Pennsylvania American Water is off to a horrible start in 2023.

They seem to celebrate their failures on or near anniversaries.

Last January, they elected to pump water from a broken line onto Wayne Street during freezing temperatures, and this weekend, they chose to leave a three-foot deep hole in the middle of Wayne Street open for people or vehicles to fall in or damage tires.

They did mark the crater they left by placing two orange cones in the general area. That didn’t stop vehicles from hitting the mound around the hole and sending driver and occupants bouncing.

No one fell into the hole, and although parents were concerned about their kids getting muddy or being exposed to whatever on the way to the bus, nothing drastic happened.

But that is just blind luck for the incompetence shown by Pennsylvania American and the crews assigned to the problem on Wayne Street.

We doubt a situation in another area of Butler or Butler County would have been handled so poorly, but the illustrious water company seems to have different expectations for how they handle lower income areas than perhaps the Boulevard.

The break happened early in the afternoon on Sunday and the repair scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Monday. The repair was completed by 1 p.m. Monday.

Early Monday, there were two workers enjoying coffee in their truck while they watched over the repair site. Neither appeared to be equipped to do anything other than stargaze.

This should not reflect on workers from the Butler Area Sewer Authority, who unfortunately were caught up in the sale to Pennsylvania American.

There’s no reason to think they won’t remain good employees of the new company.

– RV