Dumpsters and scaffolding might not beautify a city street, but they are nice to see on Butler's Main Street. They suggest progress and optimism.

Downtown jewelry shop owner Don Paul has begun work on two buildings next to his Main Street business that he purchsed and plans to rent to retailers after renovating. Paul's work brought scaffolding and a dumpster to his block of North Main Street.

On South Main Street, a dumpster reveals evidence of construction work behind a recently renovated store front.

Just a block or so further south, the former Workingman's Store is undergoing renovation by a law firm that plans law offices on the second floor and retail on the street level.

Earlier this summer, the Motorcycle Warehouse made exterior improvements, include new paint, that spruced up the corner of Main and Cunningham streets.

Two craft beer taproom projects are still underway on Main Street. And financing is being arranged for a parking garage at the corner of East Cunningham and McKean streets to support the new Springhill Suites by Marriott 80-room hotel planned for the corner of McKean and West Jefferson streets.

Several Main Street restaurants have done renovation work, and other businesses have redone their facades.

All this work on Main Street is welcome because it means sparks of life and a positive trend for downtown Butler. More retail shops, a new hotel, beer-tasting taprooms and places to eat all will help draw people to Main Street. And more people can stimulate further development.

Just as benign neglect and empty buildings suggest people don't care and leads to further decline, this latest burst of activity says people do care and there is optimism about Butler's future.

The FBI credits bank robber Willie Sutton — the impeccably tailored, original “Slick Willie” — with the classic response to the question: Why do you rob banks?“Because that's where the money is,” Sutton said.That sort of straight logic appeared lacking last week when someone tried to burglarize a church in Grove City.Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church told Grove City police someone damaged several windows and window screens sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning. Police found several screens had been cut and marks from a pry tool on several windows, but no evidence of a successful break-in.The church, near the campus of Grove City College, counts college students and staff as a large portion of its membership — not exactly the profile of a wealthy congregation.Simply stated, there's no money to be found there, particularly on a Friday or Saturday night, long after the previous Sunday's tithes and offerings were deposited in a bank. And any Slick Willie can tell you, the bank is where the money is, not the church.Maybe money wasn't the would-be burglar's intent. Maybe someone was trying to rob God of something else — dignity or authority, perhaps. Houses of worship have been targets of vandalism throughout history. Or, maybe a vagrant simply needed a meal and a place to sleep.The irony is that if someone asked for anything from the congregation, they'd be happy to share. Food, fellowship, understanding, mercy, forgiveness, clothing or a place to sleep.And, yes, even money. But not without a bank withdrawal.

Cheers to the Butler County Historical Society, the Butler Little Theatre and the North Side Cemetery Association. The three organizations teamed up recently to present Echoes From Our Past Historic Cemetery Walk.Actors played historically notable people who are buried in Butler's North Side Cemetery, performing autobiographical vignettes at the individuals' grave sites.The characters included Dr. Jacob Atwell, who worked alongside Red Cross founder Clara Barton during a 1903 typhoid fever outbreak in Butler; Mary McPherrin, wife of John McPherrin who brought the Presbyterian faith to Western Pennsylvania; her daughter Amelia McPherrin Lowrie, the wife of Butler County's only U.S. senator; Alfred G. Reed, a Union soldier who died in the Battle of Fredericksburg; and Emily Brittain, a teacher and principal at Jefferson Street School in the 1870s and '80s.Organizers of the event hint that it could become an annual project, and that prospect should be enthusiastically encouraged and supported. The effort might be even more richly rewarded with participation from local schools — a dramatic, historical tour of the local cemetery would make an excellent field trip — and it would present a good opportunity for many young people to catch a healthy dose of the history bug.