Tribune editorial board

Timing, any good comedian will tell you, is everything. The concept of time is one that we often take for granted and, on occasion, use as an excuse for not getting things done.

How many times have you heard someone say, "I would have done that, but I didn't have enough time."

It's a misconception. We all have the same amount of time each day. The difference is in how we choose to use that time.

Lately we've seen lots of time "wasted" in areas of leadership in our county - from the continuing debates between members of the Ironton City Council over the city's budget problems to the lack of action on getting a number of money saving ideas completed at the county level.

A prime example of a waste of time was the unnecessary removal of municipal workers from the City of Ironton. A program that had been in place more than 20 years was temporarily scrapped because a handful of city workers cried foul over the workers' labor contract.

While we understand the city workers' plight, we believe they did not truly understand the situation in which the city finds itself - up a creek without a financial paddle. The result was the good of the many was sacrificed for the good of the few, at least temporarily.

Now is certainly not the time to wage turf battles and worry about positions that hadn't been filled by union workers in years.

Now is the time when we need to all work together to get things done.

Last week, the time had finally come to bring the municipal workers back. And we couldn't be happier. Their decades of service have been invaluable to the city. We suspect their continuing work will become even more valuable if the difficult economic times continue.

We do not have time to deal with such tiny political wars. We need to spend our time wisely - focused together to make our community shine in the world spotlight.