It's not in Butler County, but the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media is a fitting tribute to the man whose efforts touched so many children through his "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" educational television show.

The $14 million center honoring Rogers, which is located at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, was dedicated Oct. 2.

Rogers had been trying to create the center for about three years before he died of stomach cancer at the age of 74 in 2003. Those who worked to make the center reality following his death, including his wife, Joanne Rogers, have ensured that his dedication to healthy children's programming will live on and be studied for generations.

Hopefully it will be an incentive for others in the media to carry on his goals, casting aside the junk children's programming that is so prevalent on television today.

Maxwell King, executive director of the Rogers center, said the center will provide the guidance and values to ensure children's media are created positively.

"Fred was very aware that there was a lot of really terrible television on that children were being exposed to," King said.

For many young adults today, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" is among the fond memories of their growing-up years. Many of their parents, too, can recall the many hours their then-young sons and daughters spent in front of their television sets enjoying, and learning from, what was presented on the show.

Fred Rogers is gone but, thanks in part to the center, his legacy will live on in a great way.

Customers who had legitimate questions about their electric company's response to lengthy outages stemming from the remnants of Hurricane Ike erred in not attending at least one of the two state Public Utility Commission hearings held on utilities' response to the emergency.The remnants of Ike pummeled the county with winds of up to 80 mph, leaving about 300,000 people across the region without power, some for up to a week.People who felt electric companies deserved praise for their efforts amid the widespread damage also should have come forward to put their thoughts on the record.Instead, only three customers attended the first hearing, while just about a dozen showed up for the second hearing.That was hardly a turnout to give the PUC a good picture of how the utilities tackled the emergency and the priorities that were employed in restoring service.Perhaps many people felt they didn't know enough details of the emergency response to make educated comments. That's understandable.However, simply discussing the characteristics of the area in which they live and how long they were without power could have been a basis for the PUC to question electric companies about the damage affecting those areas and the timing in repairing those damages.The hearings deserved better attendance than what they attracted. Customers missed a great opportunity to let their feelings be known to people whose job it is to oversee the utilities and the service they provide.It is to be hoped that, regardless of the low turnout, the PUC fully investigates the electric companies' responses, to help ensure that the utilities will be better prepared if there ever is a "next time."

People noticing something out of the ordinary are often the basis for police making an arrest or solving a crime. And that's what happened last week when a resident or residents alerted Cranberry Township police about a van that was driving around the Waterview Drive area with its lights off.Those who tipped off the police deserve praise. The tip enabled police to apprehend a 44-year-old woman who is accused of stealing Halloween decorations and potted plants in a series of thefts that began occurring Sept. 26 in Cranberry Township and Seven Fields Borough.After being apprehended, the woman allegedly told police that she wanted to give her child a nice Halloween.Talking about the tip, the township's public safety director, Jeff Schueler, said, "The Cranberry Township police would like to stress the importance of citizen involvement in solving these crimes. Alert citizens, being good witnesses, and reporting the suspicious activity, was what the police department needed to solve these crimes."People never should be shy about reporting suspicious activity to police. It's better to determine that perceived suspicious conduct is not tied to illegal activity than to miss solving a case or heading off a crime that is about to happen.Those who provided the tip to Cranberry police performed their duty on behalf of their community.