Public works has always been, and will remain, the most important function performed by the majority of Pennsylvania municipalities. Historically, the vast majority of municipalities in the Commonwealth - rural townships and boroughs - performed this function nearly exclusively from other traditional municipal services. The importance of public works services is diminished only to the extent that expected service levels are maintained. Few could debate the importance of snow removal when failure to efficiently accomplish that function could prevent citizens from getting to their places of employment, emergency equipment from reaching the site of the emergency, or commercial and industrial operations from conducting their daily business. The efficient provision of utility service to residential, commercial, or industrial customers is critical to quality of life and safety of a community. Economic development is made more difficult if inefficient utility operations or degraded transportation systems are typical in a community.