Highly specialized tools used to maintain public property are great to have, but unless a unit of government is big enough to use them all the time, their expense can be hard to justify. However, if a group of municipal governments share in their cost and use, it becomes a lot more practical. That was the conclusion which a handful of North Hills communities recently reached when it came to acquiring two advanced devices. One of them, Cranberry’s Board of Supervisors learned at its April 30 meeting, is a power tool using compressed air to turn sticky water valves. The device has the potential for sharply reducing both the manpower requirements and injury rate associated with manually turning valves. Another, a laser attachment to the groundskeeping tractors used in grading the skinned areas of a baseball infield, gives their operators a series of audio signals to guide their operations, keeping the ground contours at precise angles. For more information, contact Public Works Director Jason Dailey.