Increasingly, America's urban zones are growing together in fused cities, longtime University of Charleston political science professor Evelyn Harris pointed out in a Monday commentary.
Increasingly, America's urban zones are growing together in fused cities, longtime University of Charleston political science professor Evelyn Harris pointed out in a Monday commentary.
"SanSan" is the unbroken urban mass from San Diego to San Francisco. "ChiPitt" is the solid megalopolis from Chicago to Pittsburgh. And "BosWash" is the familiar term for nonstop Boston-to-Washington urbanization.
Yet 80,000 separate local governments remain across America, ruling small parcels, Harris noted, and local residents are slow to cooperate in merged jurisdictions to streamline operations and save taxpayer money.
"We are now faced with expensive duplications of governmental services," she wrote, "causing increasing costs and therefore more taxes and delays in decisions to meet local governmental needs."
Harris pointed out that Kanawha County has 16 municipalities, and efforts to simplify them have produced spotty results. The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department joined in 1947. The combined city-county jail and city-county animal shelter came later, as did the joint 911 emergency call system (located in the W.E. "Ned" Chilton III communications center, named for this newspaper's merger-minded late publisher). City-county housing departments were combined recently. Charleston's landfill has become, in effect, a city-county facility. But other teamwork plans mostly have stalled.
"At last, Charleston and Kanawha County are planning to provide solutions for our local governments by investigating possible consolidations," the professor said.
The brightest opportunity in decades lies in the movement to expand Charleston to encompass all of Kanawha County. This unification wouldn't affect the 15 smaller municipalities, which would retain their local leaders and local identities. Only Charleston and Kanawha governments would change.
County Commission President Kent Carper is to take Kanawha mayors to Louisville in September to see how city-county unification lifted the Kentucky municipality from 250,000 to 713,000 population, ranking it among America's major cities - and also saved taxpayers $18 million by merging services.
A Sunday analysis by City Hall reporter Jim Balow showed that Charleston has shrunk relentlessly, dropping from nearly 86,000 population in 1960, and is expected to slide below 50,000 in the 2010 census. Thus West Virginia would lose its only remaining Class I city - unless unification with Kanawha County balloons Charleston to about 190,000.
Annexation of a few affluent suburbs such as Knollwood or Terry Road along Corridor G might add a few thousand to Charleston. If all parties agree that such merger is beneficial, it should be pursued. But the most exciting prospect would be expanding the capital to fill the entire county, engulfing 190,000 people.
Carper says the Kanawha Commission is ready to launch the effort, and he urges Charleston city council to take action. Businesses support the plan. The Charleston Area Alliance wants the streamlining as a top priority.
We hope this boost occurs. We hope local leaders appoint a unification commission to draft a city-county charter, and the required 60 percent of voters approve it. The dramatic change would pump new vitality into West Virginia's capital region.
Increasingly, America's urban zones are growing together in fused cities, longtime University of Charleston political science professor Evelyn Harris pointed out in a Monday commentary.
"SanSan" is the unbroken urban mass from San Diego to San Francisco. "ChiPitt" is the solid megalopolis from Chicago to Pittsburgh. And "BosWash" is the familiar term for nonstop Boston-to-Washington urbanization.
Yet 80,000 separate local governments remain across America, ruling small parcels, Harris noted, and local residents are slow to cooperate in merged jurisdictions to streamline operations and save taxpayer money.
"We are now faced with expensive duplications of governmental services," she wrote, "causing increasing costs and therefore more taxes and delays in decisions to meet local governmental needs."
Harris pointed out that Kanawha County has 16 municipalities, and efforts to simplify them have produced spotty results. The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department joined in 1947. The combined city-county jail and city-county animal shelter came later, as did the joint 911 emergency call system (located in the W.E. "Ned" Chilton III communications center, named for this newspaper's merger-minded late publisher). City-county housing departments were combined recently. Charleston's landfill has become, in effect, a city-county facility. But other teamwork plans mostly have stalled.
"At last, Charleston and Kanawha County are planning to provide solutions for our local governments by investigating possible consolidations," the professor said.
The brightest opportunity in decades lies in the movement to expand Charleston to encompass all of Kanawha County. This unification wouldn't affect the 15 smaller municipalities, which would retain their local leaders and local identities. Only Charleston and Kanawha governments would change.
County Commission President Kent Carper is to take Kanawha mayors to Louisville in September to see how city-county unification lifted the Kentucky municipality from 250,000 to 713,000 population, ranking it among America's major cities - and also saved taxpayers $18 million by merging services.
A Sunday analysis by City Hall reporter Jim Balow showed that Charleston has shrunk relentlessly, dropping from nearly 86,000 population in 1960, and is expected to slide below 50,000 in the 2010 census. Thus West Virginia would lose its only remaining Class I city - unless unification with Kanawha County balloons Charleston to about 190,000.
Annexation of a few affluent suburbs such as Knollwood or Terry Road along Corridor G might add a few thousand to Charleston. If all parties agree that such merger is beneficial, it should be pursued. But the most exciting prospect would be expanding the capital to fill the entire county, engulfing 190,000 people.
Carper says the Kanawha Commission is ready to launch the effort, and he urges Charleston city council to take action. Businesses support the plan. The Charleston Area Alliance wants the streamlining as a top priority.
We hope this boost occurs. We hope local leaders appoint a unification commission to draft a city-county charter, and the required 60 percent of voters approve it. The dramatic change would pump new vitality into West Virginia's capital region.
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