East Marlborough Township, where my wife and I have resided for over 50 years now, has a population of around 7,500. Its neighbor, West Marlborough Township, has a population of less than 1,000.

Moreover, East has substantial commercial tax ratables and is home to New Bolton Center, Longwood Gardens, and the Kennett Country Club. Yet these two opposites are managed in the same manner:

• No full-time employees, only part-time

• Limited daily office hours

• No services

• No real police protection

• Farmed-out building and zoning officers, and everything else

One of these townships is being mismanaged and it's not rural, bucolic West Marlborough. For over 50 years, East Marlborough has always been managed on the cheap. That may have been acceptable 40 or 50 years ago, but it is not acceptable now. East's five supervisors are asleep at the wheel, and I wonder when they will wake up.

(This is an occasional column written by Uncle Irvin. As always, the column is the opinion of Uncle Irvin, and is not a news story.)