Whether it wins or not, Slippery Rock competing in the America in Bloom competition has been good for the community. The product of the effort not only is community pride, but a visible demonstration of what the town can look like, if the commitment to a pleasing appearance remains intact.

Slippery Rock is competing against Hummelstown, Dauphin County; Gallipolis, Ohio; and Lakeside, Ohio, in the category involving communities with populations of 3,001 to 4,500 people.

The winner and recipients of other awards will be announced Sept. 22 at the America In Bloom National Symposium and Awards in Fayetteville, Ark. More than 200 towns and cities from 41 states have participated in America in Bloom since 2002.

What has been dubbed as Slippery Rock in Bloom began in 2010 as the Slippery Rock Rotary Club's president's project. Rotary members, committee members and volunteers devoted much of late 2011 and early 2012 to readying the town for the judges' arrival.

The judges arrived last Sunday and completed their task on Wednesday.

In preparation for the judging, the local people involved organized cleanup days and planted thousands of flowers.

Among the sites the judges visited were several parks, the downtown area, the Robert A. Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education and Research at Slippery Rock University, Armco Park in Slippery Rock Township, and private homes.

In an interview, one of the judges expressed positive impressions about the community, calling it beautiful, very clean and tidy. However, it will be 12 weeks until the judges' decision is announced.

Win or not, Slippery Rock has shown a commitment to beautification and pride that other area communities should try to imitate.

Deliveries to the Butler County Government Center and courthouse are never so crucial that a delivery company should park in a space reserved for the handicapped.But that's what happened Thursday afternoon when the FedEx delivery truck pictured below took over the handicapped space in front of the Butler Eagle while its operator made a government center delivery.Meanwhile, an elderly woman who had the right to park in the space — and who had been behind the FedEx vehicle when it stopped — was left without a place to park. The woman was given permission to park in the Eagle's lot.Delivery personnel have a difficult job, but they have no special rights, although some occasionally think so.Such personnel most times aren't ticketed if they park in a safe place, albeit not a parking space, with their four-way flashers on. The police usually aren't unreasonable.But under no circumstances should a delivery person — or anyone else not authorized to do so — park a vehicle in a space limited to the handicapped.The FedEx driver was wrong. Too bad a city police cruiser wasn't in the area at the time.

JeerNow that former Jackson Township manager Rich Crown has pleaded guilty to forgery and theft charges for stealing nearly $144,000 from the Crafton Volunteer Fire Department — some of it used to reimburse Jackson for money he allegedly took from the municipality’s accounts — both the fire company and township must acknowledge what they did wrong.Both erred in giving only one person responsibility for managing funds.Crown was the only person who handled the fire department’s financial matters such as writing checks. In Jackson, the supervisors did not do their duty to taxpayers when they failed to monitor day-to-day township financial actions, despite having someone in charge of that work.Criminal charges never were filed in connection with Jackson’s missing money.The department and township have learned a bitter lesson from what occurred. Other entities — units of government, organizations, whatever — should take note and not make the same mistake.Most people who handle others’ money are honest, but there have been more than a handful of serious cases in recent years in Butler County where honesty was lacking, but no funds would have been lost if the right precautions had been in place.