Even if the current concerns regarding Blair Township’s proposed Reservoir Road sanitary sewer project are navigated successfully, the anxiety in play about the project at this time never should have happened.

Rather than elements of the project continuing to fall into place on a workable timetable, this multimillion-dollar endeavor instead has evolved into a conglomeration of avoidable errors and, apparently, shoddy management that is a disgrace to the township — as well as to Blair County as a whole.

There are plenty of layers of expertise in this county to prevent situations — like the one now plaguing Blair Township — from developing, but something went awry in conjunction with the Reservoir Road project and that something needs to be identified in order to help prevent a repeat anytime and anywhere in the future.

Meanwhile, there is plenty of responsibility to go around for the current mess, and nowhere amid that responsibility “world” is anything for which pride should be expressed.

Instead, plenty of red faces should be “lighting up” the municipality.

The situation underway sends a troubling signal about competence and attention-to-detail that raises cause for uncertainty about eligibility for grant opportunities in the future.

Most places go out of their way to do things right. The Reservoir Road project smacks of failure to grasp even the basics necessary for accomplishing that end.

What’s at the forefront at this time is the belief that the Blair Township Water and Sewer Authority might no longer have enough time to start and finish the project’s first phase before an end-of-September deadline for spending the $2.5 million federal grant received to pay for that phase.

It’s hard to fathom any acceptable excuse for the project not having gotten started well before what now amounts to virtually the “last minute.” Rather than falling victim to false assumptions about the availability of a grant extension, those in charge of overseeing the project should have sought and received written assurance of the rules governing the money in question — what project officials wanted to hear or otherwise.

Instead, local officials are now being told that a federal extension regarding the Phase One money would require literally an act of Congress — not impossible, but difficult amid the political climate currently gripping Washington.

Area federal legislators, including Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators, should be consulted about possible strategies for getting the needed project-extension approval.

Then there’s the issue of the engineering consultant who already has received about $500,000 in connection with Reservoir Road. That consultant must now share in the blame, due to the consultant’s failure to ramp up reminders to local officials about getting the project moving.

Beyond those locally who apparently have a hand in causing the current morass, there’s also the state Department of Environmental Protection, which reversed course regarding the appropriateness of prior sewer planning — an apparent indication that officials there don’t have knowledge of the department’s rules planted firmly in their work responsibilities.

Finally, the “answer” isn’t allocation of some or all of the Reservoir Road grant for replacing failing sewer lines in the Penn Farm Estates area — a total separate project — an idea that has been voiced.

The real answer is to do what is necessary to get the Reservoir Road project back on track, even if it takes much more legwork in Washington as well as in Harrisburg.

Legwork willingness is one of the reasons why voters cast their ballots for those whom they consider the right candidates.