Laurel: To real-life learning. When winter storms dropped more than a foot of snow across Southwestern Pennsylvania, young people responded the same way — by getting to work.

Members of Valley Jr.-Sr. High School’s ski club traded skis for shovels, spending afternoons clearing heavily used bus stops in New Kensington and Arnold so students could wait safely for transportation. They dug out fire hydrants, helped stranded drivers and did it simply because, as one student said, “We just want to help out people.”

In West Deer, Cub Scouts and parents from Pack 965 shoveled driveways at 15 homes to raise money for a new roof at East Union Community Center and Church, where the pack meets. They divided the work, played in the snow, raised about $1,400 and learned firsthand that many hands truly do make light work.

Each effort solved an immediate problem. That alone would make them worthwhile.

But each also carried broader lessons: that working together makes hard jobs easier, that service strengthens neighborhoods and that community is built not by grand gestures but by showing up when help is needed. Those are lessons worth celebrating — and worth passing on.

Lance: To being left in limbo. The dispute now threatening the future of the Ligonier Country Market did not arise overnight. For more than a year, tensions have surfaced between the market’s organizers and township supervisors over how the 50-year-old community event would operate, as well as with participating businesses affected by changing rules.

Questions about opening dates, vendor limits and eligibility repeatedly raised uncertainty about how the market would proceed. None of those issues alone is fatal. Together, they pose problems.

That became evident this week when a disagreement between the market and the Loyalhanna Watershed Association over a lease spilled into a township meeting, placing supervisors in the uncomfortable position of being asked to referee a private dispute.

Township officials were right to resist. Local government is not a courtroom, and it should not be forced to choose sides when parties disagree over property rights.

At the same time, issuing permits while underlying land-use and relationship issues remained unresolved invited exactly this kind of standoff. Similar issues have come up before, so this should have been anticipated. When longstanding disagreements go unaddressed, every new conflict becomes a threat to the whole enterprise.

The result is uncertainty for all involved — centered on an event that draws thousands of people and is a business boon.

If the Ligonier Country Market is truly “a benefit to the community,” as all sides agree, then resolving disputes before they reach a breaking point is not optional. Longstanding institutions survive through cooperation and clarity, not chaos.

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