The burned-out streetlights not replaced for months didn't go unnoticed among some city residents and business people. One businessman wondered whether city officials ever ride around looking for items that should be addressed.

In the case of the lights, officials apparently don't visit the city at night, or perhaps just don't look up.

Then there's the issue of the missing stoplight at the end of Race Street near the Farmers Market — a stoplight that has been missing for months, the result of an accident involving a truck that struck the utility pole that helped anchor the light.

For months, an orange cone has marked the spot where the utility pole once stood.

Rather than replacing the pole and installing a new light in a reasonable amount of time, the city took the easy approach:It just closed the end of Race Street and allowed the repair to languish.

As a temporary measure, closing the street was the right thing to do. What wasn't appropriate, once it was acknowledged that the repair wasn't a priority, was allowing the intersection to operate as if the Race Street light still were operational.

Thus, traffic on South Chestnut Street and West Cunningham Street has had to sit to allow the nonexistent traffic exiting Race Street to have its turn at the intersection.

That is an uncalled-for waste of gasoline, as well as a waste of time.

City officials should pay more attention to what needs to be done — throughout the city, not only in the downtown business district. In the case of the streetlights, some of which were in fact in the downtown, city residents have to wonder how many lights need to be dark before the right official notices that it's time to address the situation.

As elected officials, city council members have more responsibility than sitting at a meeting table several times a month.

The troubled state of the economy didn't deter Grove City United Way from pursuing an ambitious goal in its latest fundraising campaign.The campaign goal was $10,000 higher than in the previous campaign and, despite the nationwide economic worries that have not bypassed the community, Grove City's united giving effort was able to exceed its higher target figure.This year's goal was $230,000, and the campaign collected $230,500.The success of the latest campaign was due in part to entities such as the Grove City School District, which more than doubled its contributions from the previous campaign. The amount received from employees of Grove City Schools totaled $9,000.Likewise, Grove City Medical Center's total gift of just under $18,000 represented an increase of $5,000 over the prior campaign.GE was the campaign's biggest contributor with a total gift of $57,000, while Grove City College's contribution of $21,000 also played a significant role in the campaign reaching and exceeding its goal.All that said, campaign workers deserve praise for their determined efforts, as well as those contributors who put the realities of the economic downturn in the background and dug deeper to make a meaningful contribution.Grove City United Way is proof that seemingly difficult odds can be overcome, if people work together toward a worthy goal.

Officials of most municipalities, if they took the time to examine ordinances on the books, would find laws that either were no longer applicable or in need of being updated.The Mars Borough Council has chosen to do just that, and solicitor Douglas Weinrich has reported to the council that he nearly is finished with the codification of ordinances. The effort will update ordinances and transform them to a more user-friendly format.Even the community's zoning ordinance, which is being updated, will be plugged into the ordinance codification when that update work is completed and has received council approval, Weinrich said.There have been news articles in recent years where some communities had found still-in-effect ordinances on their books dealing with horses and farm animals such as pigs and sheep on their streets.At one time those were legitimate concerns for many communities but it's hard for most people now living to imagine when the city of Butler or boroughs such as Mars had to deal, for example, with a flock of sheep being moved through town, or where covered wagons or buckboards were allowed to be parked.All communities should work to keep their books up to date, and repealing and discarding old, out-of-date laws is one means to that end.The efforts in Mars should serve as an example for others.