District Judge Kevin O'Donnell of Butler Township made a laudable, clever decision in agreeing to accept, in lieu of fines, donations to the township's five fire departments from those guilty of after-hours leaf burning.

Last fall, the township finally got serious about enforcing provisions of the leaf-burning ordinance and began issuing citations instead of warnings.

The citations got residents' attention quickly and only about 30 had to be issued.

Those that were issued are in the process of coming before the district judge, who is giving violators the opportunity to achieve a more palatable resolution of their cases than living with the knowledge of having had to pay a fine.

O'Donnell said he devised the donation-versus-fine idea to be more fair to first-time offenders. He said his approach is a compromise that recognizes that the person cited did something wrong, yet gives the person a one-time break.

In some cases, O'Donnell has dismissed the citation in lieu of a donation. In other cases, the violator was found guilty but still was allowed to make a donation instead of paying the full-impact fine, which could have been from $100 to $600.

The "mandated" donations imposed by O'Donnell have ranged from $50 to $100, and have come directly out of the violator's bond money posted at the judge's office prior to the hearing.

Each donation collected has been forwarded to the fire department nearest to the violator's home.

The burning rules under which last fall's citations were issued prohibited burning on Sundays and after 5 p.m. on other days.

"The ordinance will be enforced, but I am responsible to be fair about it," O'Donnell said.

Violators who think his solution to the citations isn't fair have had their senses obscured by their smoky pollution.