The fact that the Middlesex Township supervisors voted Thursday to disband the municipality's police department and use most of the money saved for badly needed road repairs shouldn't end debate about the issue. Township residents must continue to ask what went wrong over the years to bring the township to its current unenviable juncture.

Unfortunately, the situation in Middlesex is reminiscent of the mistakes made in the City of Butler over the years. In Butler, small problems were allowed to remain unfixed, allowing them to evolve into big problems. Like in Butler, the current road problems in Middlesex resulted from township leaders not being aggressive enough over the years in pursuing smaller-scale projects to provide at least limited control on the rate of deterioration.

Some of the conditions in both municipalities can legitmately evoke questions about whether past officials — and maybe some officials who still are serving — secretly harbored the preposterous notion that someday someone would wave a magic wand — such as in the form of the former federal revenue-sharing program — that would eradicate problems without much financial outlay by the municipalities.

However, a more likely bogeyman was the "caretaker" style of leadership that often prevailed in the two communities. In the past in Middlesex, the main goal was to pay the bills, keep the roads open in wintertime and carry out repairs that were in fact below the scope of need. In Butler, it's safe to conclude that some of the streets have been barely touched in 30, 40 — even 50 — years.

It is easy to sympathize with the current Middlesex supervisors' dilemma of now having to face problems that resulted from substandard road construction in the 1950s. But it remains open to debate whether disbanding the police department, effective at the end of the year, is going to provide more than short-term money stability and limited road repairs.

And, if the township's road conditions really are as bad as currently stated, it's doubtful that the $451,750 savings to be realized by the police action is going to accomplish as much as officials think they will achieve.

Meanwhile, the loss of the police department will inject a new challenge to the township resulting from the growth moving north out of Allegheny County. With growth comes the need for upgraded services, including those related to law enforcement and enforcing other municipal codes. Eliminating the police department represents a significant step backward, whose full impact won't be gauged for some time.

A comment Thursday by Alonzo Van Atta, one of the superisors, hopefully did not go unnoticed by those in attendance at the supervisors meeting. Van Atta said, "I would like to hire every one of them (police officers) back in two or three years when we get over this (financial) crisis."

It would seem that Van Atta was being over-optimistic. If the roads problem can be corrected in that short period of time based mainly on the annual savings from the police department's demise, it would seem that the scope of the roads problem, as proclaimed by the supervisors, has been exaggerated.

No doubt the police are partly to blame for the decision to disband the department. They were reluctant to agree to a major department scaleback.

But none of that wipes away the fact that municipal leaders over the years compiled a poor record of performance in regard to the township's overall long-term picture.

Butler is faced with addressing its past mistakes with a lot less money than would have been needed in the past. For Middlesex, that same scenario is in place.

Everyone in the Middlesex issue still has time to rethink their strategies. Township residents should continue to let their opinions be known. The result that has unfolded is unsatisfactory to the township's overall best interests.