Merger

==Background==
* Monaca school district is doing a voluntary merger, starting in 2008, with Center Township schools.
* Also see Nordenburrg Report
* The City of Pittsburgh is about one-third of the size of Allegheny County. The city, within the county, could make mergers among departments and get rid of duplication of services.
== ==
* Merger planks from Mark Rauterkus
* Blog post in Progress Pittsburgh by Breen in October, 2006
* Merger-plank-Fitzgerald
* Merger-endorsement-Valley_Independent in April 2008
* Merger-plank-Orie from June 2008
* Merger-plank-Lincoln Institute Feb 2009
* Merger-plank-Lowman_Henry about schools from 2009
==Insights==
===Panel's task is to plan mergers===
Thursday, October 19, 2006
By Rich Lord and Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato created a task force on combining some functions of their respective governments. 
====Past merger successes====
* 911 dispatching
* police fingerprinting
* purchasing of phone service
==Links==
* 911
* Regionalism
===Media===
* Merger of Allegheny County, Port Authority and county Housing police units proposed, December 05, 2006, Post-Gazette -- Republicans on Allegheny County Council will introduce a proposed ordinance today to merge the Port Authority and Housing Authority police departments with the county police force.
* Pittsburgh getting into Wilkinsburg's trash by Jeremy Boren of the TRIBUNE-REVIEW on November 17, 2006 -- If you spot a Pittsburgh garbage truck rumbling around the streets of Wilkinsburg, it's not lost. It's on the job. Pittsburgh is getting into the trash collection business with the borough of 20,000 residents to test how the city could offer basic municipal services to surrounding towns and improve efficiencies throughout Allegheny County.
:"We're going to continue as a city government to look at ways we can cooperate with other municipalities and other entities of government to provide cheaper services and to provide more efficient services to our residents," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said. 
* Merging City-County Services: Talking about Police and Fire Academies in the Post-Gazette in June, 2006
===Blogs===
* http://burghreport.blogspot.com/2006/10/pg-editorial-calls-out-pghs-elected.html#links from October, 2006
* http://www.pghlesbian.com/blog/_archives/2009/4/2/4141231.html April 2009