Sometimes, downsizing government makes obvious sense.

Selling the Chautauqua County Home, merging the Mayville and Chautauqua central school districts and the more recent dissolution of the village of Forestville are all examples of regional solutions that needed to happen. In each case, though, there was something that forced the issue. The Chautauqua County Home was losing too much money to remain county-owned. Enrollment was dropping so fast that it made no sense to continue having separate schools in Mayville and Chautauqua. A bevy of issues in Forestville made dissolving the village necessary.

Talks to dissolve the village of Sherman into the town of Sherman are an interesting test case, then, because there is no major issue forcing the talks. James Higginbothom, a Sherman Town Board member, said some residents have talked to him about village services that could be provided better. Complaints, Higginbotham said, largely center on the condition of roads and water lines, but a correspondent’s report on the meeting made no mention of any one major problem facing Sherman residents. In Sherman, as is the case in nearly any dissolution talks, there are some ardently in favor and some adamantly opposed.

We’re more interested in how a dissolution study approved last week affects the thinking of people like Theresa Guzman.

“I think the village is doing a good job,” Guzman said. “I think the town is doing a good job. We need more information. It sounds like we are guessing a lot.”

The dissolution study can begin once all of the funding has been arranged. We’ll all be waiting to see how it turns out.