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Other areas across Pennsylvania, including some in this region, should strive to imitate what will be happening next month in Cambria County's Richland Township regarding worn-out vehicle license plates.
State Rep. Jim Rigby of Johnstown will be working in cooperation with Richland's police department to get deteriorated or damaged plates off the roads -- as they should be, for a number of reasons -- by offering motorists a way to get replacement plates free of charge.
Normally, a vehicle owner seeking a replacement plate would have to pay a $7.50 replacement fee to the state.
All vehicle owners will have to do is show up at the township's fire department at 1321 Scalp Ave. between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sept. 7 to initiate the replacement process. There will be copies of Form MV-44 for plate holders to fill out.
In a message to news media, Rigby said his staff members would deliver the forms to the state Department of Transportation, in order to expedite replacements.
According to the lawmaker, dealing directly with local law enforcement "allows us to avoid the usual plate replacement fee."
"It will be a quick turnaround for anyone operating a vehicle with an illegible license plate," Rigby added.
Vehicle owners will be required to bring their driver's license and vehicle registration document to the Sept. 7 session.
Rigby described an illegible registration plate as one on which one or more numbers or letters cannot be discerned from a distance of 50 feet, or if a plate has peeling, blistering, loss of reflectivity or discoloration making it difficult or impossible to read or, in fact, quickly recognize from which state it originates.
For decades, Pennsylvania has been less than aggressive in getting plates off the roads that should have been junked many years earlier.
In the late 1990s, as the state was looking ahead to Philadelphia hosting the 2000 Republican National Convention, a Western Pennsylvania newspaper began criticizing the state for neglecting to initiate replacement of virtually all plates on vehicles registered in the commonwealth at that time.
Actually, at that time, most vehicles had not had their plates replaced for nearly a decade, and many on the road left no doubt that the state was remiss regarding replacement of plates in a timely, necessary and responsible way.
The word "necessary" was apropos because those worn plates were a liability -- and potentially dangerous -- for police trying to carry out their responsibilities -- as today's worn-out plates also are.
Now, as in the late 1990s, there is the issue of the negative message the existence of many worn-out plates delivers to visitors and potential entrepreneurs about this state in general.
Pennsylvania isn't decrepit, and it should resolve itself to eradicate something that wrongly implies that.
Again, what is scheduled for Sept. 7 in Richland Township, thanks to Rigby and the police department, should be imitated in other areas across the commonwealth.
Meanwhile, perhaps such sessions will wake up the state to what it should be doing routinely -- and without extra cost -- as a public service first and, equally, as a benefit for law enforcement.
A political event or news media reminder should not be necessary for something so basic.