North Harmony and Harmony are on their way to joining the ranks of consolidated town courts in Chautauqua County.

The neighboring towns would join Sherman, Clymer, French Creek and Mina in sharing courts. Before that, French Creek and Mina shared courts as well.

John Brown, Harmony supervisor, deserves credit for coming up with a solid proposal that worked for both towns. North Harmony and Harmony’s consolidation is driven by declining caseloads and a desire to cut costs. North Harmony taking over Harmony’s court cases (roughly 150 a year) will only add about three hours a week to North Harmony’s court, so the move will save Harmony money while increasing North Harmony’s revenues.

Towns that choose to go this route are doing the right thing, in our opinion. We wish the process was a bit less laborious. State officials have long called for more shared services, but the process to take a common-sense step like merging two small town courts can take months to achieve. In addition to local approval, legislation has to be passed in both houses of the state Legislature and then signed by the governor. And sometimes it can take weeks or even months for non-controversial bills approved by the legislature to make their way to the governor’s desk.

Given that there are only two months remaining in this state legislative session, time is running out to get approval in time for Harmony and North Harmony to merge this year.

If New York is serious about things like court consolidation, a more streamlined approval process should be created.