The Butler County commissioners deserve a cheer for eliminating a controversial weekly workshop meeting. But the cheer can't be classified as enthusiastic because the commissioners never should have set up such a meeting plan in the first place.

In January, the commissioners set up a plan whereby workshop meetings would be held anytime between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. every Monday to handle unforeseen issues. Even the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania agrees that meetings must have a designated starting time to give the public an opportunity to attend.

It's puzzling why county solicitor Julie Graham didn't discourage the meeting plan from the get-go, considering the legal questions that it raised about the public's right to open government.

It's also puzzling why veteran Commissioner James Kennedy, who should have known better, didn't immediately divorce himself from the idea.

As for new Commissioners Dale Pinkerton and James Lokhaiser, errors such as this one can be excused for the time being, but there is governmental experience in place to steer them away from potentially troublesome legal issues if and when they arise.

Why that didn't happen this time is a question Pinkerton and Lokhaiser should be asking.

Instead of the "anytime Monday" workshops, the commissioners' agenda meetings, mainly held at 9:30 a.m. two Mondays a month, will be used to handle issues that cannot wait for the next regular meeting.

The board of commissioners should err on the side of openness, not on the side of policies that limit public access.

Members of the Saxonburg Memorial United Presbyterian Church are keenly aware of the cleanup and rebuilding work that remains more than two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Gulf Coast region.That knowledge stems from congregation members' trips to the region in 2005, 2006 and last year. To the congregation's credit, 18 members will return to the region during the coming week to help people still trying to recover from the disaster.Church members' work will be centered in Pass Christian, Miss., which is slightly east of where Katrina's eye made landfall. The town suffered extensive damage.Harlan Hanson of Winfield Township, the coming trip's organizer, said, "The work is far from over."On congregation members' first trip, their work consisted mostly of cleanup. The two later trips focused on rebuilding what was destroyed. And rebuilding is expected to consume congregation members' time until their return about March 15.Hanson recommends that other groups seeking worthy projects consider making such trips to the hurricane-stricken region. He said media coverage of the disaster did not capture the full scope of the devastation that was inflicted on the region."The complete devastation doesn't hit you until you see it with your own eyes," he said.Those who responded to the volunteers' efforts to raise money for the trips also are deserving of praise. But it's the volunteers who deserve the most recognition for their willingness to leave the comforts of home in order to make an important difference in lives turned upside down by circumstances over which they had no control.When the volunteers return home, people should listen closely to the descriptions and stories of what they encountered and consider ways in which they too can help.

Fortunately there wasn't a life-or-death situation at about 2 p.m. Wednesday in which state police cruiser D4-9 would have been needed immediately.That's because D4-9 was stuck in a parking space on West Diamond Street adjacent to the county Government Center. Two men pushed the vehicle to help free it, and the trooper driving it, from its avoidable predicament."Avoidable" is an appropriate word because, as has been routine in past years, the city neglected to properly clean the snow and ice from that and other parking spaces in that area, to help people in town for business at the courthouse and Government Center avoid problems. There's no shortage of enforcement in that area by the city's meter monitors, however.Despite the small staff in the city's Streets Department, the question can be asked why an employee isn't assigned to address such areas in the evenings, when those spaces are generally free of vehicles.The same can be said for the conditions on some parts of Main Street.Meanwhile, it can also be asked why people assigned to community service as part of their court sentences aren't enlisted to address situations such as what exists along the Government Center. It would seem that some coordination between the city and county is necessary.On Wednesday, it would have been tragic if the trooper trying to free his cruiser from the icy parking space would have been the difference in terms of saving a life, but was delayed in responding because of shoddy winter maintenance by the city.Councilman Joseph Bratkovich, who became director of the Streets Department after returning to the council in January, has promised to prepare a comprehensive plan for addressing street issues. But the fact that the plan is not yet complete doesn't exonerate Ralph Graham, city streets superintendent, from the responsibility of seeing that problems — especially persistent problems like this one — are corrected in the meantime.Bratkovich, as Streets Department director, should ensure that that occurs.