FAIRMONT -- Marion County and the city of Fairmont are entering a path that no other city or county in the state has been down before.

This week, Fairmont's City Council and the Marion County Commission both voted to support a resolution creating a metro government study committee to analyze whether combining governments would benefit the north-central county.

The votes come just a few months after the West Virginia Legislature gave cities and counties the power to create such committees and investigate the idea of a merger.

Under a metro government, cities and counties would consolidate services, share revenues and cut back on duplication. The legislation approved earlier this year also allows two or more cities or two or more counties to consolidate.

"People in West Virginia have all of the government they can afford," said Marion County Commissioner Cody Starcher. "By doing this, we're trying to cut down on some of their costs and make things more efficient."

Starcher was quick to point out that the resolutions approved this week only enable the governments to study merging. The final decision on whether Marion County and Fairmont would merge is completely up to the voters of the county.

"The bottom line is very simple. After all of the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, it's up to the voters," he said. "The people have the final say."

But right now it appears people don't know much about metro government, what it involves and how it could impact them.

A poll commissioned by the State Journal shows 39 percent of registered voters have never heard of the concept of metro government. Another 37 percent say they have only heard a little about the concept. Just 6 percent of the people interviewed said they had read, heard or seen a lot about the concept.

Charleston-based RMS Strategies conducted the poll. The company interviewed 402 registered voters by telephone during the week of May 22. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

"This shows that metro government is not a concept many voters are aware of," said Mark Blankenship, senior vice president of RMS Strategies.

When RMS offered a brief description of metro government to the people being interviewed, the understanding increased a bit. But support did not follow.

In fact, according to the poll, 53 percent of people said they either somewhat or strongly opposed the concept once they understood what it was. Only 39 percent of people said they support the idea. Another 9 percent said they were unsure.

"This is a very polarizing issue," Blankenship said. "But most what these numbers show is that people are unsure of it and what it means to them. If supporters for metro government ever want to gain popularity, they are going to have to make their case known."

Starcher said informing the public about the study and the study's results will be a big challenge. He also said he's not surprised most people don't truly understand what metro government could mean for the community. In fact, he believes the true number of people who have never heard of metro government is even bigger than the poll suggests.

"I've been in politics all of my life, and I never heard about metro government until I went to Louisville, Ky.," he said. "That's where I finally heard about it and thought it could help us."

He said the main benefit to merging city and county governments is that it would allow all people who live in Marion County to be counted as Fairmont residents. Suddenly, instead of being a city of about 18,000, all the residents who live in the county would be counted as city population, too. That could instantly boost the city's population to about 56,000.

"Right now, Charleston and maybe Huntington are eligible for all of these grants because they have populations of more than 50,000. Fairmont isn't eligible for that money now. If we merged, we'd have 50,000 people, and we could apply for the money," Starcher said. "Then we don't have to beg and screw over other communities."