Let’s take an engineer’s approach to a problem that was reported on the front page of Friday’s Butler Eagle. Let’s apply the assets available to remedy the most immediate problem.

The problem: snow- and ice-covered sidewalks, particularly in front of some vacant buildings downtown.

Our report was precipitated by an email from a downtown merchant showing a disabled person whose motorized scooter had gotten stuck in the snow in front of a neighboring, vacant building.

Scooters are not a rarity these days — especially in a town that hosts — and boasts — a $160 million VA Medical Center. We also have a large population of residents who rely on canes, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs to get around. While all of us become vulnerable to falls and injuries on slippery walkways, the disabled and partially disabled are even more prone to injury.

Accommodating the disabled and downtrodden is a proud Butler heritage. Our traffic signals include bells to notify sight-impaired pedestrians when it’s their turn to safely cross the street. Our churches coordinate their volunteers to feed the hungry every weeknight. The Salvation Army feeds weekday lunches to anyone who asks.

But municipally speaking, we’re also strapped for resources. The city can’t afford to spend capriciously to cover an absentee property owner’s unkept responsibility.

Bookmark that thought and refer to the front page of Wednesday’s edition, where drug and alcohol counselor Steve Treu kicked off Butler County Community College’s “Reset Your Brain” anti-opioids initiative.

Treu, of Cranberry Township, contends that endorphins — hormones secreted into the nervous system — are stimulated by exercise, spiritual activity, pleasant experiences and some foods, while opioids and some other drugs shut down endorphin production in humans.

Maybe we’re straining to oversimplify the issue by pointing out that strenuous activity like shoveling snow is good for endorphin stimulation.

It’s not our place to suggest how a specific initiative might work here. But wouldn’t it be a spectacular gesture if some of the healthy young people getting free meals through our church programs (along with free winter coats, hats and gloves) had access to snow shovels? They could form a volunteer brigade and clear walkways so the less able-bodied can make their way around town.

It might be a way for some of them to earn a few dollars for themselves, or for the ministries that provide free meals — or both.

Some individual residents might hesitate at the idea, arguing that the strangers shoveling snow in front of their property might not be trustworthy. Maybe. And there are ways around that But even so, an uncleared walkway reveals just as much, if not more, about a property and its inhabitation, or lack of inhabitation.

Assuming Mr. Treu’s contentions are valid, all that endorphin production will do tremendous good for the emotional, mental and spiritual health of this city in the dead of winter when it’s most needed.