Felony charges filed last week against the former Conewango Township clerk should provide a lesson for area governments as they work to join the 21st century.

The clerk set up the township’s email address that was used for township purposes like logging into Quickbooks to handle the township’s financial records and for communication with constituents.

When the clerk was fired, for undisclosed reasons, she asked for and was given access to read the emails in the town Google mail account because she was using the address for personal reasons, too.

The first mistake Conewango officials made was not requiring the clerk to use a separate email address for personal and town emails. The second mistake township officials made was not having the log-in information kept in town hall records so that the board kept control of the account in case the clerk ever left. Then the board compounded the issue by giving the former clerk approval to read the email.

Granting access to the account has created more than a year’s worth of drama that could have been avoided.

For a year Conewango officials have had no access to their township email address because, according to an affidavit filed by the State Police, the clerk changed the passwords when she thought the township’s attempt to change the password was an effort by hackers to gain control of the account. She’s since lost the passwords, though she claims the account is hers. After a year of back-and-forth between the township, police officers and the former clerk, access to the account still hasn’t been restored. With that lack of access is an inability to access the township’s financial records because the email account is needed as part of two-factor authentication to get into the computerized records.

The situation is unfortunate, but avoidable just the same. We hope other local governments are paying attention and, if they’re in the same boat, making sure they have the information needed to keep control of their online accounts.