When the history of Butler County for the first decade of the 21st century is written, that history must include a chapter on county government's construction frustrations and an objective analysis of why they occurred.

Hopefully such a chapter would help guide future officials as they embark on construction projects, helping them to avoid problems like those that dogged the new county 911 center and the Sunnyview renovation project, and that have brought construction work on the new county prison to a virtual standstill.

As county leaders continue to wrestle with questions surrounding architectural omissions at Sunnyview and with how to get the prison construction back on track, they need to ponder if and how much the problems have damaged the county's reputation regarding its dealings with contractors.

Leaders must reflect on how perceptions regarding the county's questionable attitudes toward compromise might impact the prices put forth by bidders in the future and, indeed, whether some contractors will simply decide not to bid, limiting the county's ability to obtain truly competitive bids.

The nagging construction issues have been so formidable and time consuming that they surely have stolen time from what might have been productive efforts to significantly curb spending within the governmental bureaucracy.

The former board of commissioners can be faulted for failure to approve significant money-saving decisions such as those involving part-time row office solicitors' health-care coverage and a shift to centralized tax collection. But it was their decisions and attitudes related to construction projects that thrust the new commissioners board, which took office in January, into the morass of trying to sort out the facts and the reasons for the current mess.

The county didn't hire a construction manager when it was embarking on the Sunnyview renovation, but amid the prison stalemate a legitimate question to be asked is whether the county got its money's worth from the construction manager it hired for that large-scale undertaking.

In order to make firm their opinions about all that went wrong regarding the new-prison construction — and to fully understand all sides of the issue — the new commissioners should hold workshop sessions where each side would be given the opportunity to present its case without arguments from opposing sides.

Followup sessions could be scheduled later to delve into specific questions and issues that the initial meetings produced.

The new commissioners have taken several positive steps since assuming office, including appointment of a committee that examined potential cost savings in the county government and having Dick Rittelmann, a retired Butler architect, examine issues related to Sunnyview.

The commissioners need advice and recommendations from people with expertise tied to issues with which the county government is dealing, just as a governor or president needs suggestions, observations and advice from knowledgeable advisers.

If that construction chapter of 21st century Butler County history is in fact written, much related to the county government's handling of new-construction projects during this decade won't be complimentary. Indeed, that history will be embarrassing to those who had a major role in forging the direction of that history.

If, based on history, future county leaders avoid the kinds of problems that have dogged the 911 center, Sunnyview and the new prison, the taxpayers of the future will be the beneficiaries of that insight.

Unfortunately, they'll probably still be paying for some of the mistakes of today, including the approximately $10 million error surrounding the total cost of the prison project, and whatever additional costs arise from the virtual shutdown of the project three months ago — with no end to the stalemate in sight.

The construction chapter will not be a quick or easy read. And, judging from everything that has occurred, it will no doubt be a depressing read.