After five years of legal wrangling over keeping Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno's salary secret, most folks now have to wonder what all the fuss was about. Paterno's salary of about $500,000 was released Thursday following a ruling by the state Supreme Court upholding a lower court's ruling that Paterno's salary at Penn State is covered by the right-to-know law.

But the half-million dollar figure was hardly shocking. In fact, most people probably expected Paterno's salary to be much higher. The range for Big Ten football coaches ranges from a low of $231,000 at Purdue to a high of $2.8 million at Iowa.

Asked about his salary, Paterno hinted at the reality for big-time football coaches — that his university salary is only a part of his total pay.

Paterno, like most other coaches at major universities, makes money from endorsements, television work, apparel contracts and other sources. Those other payments can be substantial, as illustrated by Ohio State's Jim Tressel, who earns a base salary of $890,000 and has outside income of $1,122,700, according to USA Today.

So, after years of speculation and legal expenses on both sides of the debate, the public has learned that Paterno is in the low- to mid-range on salary and probably makes significantly more from other sources.

Speculation over Paterno's pay is over — and for most people it's a nonstory. It would have been much simpler for Penn State to have released Paterno's salary figure from the start.

A regional catastrophic emergency management agreement that will cover Zelienople and Harmony boroughs and Lancaster Township has taken shape, to the communities' credit.In addition to the municipalities' membership in the combined effort, other members of the regional emergency management operation include the Zelienople Volunteer Fire Department, Harmony Volunteer Fire Company, Harmony Emergency Medical Services and the Zelienople and Lancaster police departments.While some Western Pennsylvania municipalities that were damaged by the remnants of Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005 might not have followed through with adequate planning to address possible future emergencies, these three Butler County municipalities deserve praise for not putting such planning on the back burner.Hopefully, the three municipalities won't ever have to put that planning to work in a real emergency, but if they do, they will be better prepared than they were for Ivan and Katrina.The municipalities are right in planning for a full-scale mock disaster, probably next year, to test the plan.

Tax reductions usually are a good thing, and Middlesex Township property owners no doubt will welcome their second consecutive decrease.The real estate tax was reduced by 1 mill under this year's budget, and the township supervisors have approved a tentative budget calling for a half-mill decrease in 2008.But township residents ought to be questioning the reductions. Poor road conditions led to the supervisors' elimination of the police department on Dec. 31, 2005, to make available for road repairs the more than $400,000 that the township was budgeting for the department.In early 2006, an arbitrator ordered reinstatement of the police department because of a contract provision that the department could not be eliminated before the end of a contract that expires at the end of 2008.Since the township has not had the police money available for road work, it's puzzling why township leaders have chosen two tax give-backs, rather than putting that surplus to work on behalf of everyone who travels in the township.The average property owner would reap a savings of only about $17 from next year's reduction. But many savings of $17 added together could allow the township to do some additional road work.One mill brings the township about $34,000. Last year's reduction, coupled with what is proposed for 2008, translates into a cumulative $85,000 loss for the township coffers — $85,000 that could have been put to good use in road work.The 2008 millage decrease is possible because of an expected increase in the state liquid fuels tax distribution and various savings, plus a good interest rate return on township accounts.That indicates good management of township operations. But whenever there is a big need or problem to be addressed — and the township's road issues fit those descriptions — all possible resources should be directed toward that objective.Middlesex officials are ignoring that in their approval of tax reductions.