Area officials interested in forming a COG

About two dozen officials from nine Lower Carbon County municipalities met in Lehighton and heard how creating a Council of Governments organization might be beneficial to their respective budgets.

John C. Wagner, Lehighton Borough Manager, said one of the advantages of forming a COG might be purchasing power. As an example, he said, "I can almost guarantee you that if the municipalities here want to purchase (street) salt next year through the COG, we could beat the current prices" paid by individual municipalities.

So positive was the dialogue that Lehighton Borough Council President Grant Hunsicker suggested, "Maybe we can all get together again and really do something."

The meeting, held in the Lehighton Municipal Building, was for exploratory discussion on the potential of creating a COG.

Linda Costa, executive director of the Pa. Association of Councils of Governments, said a major advantage to a COG is that there is better chance of getting a federal or state grant when municipalities make application jointly, than when applications are made by individual municipalities.

She said, regarding the state, "This is a horrible, horrible budget year. The grant opportunities are not what they used to be."

Represented at the meeting were the municipalities of Lehighton, Weissport, Palmerton, Parryville, Bowmanstown, Franklin Township, Mahoning Township, East Penn Township, and Towamensing Township.

"If we can save a little money by forming a COG, we're willing to listen," said Rodger Danielson, borough manager of Palmerton.

According to Costa, if a Council of Governments is created, "the best thing to do is look for a project." She said, "You don't want to start out with a major project. You don't want to start out with a project that is divisive."

As an example, she said seeking a grant for LED lights is "something that's not divisive, it's not political, and it's doable."

"I feel we did start on an easy project and that's getting together," said Lehighton council member Scott Rehrig.

Members agreed that one of the obstacles to creating a COG would be fair representation on the panel of all the municipalities.

Attorney William Schwab, representing East Penn Township, remarked, "We go from municipalities of 400 people to Lehighton, with about 6500 people. One vote per municipality does not seem fair."

Costa said there are numerous options in setting up a COG, whether representation is based on population or one member per municipality.

"The whole thing has to come down to the equality of the participating municipalities," said Lehighton councilman Lee Getz. "How can we equal things out so Bowmanstown is getting the same fair share as Lehighton gets, and Lehighton gets the same fair share as Franklin gets?"

He added, "This is nothing new. We talked about this 20 years ago. What is the magic mix here?"

Costa suggested starting simple, with one vote per municipality.

"There is no one pat answer," she said. "There is no one COG that works the same as the other COG. It's a lot of details that hang up people and then the COG never gets going."

Danielson said that Palmerton borough already belongs to the Lehigh Valley Council of Purchasing and the Council of Governments in Westmoreland.

"They're really a tool to use for buying power," he said.

He noted that with a COG, not every member would have to participate in every project. For example, if some municipalities agree to work together to build a park, only those municipalities involved would participate in the project.

Wagner agreed, and said that even with purchases, municipalities could buy items such as equipment through the COG for their use or members of the COG could purchase equipment jointly for sharing among the involved municipalities.

Costa said, if the COG doesn't initially do major projects, that dues might begin at just $25 per municipality to cover incidentals.

Regarding the actual creation of a COG, she said, "There are no easy answers. The key is to stick with it."