HIGHLAND — As more communities fight shrinking budgets by combining services, two neighboring communities are dipping their toes into the biggest possibility of all: Joining together as one entity.
The Griffith and Highland town councils met with representatives from Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller on Thursday evening to discuss ways towns can merge services for long-term savings. Municipalities can join their parks departments together, or they can join their fire districts together, as several Lake County communities are proposing, attorney Karen Arland said.
The third option, and most radical of the three options presented, would have two or more municipalities join together under HEA 1362, or the Government Modernization Act, said attorney Lisa Lee. The act was formed to eliminate restrictions, encourage efficiency and cooperation, and enhance each’s ability to provide services.
Zionsville in central Indiana just went through the process with two adjacent townships, for example, she said.
The reasons consolidating would be beneficial include unified planning and zoning ordinances, hindering annexation and encroachment, and most important, sharing resources. Among the problems, on the other hand, would be reorganizing the fiscal body representation, outstanding debt and translating efficiencies into cost savings.
Under current interlocal agreements, neither Highland Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin nor Griffith Clerk-Treasurer Ron Szfarczyk had quantifiable figures for them at the ready, though they could. But with the Government Modernization Act, interlocal agreements aren’t as robust as they used to be, Griffin said.
Nevertheless, consolidating two towns is not something either is ready to jump into full bore.
“This has got to walk before it runs,” said Highland Councilman Dan Vassar, 3rd Ward.
Griffin called the proposition “ambitious,” but said the economy, and the nature of government itself, has mandated aggressive strategies be considered.