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PREVIOUS Introduction
What are the benefits of partnering with other municipalities for infrastructure improvements such as roads, parks, and sewer systems?
The economies of scale achieved through partnerships allow municipalities to provide greater service to their residents for less money.
Many of the costs associated with an infrastructure improvement project are fixed costs that will not change dramatically by expanding the project over several municipalities. Thus, each participating municipality will pay a smaller share of those fixed costs than they would have if they had initiated the project on their own. Water and wastewater engineering is a perfect example. Certain costs like electricity, the number of personnel, and the number of chemicals required for water and wastewater treatment facilities will have a negligible change with the addition of another 200 users from a neighboring municipality. Therefore, it makes sense for municipalities to form a partnership and share these fixed costs when improvements or new facilities are needed. By doing so, they are able to reduce the financial burden of the treatment facilities on their residents while providing greater service than they were able to do before.
State and federal grant money often gives higher priority to regional projects over those initiated by a single municipality.
Transportation engineer Brian Emberg, P.E., says, “Competition for federal and state funding is extremely competitive … There is a very high demand for a limited amount of dollars, and proper coordination to document the need for a project is absolutely essential.” In the area of roadways and bridges, this is particularly true because the metropolitan planning organizations that recommend projects for the state's Transportation Improvement Program often give extra weight to projects that involve intermunicipal cooperation. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also gives preference to recreational facilities that will service multiple municipalities over those for a single borough or township when doling out grant money.
Municipal boundaries are arbitrary.
As civil engineer Albert Brulo, P.E., puts it, “Everybody is downstream of somebody.” Rivers are not confined within the borders of a municipality, and neither are roadways or air current. Poor (or non-existent) stormwater management efforts in one municipality will impact all of the other municipalities that share its watershed when that watershed becomes polluted. In much the same way, congestion issues on a heavily traveled roadway will quickly spread from one municipality to another as that roadway winds its way past municipal boundary lines.
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