City and county officials should look for more opportunities to combine and coordinate their efforts.

Cooperative efforts by Lawrence and Douglas County like the agreement being considered this week to share maintenance of Broken Arrow Park simply make sense.

The agreement, which was approved Monday by county commissioners and goes to city commissioners tonight, would make the city responsible for all of the equipment in the park, and the county responsible for all of the mowing. It’s amazing such an agreement has taken so long to reach.

The way the park has been maintained sounds a little like the Hatfields and McCoys. The city owns the north half of the park and the county owns the south. The city and county each would mow up to, but not beyond, the dividing line, and separate crews were necessary to maintain park equipment. It is a silly and wasteful system that serves no purpose.

Sharing maintenance of the park would be one of several joint ventures between the city and county. The two governments already share a planning department. Law enforcement still is divided between the city police and the county sheriff, but emergency services for the city and county are jointly handled by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical and a central dispatch system operated through Douglas County Emergency Communications. These are sensible collaborations and hopefully will set the stage for more joint services in the future.

A story in Monday’s Journal-World cited some interesting statistics about Kansans and government. Including not only city, county and school district boards but also entities for townships, libraries, sewer districts, cemeteries and other government bodies, Kansas has 3,950 units of local government. Kansas ranks 32nd among states in population but is No. 5 for the number of taxing jurisdictions in the state.

We knew Kansans were an independent lot, but this is ridiculous. The state undoubtedly is losing out on many opportunities for government efficiency by stubbornly clinging to all of these separate boards.

In Douglas County, for instance, four different governments township, city, county and state share responsibility for road maintenance. That means each entity must maintain its own crews and equipment to do the job.

A representative of the League of Kansas Municipalities noted that talk of consolidating services often arises during tight financial times like those being experienced by many states now. Struggles to make budgets balance may spur many government officials to seek ways to make their operations more efficient. Although Kansans like their autonomy, they also are a practical people and may soon start to recognize the advantages both in terms of economy and service of combining more government functions.

Although Lawrence and Douglas County aren’t likely to follow Wyandotte County and merge their governments any time soon, reasonable steps toward coordination and cooperation will benefit residents in many ways. City and county officials are wise to pursue such efforts whenever they make sense.