Laurel: To answering the call. Mental health care is important, and when people reach out, someone needs to be there to offer a helping hand. That is becoming easier as Westmoreland County adds a mobile crisis unit with a $372,000 grant. The addition will come as the new “988” phone number for mental health calls goes into use in the summer.

“It’s definitely going to lead to an increase in the number of calls that we’ll receive as an agency,” Westmoreland Community Action CEO Mandy Welty Zalich said.

Westmoreland Community Action operates a local crisis hotline and unit with Westmoreland County Behavioral Health. The grant will also expand technology for the local call center.

The need is obvious. The mobile crisis unit was dispatched 27 times in January and 26 times in December. The agency is planning to add one full-time position and four part-timers to the unit.

Having an appropriate response ready to go can also take pressure off other first responders and provide better use of limited emergency resources.

Lance: To breaking into pieces. It’s that time again — pothole season. Every spring sees Southwestern Pennsylvania roads crumbling like stale cookies and leaving pits big enough to jar your teeth and steal your money when they damage a tire or an exhaust system.

Every year they seem worse than they’ve ever been as the freezing and thawing of winter turns asphalt to rubble. PennDOT says that they really aren’t any worse, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating.

Let’s be kind to the workers trying to fix them — whether local crews or PennDOT employees.

Laurel: To taking a stand. In Ukraine, the citizens are rallying to fight the invasion of their country by Russian forces. A Leechburg Area High School student is doing what she can to offer support.

Jasa Oliver’s great-grandfather Dimetro Buriak came to America from Ukraine. The Gilpin junior wanted to do something to help the land of her heritage. On Feb. 24, she created a website with some basic information about how to help the Ukrainian people with a list of more than 30 charities doing things like blood donation, homeless support, investigative journalism and preserving heritage.

“My goal was to have these charities easily accessible for people,” Oliver said.

Making giving easy makes more giving possible. Oliver’s effort is worthy work.

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