As Mars, Adams consider merger, look back on a 2010 effort to join Slippery Rock borough, township
Adams Township and Mars are not the first pair of municipalities in Butler County to have considered joining forces.
In November 2010, a referendum on a potential merger between Slippery Rock Borough and Slippery Rock Township appeared on the general election ballot. Ultimately, residents of both the borough and township voted no, with township voters striking down the referendum by an overwhelming 88-12 margin.
Despite this, Slippery Rock Borough Mayor Jondavid Longo is still interested in exploring the idea of a merger or consolidation. Like officials in Adams Township and Mars, Longo said he believes Slippery Rock residents would benefit financially from the elimination of redundant services provided by both entities.
“I am strongly in favor of a merger, and I congratulate those other two entities for going down this route,” he said of the merger being considered between Mars and Adams Township.
On the other hand, Paul Dickey, chairman of the board of supervisors in Slippery Rock Township, said neither officials nor residents of the township are interested in a merger — even 16 years later.
“There is no interest whatsoever by the existing supervisors to merge with the borough,” Dickey said. “We enjoy working with them on different things, but we are not interested in a merger of any kind. We’re happy with the way things are now.”
Longo knows this, but continues to see value in such an idea.
“I have spoken to members of the township government about the potential for a merger, but over the years, they have expressed disagreement,” Longo said. “They may be concerned that they might lose their individual identity.
“Many are concerned about tax rates, but from my point of view … it would greatly benefit the residents of the township to be included in a union with the residents of the borough.”
He said he believes a combination could entitle the new entity to new and larger grants, as a merger could potentially lead to Slippery Rock becoming a third-class city.
“A consolidation allows you to cut red tape and bureaucracy, and it allows you to increase your numerical strength so that you have stronger bargaining power when it comes to negotiating contracts and deals for constituent services,” Longo said. “As a singular entity, we would have a much stronger position when it comes to the county and state deciding where to allocate funds and resources.”
At least one Slippery Rock Township supervisor expressed resistance toward the idea of a merger in 2010, too.
Then-township supervisor John Hines called the borough’s interest in a merger a “cash grab.“
“Slippery Rock Township is financially sound; we have very low taxes. There's no place for our taxes to go but up," Hines said in a Butler Eagle article published ahead of the 2010 election.
Blase Tucci, a Slippery Rock Borough council member at that time, said in the article that the commission was not an attempt to push debt onto the township. The borough’s finances are stable, he said.
The referendum posed to Slippery Rock township and borough residents in 2010 asked whether a study commission should be formed to study if the borough and township should be merged.
The ballot presented on Election Day also included the names of 17 borough and township residents. The plan was for seven to be selected to sit on the study commission, if the commission had been approved.
A Butler Eagle article indicated the idea for the study related to a merger or consolidation came about in January 2009, at a planning meeting at borough council. In Pennsylvania, municipalities can join via either a merger, where one municipality absorbs the other, or a consolidation, where the two join to become a new entity.
A July 2009 meeting saw the borough and township leadership come together to learn how the process would work via a presentation from a local government policy specialist for the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
Both municipalities were offered a financial analysis to see if cooperation between the two would be beneficial.
The borough chose to take the analysis, while the township declined.
Still, the borough presented the idea of a study commission in March 2010, after which a group of people became interested in the idea and decided to attempt to petition the idea.
The effort moved forward because of a 2003 amendment to the state's Municipality Consolidation or Merger Act allowing citizens to form government study commissions without the government's approval. Article IX, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution allows citizens to change boundaries through a petition without the government's approval.
But when taken to the polls, voters in both municipalities said no.
