A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday night to determine if State College residents support a plan to join nearby townships in forming one government.

The consolidation plan would eliminate College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships and State College Borough to create one governmental entity. Each municipality would hold its own public hearing to gauge public opinion, State College Borough Council President R. Thomas Berner said.

An initial study was conducted to obtain financial and demographic information of the areas involved. Municipal service expenditures and revenues, population and services such as garbage collection and snow removal were among the areas examined.

According to the report, the municipalities are similar in most areas. But tax structures, water service, zoning procedures and land use planning among the six will need the most coordination. Proponents of consolidation feel that it would produce economies of scale that would lower government costs and therefore lower taxes.

But those opposed to the plan claim it would increase the size of government and produce higher costs and increased taxes.

In State College, the politicians, staff and planning commission all favor consolidation, said planning commission Chairman Peter Everett.

"The study is of what people will gain and what they will lose," Everett said.

But residents of some municipalities may not embrace consolidation as willingly as State College.

Residents of smaller townships may feel left out and worry about losing their identity, said Ernest Bergman, chairman of the regional consolidation committee and advice chairman of Ferguson Township's consolidation committee.

The study lists reduction in the cost of local government services, and enhanced land use and infrastructure planning as some benefits of consolidation. And since the region's population would grow to 70,000 after consolidation, negotiations with upper levels of government and outside agencies would improve.

Disadvantages include the potential for a less representative government, greater bureaucracy, loss of local control over neighborhood planning issues and loss of village identity and uniqueness.

Consolidation began to take root when elected officials from the region's municipalities suggested it and the Centre Region Council of Governments approved the proposal.

COG appointed six municipal government study committees to examine consolidation and one member from each of the six committees to serve on the regional consolidation commission, Bergman said.

After all the municipalities hold public hearings, each committee will report to the elected officials in its respective municipality, Bergman said.

A detailed consolidation plan would then appear on the next general election ballot as a referendum, said John Marchek, a member of the State College consolidation committee. But depending on the results of the studies and public hearings, he added, the plan might not even go to referendum.

But Bergman is more optimistic.

"My personal feeling is that consolidation will come," he said. "It might be as long as 10 or 20 years down the road, but it will come."