By all accounts Preston Park is one of the jewels of Butler Township.

Its 90 acres — which opened to the public in 2011 and have since become a hotbed of interest and activity — haven’t always been well-known. But as the years have progressed that has changed dramatically.

Now, far from the mysterious, gated preserve children remember being warned against trespassing on, the park is open from dawn to dusk and welcomes everyone from prom-going picture-takers, to yoga classes, to the groups of dedicated volunteers that work hard each year to keep Preston Park looking like the jewel it is.

Among those many volunteers are employees of Peoples Natural Gas, who donate time and tools each year to help tackle the big maintenance or upkeep projects other groups might shy away from.

The company’s commitment to Preston Park is laudable and we hope it continues. But recently Peoples logged a request that doesn’t live up to its recent tradition of treating the park like the preserve it is.

Last week a representative asked township commissioners to consider allowing the company to place a regulator station in the southwest corner of the park.

A regulator station is a transfer point that controls the pressure and volume of natural gas as it moves through distribution systems and into peoples’ homes.

The company told township commissioners it would need a 20-by-20 foot area near South Eberhart Road to install the station, which would be surrounded by fencing and landscaping.

The new station is needed to replace a nearby station which is old and poorly-situated, according to Peoples.

We don’t question that assessment, or that the company is trying to do what is best for its customers. But we do question why this station must be installed within the bounds of Preston Park.

Isn’t there another 20-foot-by-20-foot tract of land that would be just as suitable for this piece of infrastructure?

Perhaps one that isn’t steeped in history and serves as the most recognizable symbol of the legacy of globe-trotting scientist and conservationist Frank Preston?

In 2013 the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places — and with good reason. It’s laboratories once housed secret experiments that developed a glass component for the atomic bomb.

Preston, who founded Preston Laboratories, which became AGR International, clearly cared deeply about the state of his land.

“I intend to have the best looking place in the industry not in the building but by the surroundings,” Preston wrote in a journal entry dated 1936.

Preston’s widow, Jane, who died in 2008 and donated the park to the township, specifically designated the land as a park and recreation area so that it could not be developed.

The Prestons obviously had a very clear vision of what the park could and would be for the community. Commissioners and Peoples should honor that vision and find another spot for the regulator station.