The citizen involvement that went into preparation of the new Cranberry Township comprehensive plan should not go unnoticed by other municipal officials across this county.

Based on the lackluster involvement by citizens of many communities, it's hard to fathom that Cranberry was able to keep together its Citizens Advisory Panel for the more than three years that the plan was in the making.

The 82-member panel participated throughout deliberations associated with the plan and the plan's actual preparation. The plan, in the form of a 224-page color booklet, is titled "Cranberry Plan Shaping the Future." It replaces the comprehensive plan that was adopted by the township in 1995.

Township officials were right in focusing special attention on the advisory panel members' work at Thursday evening's meeting, at which the approval action took place.

"I know of no other community that has had this type of community involvement over that long period of time," said supervisors chairman Dick Hadley.

Indeed, anyone would be hard-pressed to find places where such dedication to purpose by ordinary citizens remained in place for so long. Such projects often are tedious and sometimes even boring, but, to its credit, the Cranberry contingent remained committed to its goal.

Now, the township has a new plan for which it can feel proud.

"I commend the township staff and our citizens," said Supervisor John Skorupan prior to the vote.

But the supervisors themselves deserve a significant measure of praise, since their government service and their recognition of the importance of looking forward was the foundation upon which the plan originated and was built.

The township government now must go forth with pursuing the objectives outlined in the plan with the vigor and good judgment that the plan entails.

Communities in Butler County that have shunned comprehensive planning deserve a measure of criticism for their unwillingness to look to the future.While Cranberry Township, by virtue of its growth, required a lengthy study process in the preparation of its new plan, other communities could carry out adequate comprehensive planning on a much more limited scale, and with much less effort.The important thing is for all communities to look ahead, not embrace the shortsighted belief that growth and changes will not be coming to them. Rejecting comprehensive planning efforts might delay growth and changes, but it will not prevent them from someday arriving.Over the last 20 or 30 years, change has come to communities in this county that never were envisioned prior to that time. And, in some instances, communities are experiencing growing pains of a severity that some level of planning could have helped avoid.No community in this county should avoid the issue of comprehensive planning. Those who shun it will, sometime in the short or long run, be sorry that they did.

Butler County Judge William Shaffer made the right decision in refusing to allow a well-known Butler music instructor to travel to Italy, and possibly other countries, this spring.The instructor, Donald Rasely, currently is serving 8 years of probation stemming from a guilty plea to indecent assault, corruption of minors and furnishing alcohol to minors. In 2006, Rasely was accused of assaulting a teenage boy who was in his home for singing lessons.County residents on probation for sex offenses are not permitted to leave the state.Although Shaffer didn't explain the reasons behind his decision, no explanation was necessary. Rasely should serve out conditions of his probation without special considerations.Rasely should have considered the possible implications stemming from his crimes before engaging in those activities. Assistant District Attorney B.T. Fullerton was correct in arguing against the granting of Rasely's request because of the lack of supervision that would exist during such travel.Other than his crime, Rasely had compiled a commendable record in his service to the arts community in and around Butler. Too bad he tarnished, if not destroyed, all that he had built, as a result of his offenses.Past accomplishments or not, Rasely should be content to live under the conditions that the court imposed when it meted out his sentence.