer fire departments are proceeding with a study to investigate a merger.

A committee has been approved and will have its first meeting on Wednesday.

Representatives of the four municipalities and the two fire departments will meet to discuss the structure and makeup of the committee, said Scott Garing, Zelienople’s assistant fire chief.

Lancaster Township, Jackson Township, Harmony and Zelienople all approved a resolution supporting the creation of the committee in October and have appointed either one or two representatives to attend the meetings, Garing said.

Once it gets organized, the members can determine how often it will meet and a timeline for its work to be completed, he said.

The representatives will discuss appointing residents of each community for the committee as well as one resident at large, a secretary and an attorney.

All the officials have been supportive of the idea of studying a consolidation, Garing said.

“I haven’t heard any negative feedback about it at all,” he said.

At Harmony’s Oct. 7 borough council meeting Harmony Chief Neal Nanna told the council the implementation of a merger would not happen for a while, due in part to the paperwork needed to establish a new 501c3 organization.

“We’re years away from doing this,” he said.

The departments are looking for a way to operate more efficiently in part due to a drastic decrease in the number of volunteers.

Pennsylvania had an estimated 300,000 volunteer firefighters during the 1970s and is now down to about 50,000, he said.

Lancaster Township Supervisor Cindy Watson said she supports the work of the committee.

“Both departments can combine equipment, sell off what is duplicate or not needed equipment and use the funding to purchase new updated equipment,” Watson said.

There is also grant funding that might be available for merged departments, she said.