A photo on the front page of Wednesday's Butler Eagle showed Butler Streets Department employees working Tuesday at the site of a major waterline break at East Locust and Elm streets that occurred Monday afternoon.

Their task was to finish work on a temporary patch that will remain in place for about 30 days.

That time will allow for settling, as well as provide a "window" for Pennsylvania-American Water Co. to evaluate whether the large break caused any other damage in that area.

City officials should keep track of the situation to ensure that the water company does not delay permanent repairs at the site. There are waterline-break locations in the city that have existed for months that Pennsylvania-American has yet to repair.

Granted, this hasn't been the most ideal spring weather-wise. But now that there has been marked improvement in the weather, city officials shouldn't accept excuses from the water company or any other utility as to why timely street repairs aren't being made.

Of course, the lack of permanent repairs by the utilities isn't the only problem dogging city streets. Many streets have endured decades of neglect by city leaders, but that in no way relieves utilities from their responsibilities after they have had to cut through a road surface.

Judging from the lack of repairs to date and the conditions drivers have continued to endure, it would seem that city officials haven't been doing their job in terms of monitoring the situation and insisting on timely permanent repairs.

Utilities have a responsibility to return a street to at least the condition that existed prior to their work. Even in instances when a street's general condition isn't great, there is no excuse for mounds of patchwork, or deep depressions from patchwork that has settled, to continue to exist beyond a reasonable time frame.

In numerous instances, deteriorated, temporary patchwork has been allowed to remain beyond what any reasonable person, utility company or governmental body of elected officials should regard as reasonable.

The most should be made of each day of pleasant weather. Instead, what has occurred is that utilities have gone about their other business, hoping motorists wouldn't notice what they haven't done — or think that the bad patches are someone else's responsibility.

City residents and others who routinely travel on city streets should make it clear to the city government that they are not happy subjecting their vehicles to the currently existing deplorable conditions.

At the same time, it must be pondered why officials remain so content with a status quo that reflects mediocrity rather than progress.

Is the city government really so inept in terms of something so obvious?