It’s to be expected that from now on Chicora Borough Council will have safeguards in place to prevent — or at least discourage — thefts of borough equipment and other taxpayer-owned property.

The current case in which a former borough employee has been charged with felony and misdemeanor theft involving a large steel plate and more than 200 water meters is a wake-up call for borough officials, who had put too much confidence in the worker.

All units of government and businesses must have controls in place, to avoid being victimized by wrongdoing, no matter the unlikelihood.

The Chicora case is one of a number of instances in recent years in which area municipalities or businesses have been victimized by lax safeguards.

The Chicora case also raises an issue beyond that community’s borders. It revolves around whether municipalities are losing potential tax dollars from individuals who travel streets and alleys in pickup trucks on garbage and recycling nights, helping themselves to items they sell as scrap and, thus, reap a substantial profit.

The Butler Eagle has received reports that that practice is a regular occurrence in the city. There’s the matter of whether individuals involved should be required to have a municipal business license.

Scrap buyers should keep records of what is sold to them by people who are not associated with a company but who regularly show up with truckloads of what people refer to as junk.

Commendably, it was information from the owner of a Butler County salvage yard, and later from an employee of that salvage operation, that led to the charges that were filed against the former Chicora employee, Shawn D. Sheakley, 32, of Petrolia. On Dec. 10, the salvage yard owner notified the borough of a transaction in which Sheakley allegedly sold a large steel plate belonging to the borough — valued at about $500 — for $86 that Sheakley did not turn over to the borough. The scrapyard employee told borough officials in January, after officials had determined that water meters were missing, that Sheakley had sold brass bodies from meters at that salvage operation, bringing them there in a borough truck and in his own car.

Sheakley allegedly had used a borough dump truck to haul the steel plate to the salvage yard. The borough had used the plate as a makeshift manhole cover during waterline or road projects.

Some of the 210 meters taken, which were valued at $80 each, were to be installed in homes in the borough during the coming summer.

On the meters, which weren’t insured, George Brothers, council president, said, “We’re just going to have to eat the loss.”

Maybe. But hopefully the courts will impose restitution that will fully reimburse the town for its $16,800 loss.

Chicora joins the list of municipalities and businesses that have been victimized by people in positions of trust who have proven to be untrustworthy. Because of lax safeguards and controls, the borough has learned a troubling lesson that others should strive to avoid.