The experience of the former Mars and Valencia fire departments in merging to form the Adams Area Fire District earlier this year could provide valuable guidance should the Harmony and Zelienople departments move forward with a merger of their own.

Prior to final consideration of such a move, however, the state Department of Community and Economic Development will conduct a feasibility study regarding the proposed merger.

On Tuesday, Harmony Borough Council approved participation in the study, a step taken by Zelienople Borough Council in July.

The Zelienople and Harmony departments also have given their OK.

Even before the study begins, it seems a virtual certainty that the state agency will advocate the merger. The state and federal governments look approvingly at opportunities for cooperation between communities.

Oftentimes, communities find their chances for obtaining state and federal grants significantly enhanced if a project would benefit more than one community and thus more people. The thinking in Zelienople and Harmony is that the two communities' opportunities for future fire service government grants and loans would improve under a merged operation.

But first, Zelienople and Harmony fire department officials should try to determine the things that went smoothly and those things that should have been handled differently, if any, with the Mars-Valencia merger.

The Harmony-Zelienople goal must be that, if the proposed merger gets the go-ahead, it can proceed with few, if any, glitches.

At a time when some volunteer fire departments are having trouble recruiting new members, it would seem that the Harmony-Zelienople merger would significantly lessen manpower concerns, especially for fire calls received during the daytime, when most firefighters are at work.

A combined Zelienople-Harmony fire department would have an estimated 75 active members — 40 of them from Zelienople.

In terms of area of coverage, Zelienople firefighters would notice the difference under a merged setup much more than Harmony's fire personnel, since Zelienople's coverage area currently consists of the borough — 2.1 square miles — although department members provide assistance to other departments as needed.

The Harmony department currently covers 45 square miles — the borough and Jackson and Lancaster townships. Adding Zelienople hardly would be noticed, other than through the increased number of calls that the merger would produce for Harmony firefighters.

The Zelienople department usually handles about 150 to 200 calls a year; Harmony responds to about 400 calls annually.

For now, with the approvals for the feasibility study in place, it will be a wait-and-see period until DCED completes its work, which is expected to take six to nine months. But in the meantime, members of the two departments can continue to compile merger information, not only from the new Adams Area Fire District but also from other places where mergers have occurred — even from places where mergers were proposed but did not occur.

It's good to know the best way to embark on such a bold step, but also to be aware of ways to avoid potential mistakes and missteps.