The mayors of Dover, Somersworth and Rochester have created a commission to pool municipal resources.
As cities go, these cities are on the small side, with populations from 12,000 to 30,000. Rochester Mayor T.J. Jean says he hopes together, the tri-city commission can find economies of scale through collective purchasing and other measures.
"Each community is going to send two representatives to bring ideas and discuss ideas on how we might be able to work together so we aren’t all spending the same amount of money on the same things," he says.
Initially, Jean says, the cities could combine road salt, public safety and office supply purchases. Eventually, he hopes they’ll look at sharing services such as addiction prevention efforts.
