There are many streets and other roadways in and around Butler needing extensive repairs, including pothole patching, despite the commendable amount of improvements made in recent years.

But with milder weather on the way following another bad winter, it’s time for municipal officials in and around the city to address another issue. That is the damage inflicted on roads by utility companies.

While the damage from such utility work might not be noticeable as snowy weather continues, once temperatures have warmed and the snow has melted, motorists experience fully the inadequacies and limited life span of temporary patchwork.

A number of city streets that have been resurfaced or rebuilt over the past several years now have deepening depressions resulting from utility work.

The same can be said for some state roadways, such as West Jefferson Street and North Main Street Extension, where utility repairs were done.

As for West Jefferson, in addition to exhibiting the effects of utility repairs, it continues to be unfriendly to motorists because of manhole depressions that the Butler Area Sewer Authority has neglected to permanently address — and which PennDOT has for years been remiss in not pushing BASA to fix.

At one point several years ago, after the Butler Eagle called attention to the manhole problem, BASA applied temporary bituminous patching material over the manhole covers, eliminating the depressions. But the sewer authority has failed to follow up when that temporary fix eroded or became dislodged.

BASA’s inattention to the problem suggests that the authority doesn’t care about the problem and what it might cost drivers who use West Jefferson often.

Meanwhile, PennDOT deserves criticism for its failure to ensure that the manhole issue was addressed at the time the resurfacing took place.

City road workers and employees of other municipal road departments have taken advantage of the few good-weather days this winter to make temporary pothole repairs, and more will be done as lengthier stretches of good weather arrive.

But as spring nears, municipalities should be reminding utilities about the repairs for which the utilities are responsible. Communities should not be content with repairs being delayed until late summer or fall.

Butler’s deteriorated streets always have been a product of limited funds, but for decades they also were due to former officials’ failure to maintain the city’s infrastructure. Now that many streets have been rebuilt or resurfaced following longtime inaction, those investments must be protected.

Allowing utilities to shirk their responsibility to make repairs to sections of roadway that they’ve dug up will expedite further deterioration.

Officials of Butler and nearby municipalities should not tolerate lack of corrective action by the utilities.