Sometimes, a consolidation of municipalities can be bad for a community, said John Powell, professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis.

But, cities that have fared best in recent decades have been able retain their cores while expanding their borders, said David Rusk, author of "Cities Without Suburbs," which some colleges are using as a text book.

Powell and Rusk have been brought in by the Shenango Valley Initiative for three days of discussion on issues related to the work of the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee.

The committee is studying whether Farrell, Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland should merge or consolidate.

Their visit culminates with a public forum at 7 p.m. Monday in the auditorium at Pennsylvania State University's Shenango Campus, Sharon.

The initiative sees the committee's work as having a limited focus on financial issues such as cost of services and taxes.

"We want a more political approach, not just power and economics," said the Rev. Myles Bradley, chairman of the SVI Intergovernmental Task Force. "I don't think the committee is looking at lifestyle issues."

The initiative has not taken a position on whether there should be a boundary change, but believes the discussion needs cover a wide range of issues and attempt to answer questions such as: Will people be happier? Will it change the feel of the Shenango Valley? Will it lead to more equality?

"That's the reason we invited Rusk and Powell in, to, as they say, hold up a mirror to the valley," said Rev. Bradley, pastor of United Methodist Church, Sharon.

Powell, founder of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School, said he and Rusk will try to put local issues into a national context for Shenango Valley residents.

"Most communities know very little about what's going on in other communities," Powell said. "They know their own communities and think their problems are unique. To a certain extent, that's correct, but there are things that can be learned from the other communities."

The problems in smaller areas tend to differ from those in bigger ones only in dimension, he said. "You always have winners and losers."

Rusk, an independent consultant on urban and suburban policy and former politician, said he has been conducting research to give him a picture of the Shenango Valley as it was 50 years ago.

He is looking for other areas with similar demographics, economic and market bases and population to compare to the valley, and trying to find factors that show why other areas did better than the Shenango Valley.

In studying other communities, Rusk said, the areas that have done better have had core communities that can expand.

"You've had a rough time economically," he said. "Your suburbs gained as your core communities lost."

The cores of declining communities tend to fall to poverty and segregation, while vibrancy develops at the edges, Powell said. Racial issues become more sensitive because whites usually move out faster than other racial groups.

The separation of races does not bode well for a community.

"For the most part, the white population is not replacing itself," Powell said of the United States and Europe. The races need to work together to assure a community's future.

A community that is divided by economic, racial or religious lines is "socially unjust," he said. "Social justice is where we each have a voice in creating the institutions and structures that offer opportunity to our lives."

Rusk said the recent success of Hermitage in attracting business and residential development must be put in the context of the rest of the county. While Hermitage's population has grown, the county's has not.

"Hermitage's growth has largely been at the expense of its neighbors," he said. "That's very typical of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey."

Powell added that some communities that did well a couple of decades ago are finding that they are being passed through by people on their way to somewhere else.

Growth creates its own set of problems that often are overlooked, he said.

New shopping centers and housing developments tend to flourish for the first 10 years, he said. Communities need to analyze whether they need a new shopping center. Usually, a new one just kills off the old one.

"It's hard for a community that's doing well to believe that it's not doing well," Powell said.

The eastern style of local government has been problematic for community growth. Every square mile of land is part of a municipality -- a city, township or borough in Pennsylvania -- separate from the county, Rusk said.

In the south and west, cities and counties tend to be the dominant forms of local government. As cities attract people, they are able to expand their boundaries because there is little issue of sovereignty, he said.

The western style of government also makes it easier to plan for land use and transportation. Housing can be apportioned "so that certain jurisdictions don't become dumping grounds for the district's poor," and taxes can be shared, Rusk said.

While Pennsylvania has recently enacted a law allowing municipalities to undertake joint planning and zoning, it will be hard to break public officials out of the habit of concentrating on their own towns, he said.

"All your local governments in Mercer County are not going to come to that voluntarily," Rusk said. "They have to be forced to do that by the state legislature or the courts."

There are more municipalities than there were 50 years ago, which creates competition between them, Powell said.

By offering tax breaks, communities tend to "shoot themselves in the foot" because new developments need lots of services, he said.

If there is any lesson to be learned, it is to do something, Powell said.

"When people feel overwhelmed and pessimistic, that's a bad climate for getting things done," he said.

The discussion also should include people with many different interests. Finances, quality of life, morality, environment and other issues deserve an airing as a community tries to plan for its future, he said.

"Different people come to the table for different reasons," Powell said. "You have to stitch these things together. If only one concern is addressed you're going to lose too many people.

"You're not going to get everybody, but if you get a substantial portion of the different constituencies, you can win."

Financial considerations alone often are not enough to convince people to accept a profound change in their community, Rusk said.

"You'd be hard-pressed, to everybody's satisfaction, to show that the merger led to big savings in taxes," Rusk said, citing the cases of Nashville and Jacksonville, which have attracted major sport franchises in recent years.

"But these mergers led to big league status in each of these communities."

"Obviously, the merger of five small municipalities in Mercer County is not going to play in that arena," he said. adding, "It sounds like a region that really can't afford not to pull together every resource it has."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at

jpinchot@sharon-herald.com