Laurel: To a hard job done well. A crash can be hard to handle, even for people who handle things like that every day. A crash with five dead, 55 injured and twisted wreckage that takes hours to navigate is worse. It isn’t something that allows the people rendering aid an opportunity to step back from the horror and breathe before plunging back into the job at hand.

But that is what happened on early Sunday morning when a collision involving a passenger bus, three tractor-trailers and a car brought the turnpike to a stop and overflowed local hospitals.

First responders kept serving and saving even when one of their own, Rostraver paramedic Matt C. Smelser, 44, died at the scene of another crash, on Interstate 70, just hours after the turnpike pile-up.

Dedication and commitment like that deserves more than recognition. It deserves fervent gratitude.

Lance: To the wrong look. In Lower Burrell, new Mayor John Andrejcik started his tenure with a move that raised eyebrows: appointing his brother-in-law, John Marhefka, as acting police chief.

Rob Caruso of the State Ethics Commission says it isn’t technically a conflict of interest, but even the appearance can “weaken the public’s trust.”

Marhefka is a longtime Lower Burrell detective and Burrell School District school resource officer. His qualifications are not in question. But there are ways for elected officials to step back and allow others to make appointments that involve family members to avoid the perception of stacking the deck. This wasn’t the way.

Laurel: To a new name for an old friend. Everyone might still think of it as Star Lake Amphitheatre, but the Hanover Township concert venue has broken up with its last partner, shed the name KeyBank Pavilion and picked up a brand-new moniker, becoming S&T Bank Music Park.

That’s great. Rock on.

But if you really want to make a statement with that new name, how about the Music Park leaves behind the Pavilion’s notorious traffic woes, OK? That would really get a standing ovation.

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