The City of Butler's financial problems should not discourage planning for future initiatives to move forward. Residents must not view as naivete, city officials' ongoing efforts in regard to such projects as West End and Main Street revitalization, amid the troubling prospects of state fiscally distressed status or bankruptcy.

If any broad-scale good is going to happen in the city, the planning must be in place to capitalize on state and/or federal funding opportunities, if they become available. Communities that don't plan ahead have little or no chance of obtaining money for such purposes.

Fortunately, a commitment to real planning - not just talking - has evolved in Butler over the past several years. And, that planning moved a step forward last week with the city council's approval of an application for a $200,000 grant through the federal Environmental Protection Agency for an environmental assessment of the entire city, with an emphasis on the West End.

The study would benefit residential areas, as well as industrial and commercial areas. The study would be a springboard in terms of obtaining other grants. Art Cordwell, executive director of the Community Development Corporation of Butler County, told the council that the CDC would subsequently be permitted to apply for other grants to help with cleanup and remediation of problems that the environmental assessment identified.

Therefore, the grant being sought initially can be described as a building block geared to something much better.

As Cordwell described it, "The (grant) will be a large step in the redevelopment and re-creation of the city and will provide jobs, recreation and clean neighborhoods that will attract families and provide them with a sense of community pride."

He said the study would head off future hazards and provide for additional green space.

It must be puzzling to some city residents how planning for big projects could be continuing amid the budget crisis with which city leaders are wrestling. That puzzlement is understandable.

The reality is that if Butler is going to accomplish any large-scale project anytime soon, it will need a major inflow of state or federal funds. The city would need those outside funds, even if the budget situation was much more upbeat and the city was not on the verge of Act 47 (distressed status) or bankruptcy.

Fortunately the city has an ally like CDC, with its wide expertise, working on its behalf.

While obtaining the grant in question cannot be regarded as a sure thing - likewise, a timetable regarding an EPA decision is uncertain - city residents should feel good about the fact that forward movement is being pursued despite the city's major problems.

For years, Butler failed to ascribe to a proactive approach to the future, and that is why so many problems - infrastructure as well as money - were provided a window to come about and continue to exist.

The ongoing pursuit of big-ticket projects then isn't naivete; it is an acknowledgment that without planning, the city's problems will only worsen, becoming more complex, costly and difficult to address.

- J.R.K.