Evans City Borough Council must answer to community residents, county officials and the state why it did not ascertain that insurance protection was in effect to cover $31,000 in EDCO Park playground equipment destroyed in a fire on Oct. 19, 2003. The jungle gym set in question was bought two years earlier with money from the county and state; the borough's share of the project consisted only of providing equipment and labor for installation.

It was logical for the county and state - and borough residents - to expect that the borough would have properly insured this recreational asset. Although EDCO Park has a governing board, that board is under the jurisdiction of the borough, making the borough ultimately responsible.

There is now reasonable speculation among borough officials that this insurance issue might haunt the community in the future if the borough were to seek additional state money for the park. Judging from the borough's lackadaisical performance this time, the town could legitimately be regarded as a bad recreational investment from the commonwealth's perspective.

Not only do borough officials have the task of restoring the community's management reputation in Harrisburg, but there remains the serious matter of finding the best outcome still available in regard to the fire itself.

On pursuing that best-available outcome, the borough should not be willing to let "off the hook" the parents of the six juveniles who admitted to being responsible for the fire.

Beyond Evans City, parents are routinely held financially responsible for damage caused by their minor children. In Evans City, officials have alluded to the fact that the juveniles' parents "had not yet volunteered" to compensate the borough for the damages.

Payment should not be a matter of volunteering; there should be an official pursuit of compensation, even though Butler County District Attorney Timothy McCune decided against pursuing charges against the juveniles.

The remains of the playground equipment still stand in silent testimony to the fact that it has taken the borough nearly five months to accomplish virtually nothing toward getting the situation resolved. The insurance dilemma should serve as instruction to other municipalities that a regular review, and updating, of insurance coverages is in their best interests - and not doing so could have broad-reaching adverse ramifications.

Evans City officials do indeed owe their residents an explanation of why this omission was allowed to occur. If the borough council is so lacking of good judgment in something so basic as insurance protection, what other problems might be lurking?

If current governmental leaders don't have the time to devote to such issues - small in scale but large in potential negative impact - perhaps it's time for the borough to give serious consideration to hiring a borough manager to directly oversee its day-to-day affairs.

Cheri Deener, borough council president and a member of the park board, said the board has begun pondering possible fund-raising ideas for replacement of the equipment. Too bad such a sense of purpose didn't prevail two years ago when it was time to protect the borough's newly acquired playground resource.

Hopefully Evans City, once this error is resolved, won't repeat it anytime soon.

- J.R.K.