When the Middlesex Township supervisors meet on April 19, hopefully they'll have a strategy in place for accomplishing badly needed road repairs, despite an arbitrator's ruling that apparently will cut off funds that the officials had intended to use for the work.

It is to be hoped that, prior to passing a 2006 budget, the supervisors considered such an alternative, in the event that their action to eliminate the police department and reap the savings from that action would be ruled illegal.

From the get-go, the survival of the supervisors' decision was in serious question. The police contract in effect as of Dec. 31, 2005, the date the police department officially was shut down, contained language that the township was required to maintain the police force at least until the expiration of that contract at the end of 2008.

The supervisors gambled that their action would be upheld, if challenged.

The action was challenged but it wasn't upheld.

The supervisors aren't the only losers in regard to the police decision. Residents of the township, since Jan. 1, have been losers in not having had the benefit of local police protection.

Some residents say that has been to the township's serious detriment.

The state police don't have the manpower to have troopers patrolling Middlesex 24 hours a day. Township residents understand that, and some people with unlawful intentions have demonstrated a similar understanding and awareness by their actions since the police department went out of business.

The supervisors say the township needs an estimated $500,000 a year for the next several years to get control of the troubling roads situation, and most residents understand that need.

However, most residents also value the security that their local police provided.

Middlesex residents elect their municipal leaders on the basis of confidence that those leaders will be capable of handling difficult tasks and resolving difficult problems. The board of supervisors didn't demonstrate any great skill or vision by targeting the police department in an attempt to improve roads.

Instead, the supervisors demonstrated arrogance regarding a properly negotiated contract to which they are a party. Now, the township will be stung by having to pay the department's officers retroactively back to Dec. 31 — while not having received any service for that money.

In the wake of the arbitration decision, the supervisors are required to reinstate the police department, unless they are successful in pursuing some other legal option. Even if the department is reinstated, the question remains whether all of the officers who were members of the department before it disbanded will return to Middlesex duty; some have gotten jobs elsewhere.

The arbitrator's decision is a victory for collective bargaining and it is a wake-up call to the supervisors that they must redirect their attention toward other road-repair funding alternatives.

April 19 will provide residents with a clear picture of whether the supervisors acknowledged all of the possibilities at the time they were pondering elimination of the police department.

If they didn't, it is likely that this year's road-repair window will be lost.