Sunday, October 14, 2007

Merging City and Town . . .

Finally, someone is getting the message! From Capital 9 News, an Amsterdam alderman -- and mayoral candidate -- is proposing a merger of the City of Amsterdam with the Town of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Alderman (R) Anthony "Babe" Pallotta said, "We work together, we play together, we shop together and we should be all one entity."

Are the city and towns of Amsterdam really ready to become one?

Pallotta says yes and now's the time for the two to merge.

"The town is expanding and growing and the city is withering on the vine. I say by combining both entities together we can grow together," he said.

"We work together, we play together, we shop together . . . " One can say the same thing about Utica and New Hartford/Whitestown/etc. In both places, neither city nor suburbs can make significant decisions without affecting each other. In both places boundaries and attitudes divide and disconnect a population of shared interests from effectively controlling its destiny. The result in both places has been urban sprawl -- no real growth -- with regional populations dropping.

It will be interesting to see if in Amsterdam the concept moves beyond mere election season talk. The town supervisor seems reticent, perhaps feeling threatened. But Mr. DiMezza might make a good mayor some day!

The City and Town of Amsterdam have a lot going for them in this regard compared with Utica and environs. There are fewer jurisdictions to deal with. Water and sewer are still part of city government rather than separate agencies. City and Town share the same name. They share the Greater Amsterdam School District. Merger of the City and Town seems like a "natural."

Merger can reconnect a people with the interests they share in common. Instead of city and suburb wasting energy competing with each other, the energy can be used to propel both forward.

= = = =
Update 10/16:

Amsterdam water and sewer figure prominently in relationships between city and suburb, and are now playing into the "merger" talk: See "
Amsterdam's water issues back on tap."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Makes sense to me. I recommend that the Village of New Hartford and Town of New Hartford merge and form ONE government.

Then we can eliminate the redundancy that exists in many towns and villages.

Anonymous said...

Its great that the city and town of Amsterdam merged their school districts, but what do you propose to tell parents of students at New Hartford?

In the recent past Utica has had its schools on the state Schools In Need of Improvement (SINI) list while New Hartford has been nationally recognized for the quality of its academic programs. How would a merger of the New Hartford and Utica school districts benefit New Hartford students? If it cannot then a merger is not even close to a good idea.

Strikeslip said...

Amsterdam did not merge school districts -- the entire area has been served by an "Enlarged" school district for years. The point being made is that the Town and City of Amsterdam have a leg up over us for merger because there are fewer things keeping them apart than here.

At this point, I'm only talking about merger of local governments, not schools, though I think schools should come later.

New Hartford sets the standard for accomplishment in this region, and a merger of school districts probably should not take place until other districts at least come close to New Hartford's standards.

But, ultimately, all districts would be better off by merger -- even New Hartford. Oriskany and NYM are two very small districts that, while good, cannot give the range of services that are available in larger districts. Merger (including BOCES) would create a population base that could support better services . . . Meanwhile we could eliminate a whole host of duplicative administrative positions -- positions which do not teach.

Rebecca Mecomber said...

With mergers, local accountability goes out the window.

Per the school issue, I attended a school where kids from 20 miles away were shuttled over (I was only 5 miles away). The hours spent on a bus every day were gruesome. Not to mention the fuel costs for buses, and crowded rooms and stress in school.

At any rate, consolidation MIGHT save some cash, but it doesn't save on convenience (tell me who loves driving all the way to Consumer Sq because the Big Box stores forced out the local Mom and Pop stores, or waiting a half-hour for the Fire Dept or police to show up, or waiting in line for an hour at the State/County/Town office building?) and gives the citizens less of a voice in the role of government. Nah.

As far as eliminating duplicative administrative positions in schools, GOOD LUCK. You're picking a fight with the biggest union in North America-- the NEA. The school system is a disatrous mess and no amount of "reform" will fix it.

Strikeslip said...

If a merger will give citizens less of a role in government, then perhaps it is a merger that should not occur.

I'm speaking of mergers that INCREASE citizens' roles in government by eliminating boundaries separating people who have more interests in common than not.

There is strength in numbers.