The absence of much winter weather over the next three or four months, coupled with double work shifts, might allow the Butler County Prison project to get back on schedule. It remains about two months behind in the attempt to finish the project by the Oct. 13, 2007, completion date, according to a report delivered at Tuesday's prison board meeting.

However, anyone familiar with Western Pennsylvania winters knows that betting in favor of comfortable temperatures, a lack of snow and otherwise dry conditions is tantamount to throwing one's money away. Therefore, the comment by Pat Stone of Massaro Corp., the project construction manager, that "what we need right now is nice weather" does not convey optimism that the initially agreed-upon completion date is possible, although, in fact, it still might be.

"It changes every day," Stone said, in updating the prison board about the attempt to reduce the construction time lost during the summer.

The project delay occurred because general contractor A.G. Cullen's steel supplier, Amthor Steel of Erie, did not make its deliveries on schedule.

In fact, structural steel for the top floor of the new facility is not scheduled to be delivered until next month, and it is not anticipated that the building will be under roof until April.

How the April under-roof timetable will be affected by harsh weather obviously remains an uncertainty at this juncture.

Whatever occurs, county officials must remain committed to the terms of the contract, which stipulates penalties of either $1,000 a day or the county's actual expenses caused by the delay.

Any delay would cost the county money for having to house excess prisoners in other counties' prisons — prisoners who would not have to be housed elsewhere if the new prison were completed.

The county's taxpayers would be forced to supply the money in question, if the county wouldn't impose the penalties it is legally entitled to collect under its contract with Cullen.

As of Tuesday, 86 prisoners were being housed in other lockups.

Tuesday's report that the project still was about two months behind schedule did nothing to boost confidence amid the knowledge of an October report that work crews had shaved about a week from the two-month delay — and that some crews currently were working second shifts.

Whether some of the delay could have been averted by county officials publicly expressing concern early on about the behind-schedule steel deliveries will always be open to speculation.

That officials waited so long — until about the end of summer — before voicing their concerns in public might be regarded as a show of courtesy to those who would be working on behalf of the county's interests. But in hindsight that courtesy in no way helped the county and its desire to have the project completed according to the established timetable.

The prison delay could become an issue in next year's county commissioner election races; the seats of all three current commissioners will be up for grabs.

For the current commissioners that's unfortunate, because they are not responsible for any completion delay that might occur.

Still, by virtue of their positions, it is the commissioners who ultimately are responsible for having the prison completed as planned and it is they who must answer for anything that goes wrong.

Right now, the two months that the project is behind schedule, at the very least, provides a pessimistic outlook regarding that target date less than 11 months from today.

County taxpayers should pay attention to information that will be forthcoming in the months ahead and how their elected leaders receive and react to those details.