Middlesex Township residents made a clear and positive statement Wednesday that the community wants to play an active part in the planning of township parks.

That 65 people showed up for the public-input session surprised township officials as well as the community's parks consultants.

Jim Feath, a landscape architect from the engineering firm Herbert, Rowland and Grubic, said, "I've never seen this many turn out for the public-input session."

Significant public interest usually only evolves after a draft of a specific plan has been presented for consideration.

In addition to the attendance, officials also were impressed by the ideas brought to Wednesday's session.

"The residents came with a knowledge that pleasantly caught me by surprise," said Scot Fodi, township manager. "It will give the parks and recreation committee . . . an energy boost and a larger sense of purpose."

According to Feath, another public meeting will be scheduled for late summer or early fall. It is anticipated that the draft of the parks plan will be presented in early 2007.

It is to be hoped that Wednesday's level of interest will not wane as the planning process continues.

Gov. Ed Rendell is exaggerating the scope of an effort to rid the state of discarded tires. What he is proposing is a pittance when weighed against the state's scrap-tire problem.While he deserves praise for embarking on a demonstration project that he said could rid the state of 500,000 discarded tires, he is wrong for not acknowledging the limited scope of the effort. Consider that Lancaster Township, here in Butler County, wrestled with a scrap-tire problem at an 11-acre site along Route 19 for a number of years. And that site alone was home to about 1.1 million scrap tires.The fact remains that Pennsylvania still isn't a leader in tire recycling. That troubling fact was reaffirmed unintentionally by Rendell in his comments regarding the upcoming $700,000 effort."Through this demonstration project, we will see if easy-to-use, affordable tire-reuse technologies could be replicated across the commonwealth to enhance efforts to clean up the environment," the governor said.Meanwhile, in some parts of the country, advances in putting tire materials to other uses, such as in highway construction, were well under way even prior to 1998, when the Lancaster Township tire problem was much in the news.Also in the news in 1997 were major tire fires elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania. Those difficult-to-extinguish blazes triggered extensive concern here about the ramifications to people and the environment if the Lancaster tire site experienced such a fire.Fortunately, the Route 19 site escaped such a fate, but the concerns about misquitoes remained until the tires were removed.Unfortunately, the $700,000 Rendell is proposing is only a start. He will merit bragging rights only if his administration elevates the scrap-tire problem to the priority level that it deserves.

Butler County doesn't enjoy losing its talented individuals to other areas of the country, but it nevertheless is uplifting when news filters back about a local native's achievements elsewhere.Consider Ryan Tassey, a deputy for the Fairfax County (Va.) Sheriff's Department. Tassey was presented a Lifesaving Award March 9 in the 28th Annual Fairfax County Valor Awards given by the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. He was honored for his efforts in trying to save the life of a prisoner who had hung himself at the Fairfax Adult Detention Center.Tassey, who is the son of Edward and Susan Tassey of Butler Township, graduated from Butler High School in 1999. He has worked at the detention center for two years.Although the prisoner in question died eventually as a result of trauma sustained during the suicide attempt, Tassey won praise for his quick response to the situation and how he and another deputy worked to save the prisoner's life.Tony Shobe, public information officer for the sheriff's office, said Tassey is a standout employee who, in the incident in question, went beyond the call of duty to do everything he could for the prisoner.Tassey is not only a credit to himself and his family, but also to this county, where he began developing the attitude and skills he now is putting to work on behalf of others.