Five municipalities want residents' help in planning for the future.

To do that, a consulting firm will run a large survey in the Tuesday edition of the Butler Eagle.

Butler, East Butler and Butler, Penn and Summit townships have been working for about eight months on a multi-municipal comprehensive plan.

The purpose of the plan, said John Piper, a project planner for consulting firm Poggemeyer Design Group, is to help those municipalities plan for their futures as a group instead of individually.

"Individually, one municipality may decide to do this, which runs up to the border with a municipality that has a completely different idea of what should be developed in that shared area," Piper said.

The state's Department of Community and Economic Development has been encouraging cities, boroughs and townships to work together on these plans, Piper said.

"It makes sense to work together and to not duplicate information, and after coming from Ohio it really is amazing to see how much further ahead Pennsylvania is in this concept," he added.

A comprehensive plan covers issues such as transportation, economic development, recreation, utilities, and quality of life issues, Piper said.

The survey is just the first step to include the entire community in the efforts to develop the plan, he said. Volunteers will be asked to join committees and residents will be asked to attend public meetings.

Because this comprehensive plan includes so many residents, Poggemeyer decided to turn to the Eagle for help disseminating the survey, Piper said in explaining why it is in the paper Tuesday.

"Usually we just stick something in people's water bills, but this is just too big," he said.

To encourage residents to complete the survey, names will be pulled at random from the survey forms returned to any of the five municipal buildings or filled out on line at www.penntownship.org, or www.butlertwp.org. for a variety of prizes, Piper said.

However, responders need not put their names on their surveys to have their opinions count.

"If they wish to remain anonymous, that's fine to, but to have a chance to get a prize, we'll need a name and a way to get hold of you," Piper said.