Mar 22, 2024 By Karen Mansfield 5 min read

In 2009, West Alexander Borough, a historic village on Old National Pike, merged with Donegal Township.

But a group of West Alexander residents, dissatisfied with the level of municipal services, is looking to break away from the township and reestablish the former West Alexander Borough.

“Since the merger, everything has been stagnant and we’ve lost our identity,” said Dr. Kathleen Miller, an adjunct instructor of math and education at Washington & Jefferson who also operates Kleine Klasse Schule on West Alexander’s Main Street. The nonprofit offers tutoring, homework help and test preparation for students, and provides a food pantry, clothing, household items, books and school supplies.

“I’d be in the center of town looking around and I would get frustrated, looking at things that aren’t being done, improvements that aren’t being made. And those were things that we were promised when the merger took place,” she said.

At the time of the merger, West Alexander Borough consisted only of Main Street – lined with 19th-century homes – and a few connecting streets, and was saddled with high taxes and low population. A 1990 fire destroyed several businesses and closed others on Main Street. The fire, combined with a $3.2 million debt for a sewage treatment plant, forced residents to consider and ultimately approve the merger.

Miller, a lifelong West Alexander resident, grew up on Main Street across from the fire hall. Her father, John P. “Jack” Vensel , was postmaster for 35 years and was active in the community.

“He’s my inspiration for everything,” said Miller. “He passed away two years ago, just after we started talking about doing this. We’re both visionaries. I grew up in the town when we had village shops, I sold popcorn on the front proch, and it’s been heartbreaking to watch the whole town being stagnant since the merger. Then, I started looking at the potential of us being a much larger borough that before and seeing if it’s sustainable, which it is.. Last November, I started going door-to-door, sitting at people’s dining room tables and it’s snowballed pretty quickly since then.”

In 2021, Miller began researching if West Alexander, which lies in the westernmost end of Washington County and is less than a mile from the West Virginia border, and its approximately 800 residents could sustain itself if it separated from Donegal Township.

Miller believes it can, and that the separation would be a win-win for both Donegal Township and the proposed West Alexander Borough.

The proposed West Alexander Borough would be much larger than the former borough, which was less than one mile long.

It would encompass 14 miles and include residents who have access to city water and/or sewage, with the exception of a few plots near West Finley and West Virginia. The new borough would include about 10 roads, a budget of approximately $633,000, 26 businesses, and 465 land parcels.

The proposed Donegal Township budget – which Miller calculated at its current 3.05 millage rate – would no longer include water, sewage, or loan debt from water and sewage. Additionally, an estimated 20% of liquid fuels, 3% of Act 13 (oil and gas funds), and about 27% of taxes would potentially be eliminated. That would allow the township to allocate funds for roadways, stormwater, emergency preparedness, environmental programs, agricultural preservation, and more.

“So they will be able to use that money on the things that are important to them,” said Miller.

According to Miller, the secession would have an estimated $19,000 impact on the Donegal Township budget.

“We’re not out to hurt Donegal Township. We just want to maintain ourselves and look out for our own interests,” said Miller. “By them not having us here anymore, the end result is they’re losing $19,000 a year. That’s not a big deal in a million-dollar budget. Not to mention that we have a plan in place for the water and sewage system, and we already put into our budget to make the payments for the existing loan debt of $550,000 they’re paying on. So we’re saying we’re going to take back the half-million dollar debt that you have.”

The proposed government would include a mayor and five-member council. The proposed borough has advantages: fire protection, post office, and options for police coverage.

Miller said if everything goes as planned, the new West Alexander Borough would be operating as early as January 2026.

The process to become a borough would require several steps, including submitting a petition and having a Washington County judge approve the petition and set up an advisory committee to review the proposal.

The advisory committee, which would include two proposed West Alexander Borough residents, two Donegal Township residents, and a Washington County resident, would recommend moving ahead or not, and the judge would make a decision.

If the proposal gets the green light, a question would be placed on the ballot for a referendum vote and residents who live within the proposed borough would vote on the issue.

Once a judge declares West Alexander is a borough, a special election would be held for the mayor and council.

Miller last week traveled to Bear Creek Village in Luzerne County, which seceded from Bear Creek Township in 1993 and has succeeded as a borough since then.

“They said they have not regretted it one moment since they’ve done it. They felt that they were kind of being ignored. They were in a community where they were not getting their tax value,” said Miller.

Miller, who said she intends to work collaboratively with Donegal Township officials, plans to present the proposal at the March 28 meeting of the Donegal Township Board of Supervisors.

A Thursday phone call to Donegal Township was not returned. The township does not maintain office hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays.