It is easy for so many these days to complain about government interfering in the everyday lives of citizens and spending too much taxpayer money, and in some cases that may be a fair criticism. However, this past week was an indication of some of the things that the Town Council has to deal with that might go unnoticed to most.

It might seem to some that $90,000 a year is a lot of taxpayer money for sweeping the streets. It might even take some time for people to notice if it weren’t being done at all. There is, however, a long string of mostly air quality regulations at the county, state and federal level that say it must be done or the town could face fines or loss of shared revenues or grants and probably numerous other unintended consequences.

Staff even related that it wasn’t all that easy to find someone to do the job.

The council also approved $60,000 to replace a playground structure at Fountain Park. I’m sure many older folks remember that many playgrounds 40-50 years ago were an accident waiting to happen. If you are in government today and take the fiduciary responsibility of the job seriously, the $60,000 price tag is pretty cheap compared to the potential legal liability of not making sure the equipment is in good – and safe – condition.

For this, we would like to say kudos to staff for staying on top of things around town that matter, but are generally unnoticed, and to the council for taking the action needed.