Penn Township and Penn Borough residents will have answers next month to questions regarding a merger of the two communities, a move proposed about three years ago.
Officials from Penn Borough, a 0.2-square-mile area containing about 435 residents, approached neighboring Penn Township in March 2023 about merging the municipalities. This would mean the borough would be absorbed by the 30-square-mile township, forming a united council and sharing services such as management, public works, recreation and community development.
Both municipalities agreed to consider a merger, partnering with the state Department of Community and Economic Development to complete a merger study. The results were presented in late September 2024.
A public meeting during which residents from both communities can ask questions and voice their opinions on the potential merger is the next step. It is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 13 in the LLA room of Penn-Trafford High School, 3381 Route 130 in Penn Township. Residents will vote on the matter on their November election ballots.
Penn Township Commissioner Jen Ramien encouraged residents of both communities to attend the meeting.
“I think (the merger) could be positive for both municipalities,” she said. “There will be a lot explained at this meeting as to why that would be the case.”
Health care bonus stays
Only borough residents would be able to take advantage of a trust fund that has been available to the community since 1974 to pay hospital bills.
The McKee Estate Fund, set up more than half a century ago, is available to anyone who has lived in the borough for at least a year and a day. It was established by Edith McKee, whose father worked in the borough as a doctor in the early 1900s.
When McKee died at 93 in a nursing home in Pittsburgh in 1970, she left the majority of her $222,528 estate in a trust fund to help pay the hospital bills of residents her father once treated.
The fund has an annual budget of $130,000. Patients with hospitalization are required to exhaust their benefits before relying on the fund, which is managed by PNC Bank.
Township official: ‘I don’t see it as a strain’
The borough has maintained financial stability in recent years, but many of its stewards serve the community on a volunteer basis. It employs no full-time workers, administering part-time pay to road workers, maintenance employees, a solicitor, a secretary-treasurer and a few police officers.
The system is not sustainable long-term, borough council President Randy Dreistadt previously told TribLive.
Penn Township Commissioner Chuck Miller sees the merger as a logical next step, particularly because Penn Borough and Penn Township are in the same school district: Penn-Trafford.
It also would benefit Penn Township to absorb the property taxes of the borough’s industrial district — including the George DeLallo Co. and Bell-View Foods warehouses.
“They’re already in our schools. Penn Township Ambulance base already covers Penn Borough. If there’s any major police incident … we’re so close that Penn Township would be involved anyway, and the same with the fire departments,” he said. “I don’t see it as a strain for emergency services for the township.”
