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Show TO BE OR NOT TO BE? George Rich, editor of the Beaver Press in Beaver, has recently been doing his best editorially to persuade the Beaver City Council not to join the Five County Association As-sociation of Government. We join him in his opposition, as we expressed . our opposition to this consolidation of government way back when the County Commission got its arm twisted. At the time the County joined this group it was our understanding that whether the local governing bodies joined or not was immaterial, since the Commission has the authority and power to appoint representatives to the 5-County Association for the municipalities and school Board. Therefore it seemed at the time that it would be futile to try to stop the other elected bodies of the county from also joining. But instead of approaching all bodies at one time, as would be expected since group association is really the only item which this pilot project of Gov. Rampton, Sen. Dixie Levitt and Rep Hyrum Lee has to promote they have chosen to attack each body individually divide and conquer and to this writer's knowledge, Beaver City is the first conquest, after the County Commission. Undoubtedly Milford, Minersville and the School Board will be next not necessarily in that order. iBlut, what is the use of opposition now, you say, if the Commission Com-mission can appoint someone in their place? Well, a loop hole has been found a possibility that you the people of Beaver County may still control your own destiny. Local autonomy may not be completely lost, if we keep our senses and say NO ! Consolidation of services or schools has never proven itself, either financially or in better service. What it generally gen-erally does do is to add a significant number of personnel, per-sonnel, directors, secretaries, etc. at the top, who though supposedly are servants of those appointed elected officials, offic-ials, who are much too busy to oversee them, who become replaced in the natural process of election and who eventually even-tually become sulbservant to the executive directorship. This all costs money estimated at over $50,000 for the next fiscal year, and serves very little useful existence, since in order to provide the same services now available, the same number of personnel in nearly all cases will be necessary. This $50,000 must come from the taxpayers, you will ( pay your share through your County Commission, your School Board, and your municipal governments. Think about it the municipalities, and the School Board still have time to vote to be their own masters. Red |
