This article originally ran in The Philadelphia Inquirer on July 29, 2010

Some liken it to two people dating. There’s a courting period to get to know each other before anyone pops the question.

That may be where officials in Cherry Hill Township and its tiny neighbor, Merchantville Borough, now find themselves.

Several hundred borough residents signed a petition over the spring calling on Merchantville officials to study the pros and cons of a merger.

And this week, organizers were fashioning a more formal petition intended to further prod the town into examining the question.

They say Merchantville is being squeezed by the lack of tax rateables and state aid cuts that will force tough choices. Aid dropped from $715,691 in fiscal 2009 to $557,946 in fiscal 2011.

“I don’t see how the town is sustainable,” said Bob Starker, a borough resident who has helped lead the petition effort.

“We’ve been delaying reality and are now at a tipping point where we might have to increase [property] taxes and reduce services,” he said. “That’s when we circle the drain.”

The borough could bring millions of dollars in additional revenue to Cherry Hill, which could easily and more efficiently extend services to an adjacent community of 3,800 people in sixth-tenths of a square mile, Starker said.

Why bear the expense of separate governments, police departments, and school systems – not to mention a host of other services, ranging from trash pickup and stump-grinding to snow removal and road maintenance – residents are asking.

Merchantville Mayor Frank North and Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt have met to discuss the merger proposal and hope the state will fund the study, expected to cost more than $100,000.

“I’m not against [a merger] or for it,” North said. “I’m here to do whatever is right for Merchantville and our residents.

“This is something that has to be approved by both communities. It’s like going to the prom. If you want someone to go and the other person doesn’t want to go, it’s not going to happen.”

North and Platt both said they needed more information before the communities could decide on tying the knot.

“There is no question in my mind that any time you can eliminate redundancy in municipal services and save taxpayers money, it is the right thing to do,” Platt said. “Any kind of consolidation that is done, whether it is a trash contract or municipalities, needs to be done in a thoughtful manner with a benefit for all parties involved.”

Even approval of a study to look at the merger question “would be a wonderful example to communities across the state,” said Gina Genovese, former mayor of Long Hill Township in Morris County and founder and executive director of Courage to Connect New Jersey, a nonprofit that educates the public about home rule and local government changes.

“You are looking at a much larger town with a huge capacity that could take Merchantville under its wing,” she said. “The last merger was in 1952. . . . Government is like a huge ship, and it doesn’t turn fast. You have to answer the concerns and fears of the people. We’re just starting that conversation.”

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Gina Genovese is the executive director of Courage to Connect NJ. (Staff photo: Michael Daigle)

The tower of 566 placards in the corner of the living room at Gina Genovese’s Millington home stands maybe 11 feet tall. It takes Wendy McCahill about 35 minutes during their presentations to display them one-by-one to an audience.

The placards represent the 566 municipalities in New Jersey.

If she had her way, Genovese would throw those placards into the air and only about 100 of them would return.

Those placards would represent the 100 new municipal governments in New Jersey, and, she said, the only real way to end the state’s tax nightmare.

A business owner and former Democratic mayor of Long Hill, Genovese is the executive director of Courage to Connect NJ, a grassroots nonprofit organization that offers a vision for the state that drastically cuts the number of municipal governments, offers the real possibility to cut local taxes, promotes government efficiency in ways that no other model does, and still allows residents to say they live in Budd Lake, Lake Hiawatha, Millington or Stirling, Milton, White Meadow Lake or Long Valley.

“People need to have the room to understand that their town’s identity will not change because their municipal administration changes,” she said.

There are plenty of examples around New Jersey, she said. Short Hills and Millburn share an adminstration, but are seen as separate places; Woodbridge Township is a collection of 10 distinct local communities each with their own name; Long Hill is the township, but Stirling, Millington and Gillette are the better-known sections that residents identify as home.

For example, she said, the Chesters, the Mendhams and Washington Township, all of which are in the same regional high school district, could form a town of 38,000 or 39,000 residents, still maintain their local character but gain efficiencies with fewer administrators.

Genovese’s vision goes beyond shared services. She was mayor when Long Hill and Bernards Township formed a joint police communications center, but feels that as innovative as that action was, the savings were insufficient.

“We were sharing 12 to 15 services,”" Genovese said. “Could we have 40 or 50? You’re going to have nothing your town does by itself.”

And that is that challenge she puts to mayors whose towns share more and more services: If you share everything, what are you exactly the mayor of?

That is why she is seeking five to 10 towns to “”find the courage” to form one municipal adminsitration as a pilot program. She said her organization is seeking nongovernment financial support so that it can pay for any studies needed to support the creation of the new local government.

Genovese will hold a presentation in Morristown on Oct. 14. Information on the effort can be found at www.couragetoconnectnj.org.

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Gina Genovese, the founder of Courage to Connect NJ, is quoted in this article about a possible merger between Merchantville and Cherry Hill.

Merchantville residents hold copies of a petition urging the borough and Cherry Hill to consider consolidating the municipalities. They include Loredena Rubini, 18-month-old Sasha Brown and her mother Carrie, Greg Lavardera, Bob Stocker and Natalie Guertler. (JOHN ZIOMEK/Courier-Post)

Merchantville residents have repeatedly tried to send their children to the Cherry Hill school district.

Now they are at it again, this time pushing for consolidation of the two municipalities.
A petition circulated in Merchantville recently urged a study into the possibility of merging Merchantville and Cherry Hill. An online petition was circulated as well.

Bob Stocker and Russell Loue — members of the group behind the petition — and other residents presented it to Merchantville Mayor Frank North and borough council members at a June 14 council meeting. The council unanimously decided to ask a third party to conduct a feasibility study on consolidation.

Talks of a study have taken place in the past, but Loue said the public has not been notified about it. So he, Stocker and other residents decided to do a little investigating.

“I said let’s find out for ourselves,” said Loue, a six-year resident of Merchantville. “We would like to find out if we can save this community through consolidation.

“Through the numbers we see, the town will not survive, so let’s do a real feasibility study with Cherry Hill. Let us see the numbers.”

At the most recent borough council meeting Monday, Mayor North announced he has started the process by meeting with Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt. North said he believes the cost to perform a study will be about $100,000.

“If we can come up with the financing, both Merchantville and Cherry Hill will appoint committees,” North said. “They will draw up an RFP (request for proposal) and submit it to various companies that do this type of study. If everything goes well, someone would be hired to perform the study, and that information would be brought back to committees.”

Cherry Hill’s mayor would be agreeable to examining the issue, his spokesman said.

“The mayor would be more than willing to take a closer look at the situation,” said spokesman Dan Keashen. “He is more then willing to entertain the theory of consolidation.”

Gina Genovese, former mayor of Long Hill, Morris County, and founder of Courage to Connect for New Jersey, said she believes the push for consolidation is a step that needs to be taken. Courage to Connect NJ is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that wants to be a model for connecting communities’ administrative structures, according to its website.

Genovese applauded consolidation efforts by Merchantville residents.

“Merchantville took advantage of the legislation that’s already there,” Genovese said. “For the first time, residents have taken advantage, which gives power to people to do this. That gives people the same power as local officials.”

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