The vast majority of Lincoln Avenue building and business owners missed a great meeting this week about the Allegheny Together program.

By "vast majority" we mean all but about a half-dozen. Actually, less than that.

Okay, a week before Christmas was not the best time to hold a meeting for this audience. And, of course, they can always read about the meeting in The Citizen.

What they would have seen is that the Allegheny Together people seem to know what they're talking about. There's a possibility here that they can make a big difference in Bellevue.

In short, they are establishing credibility.

And when you're dealing with anything involving Bellevue government, credibility is an issue that must be addressed.

As business owners, we put much more than our own financial security on the line in matters related to our work. Our decisions impact our families, our employees and their families, and even the town as a whole.

If we're going to make changes and try new things, we need to have some faith in the people heralding that change. Right now, it's very hard to trust a Bellevue government that can't follow the simplest of laws that have been in effect for decades. The home rule charter is just some paper that people forget to take out of the drawer.

If Bellevue Council wants to lead a business district revitalization, they really need to establish some credibility. They need to get their own house in order before telling people what to do with businesses that mean everything to them.

The Allegheny Together program is going to be a hard sell, simply because its real value lies in longterm attitude changes rather than immediate, dollars and cents, physical improvement that can be measured much more easily. Selling that program is going to require people business owners can trust. Hopefully the members of Bellevue Council and other borough officials will become those people.