Silver Creek may be taking the lead in starting a countywide trend. Earlier this month, the Village Board voted to dissolve its court by the end of 2020.

Village Mayor Jeffrey Hornburg, in a show of leadership and common sense, said it no longer is viable for the antiquated policy to continue. “It’s an economic situation,” he said. “The court costs us money to run. … We need to have three people to run the court and furnish security for them. It’s beginning to cost an excess of what we’re getting from it.”

Normally in deciding to keep the courts, municipalities look at only the revenue numbers. While those are important, just as signficant — sometimes moreso — are the expenses. If those costs outweigh the money coming in, then taxpayers are spending too much.

We hope other local courts look at what Silver Creek has done. We need a regional court system in this county.

Moving forward, the fewer courts this county has, the better the chance of a centralized system happening.