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Ground Level Blog
Dave Peters

Find examples of city collaboration here

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I'm talking with Tom Weber this morning on the Daily Circuit about the consolidation that residents of Carlton and Thomson are voting on. One thing to consider is why this -- a full-on merger of two cities into one -- doesn't happen very often even though local and state officials have talked for years about creating more efficiencies by doing things together.

One reason is that there are avenues of collaboration short of merger. If you want to see examples, check out the League of Minnesota Cities website, where you can find a look-up database and hundreds of cases.

It's not a very sexy topic, but a cruise through that database tells you there has been a lot of this going on, from sharing police to sweeping streets to water and sewage treatment.