Legislator George Borrello, R-Hanover, is in for a busy year.

Borrello has proven himself to be a capable legislator, so he would have been busy anyway. His 2016 calendar will fill up even faster now that Borrello has agreed to take the reins of County Executive Vince Horrigan’s Regional Solutions Commission. The commission will include representatives representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation Local Economic Development Committee, Mayors and Supervisors Association, private business leaders, county citizens and others while focusing primarily on public safety, infrastructure and local government. County residents can expect public forums, an identification of regional initiatives and eventually specific proposals to be implemented.

We have often heard pleas for municipal cooperation or wonderful ideas that involve governments working together that go nowhere. Perhaps it is the fact that Horrigan has been successful in regional solutions during the first two years of his term in office. Thirty municipalities joined to form the countywide shared services plan, seven municipalities joined to form a north county water district and Forestville residents voted to dissolve their village government into the town of Hanover. Accomplishing just those three items took a lot of hand-holding and cajoling during the course of hundreds of hours of meetings, phone calls and emails while, we’re sure, showing the patience of Job and the steely resolve of the most battle-hardened general to keep as many participants at the table as possible.

It’s easy to dismiss a question about new ways of doing things by pointing to the status quo and saying this is the way we’ve always done things. County residents realize the way we have always done things isn’t working. They should be happy that their county executive realizes it too.