Back in the 1950s when the East Greenville, Green Lane, Hereford, Pennsburg, Red Hill, Marlborough and Upper Hanover school districts united and became the Upper Perkiomen School District, it wasn't easy.

            There were one or two municipalities dragging their feet towards the merger but, eventually, everybody agreed it was best for students and the fractured and smaller districts.

            About a decade after that, we saw many local outhouses go the way of the dinosaur when East Greenville, Pennsburg and Red Hill formed the Upper Montgomery Joint Sewer Authority.  They built a new plant for processing the sewage along with an infrastructure that still serves the boroughs.

            About a decade after that, the boroughs of East Greenville, Pennsburg and Red Hill decided that they could save a considerable amount of money if they consolidated their trash collection needs under a single contract umbrella.

            About a decade after that, two of those three boroughs thought it would be a good idea to consolidate their recycling collection.  It would help when competing for state dollars to boost their recycling capabilities.

            For years, local municipalities shared trucks and employees to drive them.  There was money to be saved by using municipal employees and equipment instead of renting or hiring outside contractors.

            It was in the early 1970s when East Greenville and Pennsburg left their political baggage at the door and created a unified police department to serve both municipalities. A few years later Red Hill joined the partnership.

            In those early situations, taxpayers were the winners – both in cost savings and services. Many residents viewed the cooperative efforts as a prelude to more joint attempts and visions of more cooperation and more cost-effective services.

            There was even talk about (gasp) merging some of our local municipalities into one to save even more money and give the region a little extra clout when competing with some of our larger, down-county municipalities for the attention of state and county elected officials.

            It didn't hurt that even the federal government smiled on doling out money to municipalities that participated in regional cooperation.

            But towards the end of the 1990s, the partnerships began to decline and it seems that one of the main reasons, saving taxpayer money, was the reason things began to fall apart.

            First, Red Hill left the Upper Perk Police Commission partnership.  Now, it appears the remnant of a 40-year police partnership between East Greenville and Pennsburg is about to fall off the table as well. 

            Also, recycling and trash collection have taken on a singular, rather than cooperative, face.  According to reports, the needs of the residents in the individual boroughs differ and the services need to differ to accommodate them.

            There was an adage that recycling centers were never meant to be profitable – but you hoped to "break even."  That wasn't happening anymore. The local recycling centers apparently didn't generate enough material to justify their cost. Combining curbside recycling with trash collection seemed like the way to go.

            The list of reasons for the breakups vary depending on who you're talking to, and it's good that the first two jointures, the school district and sewer authority, did manage to survive the decades.

            But, it's hard not to ponder the mystery of not knowing where the past cooperation and jointures would have taken us in just a decade more.