People of Cranberry Township owe a debt of gratitude to the alert township resident who apparently has helped police solve a vandalism spree, part of which involved heavy damage to three homes under construction.

At about 6 a.m. last Sunday, the resident notified township police that four young males were damaging mailboxes along Peters Road. That subsequently helped police apparently solve the crimes involving the damage to the new homes.

The comment of Cranberry Sgt. Dave Kovach was on target: "This is a fine example of community policing in action — the police and community working together to solve a crime."

Damage to the homes and mailboxes was estimated to be in the thousands of dollars. It is to be hoped that, if the four are convicted, leniency will not be part of their sentences.

Butler County Commissioner Glenn Anderson isn't required to attend county prison board meetings, but he is wrong in having decided to stop attending the sessions.He has not attended any of the board's meetings this year.Anderson says he is frustrated because of all of the negative comments made during those meetings. But with the voters having entrusted him with the responsibility of overseeing county government, he should be doing that, even in those situations in which he might not like the tone or mood of the proceedings.By virtue of his position, he is required to be up-to-date on all issues of the county government. By boycotting the prison board meetings, thus relinquishing his vote on prison board issues, he is neglecting his responsibilities regarding the operation of the current prison, which the prison board oversees.Anderson told a Butler Eagle reporter that other county officials keep him updated on information discussed at the prison board sessions. He said it's pointless for him to attend.He's wrong.Anderson was one of the two county commissioners — Commissioner James Kennedy was the other — who voted to spend millions of dollars more than was necessary by locating the new prison downtown, rather than on land the county owns near Sunnyview Nursing Home. Now, county officials can't even achieve a meeting of the minds on how much the new prison actually will cost — despite the fact that the prison already is under construction.Regardless of what friction or negativity might exist on the prison board — whether it's related to the current prison, the new prison, or personality conflicts — Anderson should be in attendance for all meetings, no matter how uncomfortable.

Butler County election officials deserve praise for making Primary Election Day, for the most part, trouble-free, despite the switchover to touch screen voting machines.How well the change from punch card voting would go was, understandably, a concern when polls opened Tuesday morning. However, it didn't take long to realize that some of the fears would not come to pass.While the day did witness some problems — the biggest probably was the technical difficulty in four of 10 electronic voting machines in one Cranberry Township precinct — the new system generally received a thumbs-up from voters, who seemed to take voting with the new system in stride.Those who voted Tuesday also deserve a cheer for their open-mindedness about the new system.Regis Young, director of the Butler County Bureau of Elections, said, "Ninety-eight to 99 percent of them (touch screen voting machines) worked without problems, out of 396 machines in the field. I'd say that's a good showing."He's right.But, just in case, the county had 14 specially trained troubleshooters working out of the election office, and four representatives from Electronic Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb., maker of the touch screen machines, were in the county to provide assistance, if needed.Overall, Election Day was a commendable experience for the registered voters who recognized the importance of casting ballots.Young was correct in describing the election experience with the new voting method "a great day."