PITCHER – Two of Chenango County’s tiniest towns are looking toward neighboring Cortland County for ways to consolidate government services and provide more for their aging populations.
Supervisors from the towns of German and Pitcher have been meeting regularly for nearly a year with their counterparts across the county line from Cincinnatus, Willet and Taylor. A group of business leaders and planners from Cortland County and school officials from the Cincinnatus School District have also participated.
The goal? To determine ways the five towns might save taxpayers money and possibly bring people and businesses into the region.
The initiative began with a call to the five supervisors from the Cincinnatus Business Association, according to Town of Pitcher Supervisor Jeffrey B. Blanchard.
“They wanted to get input on how to further the community there. Around the same time, shared services became the hot word,” said Blanchard. The five towns had been sharing their highway departments’ labor and equipment on an informal basis “forever,” he said.
Instead of writing a lengthy comprehensive plan for the region, as some suggested, Town of German Supervisor Richard Schlag said the town leaders opted to show progress sooner. Surveys were taken to find out what consolidation efforts or services residents most favored. The first survey appeared last spring in the Cincinnatus School District newsletter, and then later, at polling sites during the November elections. Both Blanchard and Schlag said a large number of voters turned out for the presidential race and, as a result, responded to the survey.
The results were tabulated at a meeting Monday evening: The majority of respondents in all five towns favored consolidating court facilities and developing a senior center or educational and recreational offerings for seniors in various places.
According to Schlag, Cortland County planners will soon be applying for a $50,000 state grant to help the towns study ways to consolidate the court system. Schlag said each town wants to retain their own justice, but have agreed to a common facility.
“On the one hand, the state is having this effort to get us to consolidate in ways that will get us to save money. That’s the goal. But increasing requirements for justice training and also for justice court facilities make it costly for each of the towns to convert their town halls in a way that will meet these requirements,” Schlag said.
Of the consolidation options constituents could choose from on the surveys were the courts, highway departments and highway equipment. Schlag said more voted for the courts.
“The people clearly wanted their own highway departments. With 40 miles of road in German alone, that’s way too many miles of driving to try to combine one facility. It’s just not practical.”
The majority of residents in all five towns selected senior citizens’ activities as the number one support facility or service desired. Second was senior housing, followed by police protection and adult educational services.
“We all have an aging population, Chenango more than Cortland maybe,” Blanchard said.
Populations in the five towns according to the 2000 census are: German 378; Pitcher 848; Taylor 500; Cincinnatus 1,051; and Willet 1,011.