Wednesday’s meeting of the Butler County Salary Board provided a vivid example of a longtime failure to address waste that even now some county leaders want to continue at the taxpayers’ expense.

That waste must not continue, either in its current form or in an optional, less-costly form that was discussed at the meeting.

Simply put, the county’s mailroom job should be eliminated, and the tasks that the soon-to-be-retired mailroom worker has been performing should be apportioned among other county employees as part of their everyday duties. Many businesses operate without mailrooms and, instead, assign certain employees to deal with mail without those workers’ other performance being jeopardized

Meanwhile, mail to Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and to the various district judges’ offices should be delivered by the post office, not be delivered to the Government Center for sorting and delivery — as is currently done to help justify the mailroom position.

That the current system has remained in place defies county officials’ claims over the years that they exercise all options available in terms of cutting costs.

The salary board, whose members include the three county commissioners, should study whether there are other instances where money could be saved by consolidating duties and eliminating unnecessary positions.

Unfortunately, all four members of the salary board were wrong on Wednesday — Commissioners William McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton, who favored continuing the full-time mailroom position, and Commissioner Jim Eckstein and county Controller Jack McMillin, who believe a part-time position better meets the county’s needs.

Looking back into county government history, specifically to 1996, confirms the foolhardiness of the mailroom position.

When the mailroom position was created in 1996, the salary board stipulated that the position would be cut once the current mailroom worker, Barry Nulph, retired.

Nulph, who officially retires later this month, currently is using vacation time, with maintenance worker Terry Davis temporarily performing his duties.

If the 1996 salary board knew the position wouldn’t be needed after Nulph retired, why did the board create the position at all? Nulph could have been assigned to a vacancy elsewhere within the county government.

Instead, over the past decade and a half, the waste surrounding the mailroom position has been allowed to continue — and most recently it has continued at the rate of $18.87 an hour.

The county doesn’t need a mailroom person to deliver mail to the Sunnyview complex and other county-related offices outside of the courthouse/government center complex when the post office can handle deliveries.

Judging from the history of the job, it’s clear that, at least in this instance, county officials at that time were more concerned about creating jobs than the cost to taxpayers.

That thinking was irresponsible.

But equally irresponsible is that, despite being aware of the waste of money tied to the position, current salary board members are considering continuing the position in any form.

With benefits, the mailroom position costs the county $45 an hour.

Although the salary board on Wednesday agreed to extend Davis’ mailroom duties temporarily, the board should look to eliminate the position sooner rather than later.

Butler County taxpayers who think government waste occurs only on the national and state levels need to rethink that notion.

Do the math on the $45-an-hour total compensation figure, while acknowledging that benefits costs were less in years past.

But:

Forty-five dollars an hour times 8 hours a day ($360), times 5 days a week ($1,800), times 52 weeks a year ($93,600), times 16 years ($1,497,600) — that’s a substantial hit on taxpayers.

Wednesday’s discussion confirmed that waste is much closer to home than the taxpayers realize — and that it’s existed over the past 15 years even as county officials denied it.