How does this sound? The boroughs of Coaldale, Lansford, Nesquehoning and Summit Hill merge and become known as “Panther Valley.”

I can see eyes rolling and unmentionable words being uttered by some readers. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have one community of about 13,000 population rather than four much smaller ones - Lansford, 4,181; Nesquehoning, 3,310; Summit Hill, 3,149, and Coaldale, 2,431.

Admittedly, some of these communities have joined forces in making bulk purchases of community supplies and have other cooperative arrangements that help streamline the delivery of goods and services to their respective residents, but would a full-blown merger of these communities which have a historical and cultural link make even more sense?

The words “consolidation” and “merger” strike fear and loathing in the minds and hearts of municipal officials, but out of necessity and economic reality, communities in some states seem to be moving in that direction. Not in Pennsylvania, however.

A merger of these communities would mean that there would be one government with five or seven council members, not 28, one police department not four and so on.

For years municipalities have pooled their buying power for supplies and road materials to get lower prices. This has worked well and has been institutionalized as a practical and economical way to save taxpayers big bucks.

But when it comes to larger-scale mergers, the push back has been brutal. Consolidations and especially mergers are a hard sell, agreed Michael Foreman, director of Local Government Services for the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

He acknowledged that this is a statewide “dilemma.” One problem is finding an attractive match; most municipalities aren’t willing to accept a poorer neighbor, because there could be tax and debt consequences.

Even when there are occasional mergers, they tend to be isolated events, not the start of a statewide trend. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an avid proponent of municipal merger because of its potential to save a lot of money, was giddy after Princeton Borough and Princeton Township merged several years ago. He predicted it would touch off a wave of similar mergers across the state. It didn’t.

In our area, attempted mergers failed at the polls. About 40 years ago, voters in the City of Easton and each of its suburban municipalities were asked whether they wanted to merge to form a large city of more than 50,000 residents. Easton voters said “yes,” but voters in each of the suburban municipalities, such as Palmer, Forks and Williams townships and Wilson, West Easton and Glendon boroughs, overwhelmingly voted “no,” because they wanted no part of Easton’s financial challenges, high taxes and crime problems.

A generation ago, a major study recommended the merger of Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg boroughs and Stroud Township. Although the merger never occurred, the three municipalities formed the Stroud Area Regional Police Department on May 1, 2000.

Pennsylvania is a state of big numbers - 67 counties, 56 cities, 961 boroughs, 1,549 townships, 20,015 municipal authorities and one incorporated town, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Yet only 14 municipal mergers or consolidations have taken place since 1991, Two of them occurred in western Pennsylvania in the last two years.

Last November, voters approved the merger of the city of Hermitage with Wheatland borough, both in Mercer County. The previous year, voters in the city of DuBois and those in Sandy Township approved merging their two Clearfield County communities.

These were the first mergers since 2008 when voters OK’d the joining of Donegal Borough and West Alexander Township in Washington County.

By Bruce Frassinelli?|?tneditor@tnonline.com