The acting secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development has praised leaders of Harmony and Zelienople for the communities' work in expanding cooperative efforts.

At this time, the state and federal governments are encouraging communities to find ways to work together not only to streamline services and avoid duplication, but to save money in the process.

Regarding Zelienople and Harmony, George Cornelius, the acting DCED secretary, said, "These two governments are taking a forward-thinking approach to the way they run their governments."

The boroughs are studying the feasibility of shared government services, focusing on such issues as land use, growth management, ordinances, and financial impacts of combined services. The two communities already have commendably tackled shared services in terms of street resurfacing, police coverage and emergency management.

All of that is in keeping with the DCED's efforts encouraging communities to reduce costs and to do away with redundancies.

What Harmony and Zelienople are doing should be a model for other communities that could similarly benefit from cooperation initiatives.

When Gov. Ed Rendell was pushing for approval of slot machine gambling for Pennsylvania, he indicated that proceeds from that gambling would pave the way for significant school tax relief for property owners.Newly released Butler County homestead and farmstead property tax-relief figures for the 2009-10 school year reveal something less than significant. In fact, the "relief" amounts virtually to chump change, considering the money flowing into the commonwealth's casinos.As reported in an article in Wednesday's Butler Eagle, Mars School District taxpayers are scheduled to receive a "whopping" $64 in "relief." For Butler School District taxpayers, the figure is $139.The biggest "relief," and it's by no means a financial mother lode, is targeted for Moniteau School District property owners — $231.Judging from the latest figures, most county property owners probably won't get too excited about the prospects for further tax relief if proponents of table games at the casinos are successful eventually in that gambling expansion.Tax relief from casinos? So far, at least, it amounts to a big letdown.

Students and administrators at Slippery Rock University deserve praise for seeing the positive in what could have been a negative situation regarding modified graduation ceremonies last weekend.Amid the sensationalized media coverage in the early days of the swine flu (now called H1N1) outbreak that had been traced to Mexico, a group of 22 SRU students who had been teaching in Mexico City chose to take a potential negative — a decision by the university to segregate them in a separate graduation ceremony as a health precaution — and view it as a positive instead.The alternative graduation ceremony for the students recently returned from Mexico got a thumbs- up from a few participants for its intimacy. And, in a way, keeping the students (none of whom showed signs of illness) together in a separate ceremony further cemented the camaraderie of their shared experience of teaching in Mexico.Even those who didn't tout the benefits of a separate graduation ceremony expressed understanding for the university's difficult position in making the decision. Though fear about the flu has declined in recent days, at the time the students returned and the univesity had to decide what to do about graduation ceremonies, there was heightened anxiety.In going along with the separate ceremony plan, several students pointed out that this sort of adapability also was a useful quality when working as a teacher. Understanding that changing circumstances must be dealt with — even if that means adopting a Plan B — is indeed a useful life skill. For teachers, or anyone.So, despite the potential to cause controversy, the separate graduation at SRU seemed to satisfy everyone.It's a pleasant surprise that for the future teachers returning from Mexico under a cloud of hyped media coverage over a swine flu pandemic, the intimate graduation ceremony will be a more memorable experience than if the students and their families had been part of a normal graduation.