Officials who attended a land-use planning meeting in Slippery Rock Thursday were delivered a message that is becoming increasingly important as state and federal grants become more difficult to obtain.

That message is that state and federal officials, when evaluating projects for funding, look more kindly upon projects that will benefit more than one community.

The intent of those two upper levels of government is to maximize the benefits of each dollar granted. Their perception is that involving more than one community, when possible, enhances the prospects of that happening.

Municipalities throughout the county should acknowledge that thinking as they evaluate projects to pursue.

It was officials from Slippery Rock Borough and Township, Clay Township and Butler County who met Thursday to hear a presentation by members of Sustainable Pittsburgh, which is a non-profit group that helps municipalities in a 10-county region of southwestern Pennsylvania work together in planning efforts.

The local officials were told that, in addition to the greater funding possibilities attached to joint ventures, cooperative planning could be a basis for attracting jobs, conserving rural land, tackling public safety issues, and dealing with transportation problems.

What Sustainable Pittsburgh's future role might be in regard to the communities in question remains to be seen. However, it is important that those communities represented Thursday are not only looking at themselves and their needs, but also at the potentially wider area that those needs might impact.

Royce Lorentz, a Slippery Rock Borough councilman, summed up the situation appropriately.

"Every small borough and township next to it sees problems that need to be jointly solved," he said. "Each of us can do a little bit, but together we can do a lot more."

For the foreseeable future, competition for every federal and state dollar is going to be more formidable than anyone probably has ever seen. On the federal level, the government must continue to wrestle with a deepening budget deficit amid the realities of the terrorism threat and the costs associated with the Iraq war and the rebuilding of that nation. Meanwhile, on the state front, Pennsylvania will continue to wrestle with the negative fallout from the national recession for years to come.

The Sustainable Pittsburgh officials said their agency has the capability of pointing out to Butler County communities examples of projects carried out elsewhere that addressed needs similar to what currently exist here. However, officials in all communities should have as one of their ongoing tasks, keeping abreast of what is happening elsewhere - what has been successful, what has failed; what has been funded and what has failed to obtain funding - even without a group such as Sustainable Pittsburgh serving as a guiding light.

Thursday's meeting amounted to a launching pad for cooperation for the communities in attendance. However, many more local-level officials across the county need to become similarly engaged.

To do otherwise will pose a disadvantage on the project-funding playing field from which it could take years to recover.