Should Salisbury and Wicomico County merge? It is being discussed on the Eastern Shore. In recent years several cities have re-chartered themselves to become one with their surrounding counties. There is no longer an Athens, Ga., or Butte, Mont., government. In their place are Athens-Clarke County and Butte-Silver Bow County. Clarke is more populous ** than Wicomico (87,594 to 74,339), and Silver Bow is much less (33,941).
The advantages of city-county mergers apply to all sizes. Lafayette City, La., and Lafayette County (total population 164,762) are preparing to consolidate. Among the most successful modern mergers is Indianapolis-Marion County (pop. 797,159). Fairfax County, Va., has boomed (818,584) in large part because of its unitary government. It is a merged entity in the sense that its charter forbids new incorporation (thus denying Columbia's sister new town of Reston the right to create a separate government; Howard County please note).
City-county government can be more efficient and less costly; it can provide the diversity a true sense of community needs. Maryland has been far ahead of other states. There are no incorporated cities in Baltimore County and only a few of any size in Montgomery County. It is significant that Salisbury's population of 20,592 is smaller than that of 34 unincorporated cities in Maryland. After Baltimore City, the eight largest cities in the state are unincorporated. They rely on efficient, sophisticated, up-to-date county government for services.
City-county merger may not be best in every place, but it could be the best alternative in growing counties in the next century. It is likely to be the best idea in places like Salisbury, which is, as one demographer put it, "very under-bounded" -- denied by its city limits full unity with the suburbs that depend on it and upon which it depends.