In one breath Wheatland Council President David Cusick said he didn't think a consolidation or merger of the borough with four other towns would fly.

In the next, he volunteered to be a member of the committee that is looking into that very thing.

"It's not going to go anywhere," Cusick said Wednesday.

His attitude isn't much different than the man he's replacing on the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee, Mayor Tom Stanton, who has said since the outset of discussions that merging or consolidating would be bad for the borough.

Wheatland, Farrell, Sharon, Sharpsville and Hermitage are studying changing boundaries.

Council also appointed Councilwoman Lorraine Jones to fill another vacancy.

Cusick and Ms. Jones join the borough's contingent of Councilman Robert Davis and citizen representatives Joann Jofery and Tom Lewis.

When told the committee established municipal representation as two elected officials and three citizen members, council put out the call to citizens who are interested in serving on the committee to contact the borough.

If no one is interested, council probably will ask the committee to accept three elected officials from Wheatland, Ms. Jones said.