It should bother our community leadership to witness the purveyor of medical marijuana products, Cresco Yeltrah, suffering flooding at its dispensary for the third time since opening in February.

A sudden downpour on Thursday was enough to flood the dispensary at 201 Pillow St., forcing Cresco Yeltrah to close for the day as employees were pressed into mop-up duty.

“I can’t figure out why the city can’t figure it out. They know it happens consistently,” Cresco Yeltrah founder Michael Hartley told the Butler Eagle on Thursday.

The specific details might remain elusive, but the general dynamic of water is that if flows downhill; it takes the path of least resistance; and it accumulates in low places.

The dispensary fits the criteria of a water magnet. Located in front of Kelly Automotive Park, it’s situated in a low spot about 500 feet west of a sharp bend in Sullivan Run, the small but flood-prone creek flowing through Butler’s north and west neighborhoods. It’s a natural location for run-off water to congregate.

The flooding is supposed to be fixed next year. The Sullivan Run Flood Control project is designed to allow stormwater runoff to flow faster by removing obstructions in the creek bed and reducing the depth of flood water by five feet. Work on the $4 million fix is scheduled to begin in the spring.

All well and good, but the delay represents a chronic problem in our lack of holistic vision.

When the dispensary opened, it was the first in Western Pennsylvania, attracting patients from as far away as Westmoreland County. Being the first always provides a natural potential springboard: gaining a reputation for being the best and most reliable.

Such factors should matter to a business-minded community whose members rely on each other to attract commercial activity. Each visitor to the Pillow Street dispensary is a visitor to Butler, who is apt to stop, shop and conduct any of a number of transactions in addition to medical marijuana. They might be in the market for anything from an ice cream cone to a new car.

However, if flooding routinely forces Cresco Yeltrah to close for the day, it affects more than the 120 people who would have visited the dispensary. It also reflects on the reputation of the business — and on the reputation of the city and its business community. It exposes a lack of ability, or lack of will, to resolve chronic problems.

We’re seeing mixed signals of what lies ahead in coming months and years for the West Side, particularly for the Hansen Avenue corridor and Pullman Square. Allegheny Health Network continues construction on a cancer-treatment center; ground is being prepared for construction of a Speedway fueling station and convenience store; and occupancy permits have been issued for a Sav-a-Lot grocery supermarket to be built in a section of the vacant former Shop ’N Save store in the Pullman Square plaza — all positives — while a 10-year marriage ended between the Butler BlueSox and the city’s parks, recreation grounds and facilities authority, leaving Kelly Automotive Park without a home team.

For better or for worse, communities tend to be regarded and judged collectively. Communities grow and recede, prosper and go hungry, live and die on their reputations.

Butler’s current reputation might be a little damp.