With county finances floundering and fluctuating, activist eyes are fixing upon county assets that might be purchased by municipalities and developed for the common good. A large tract of undeveloped county parkland off Hempstead Harbor and parts of the water recharge system are some of the potential open space projects I've discussed with people in all three Nassau townships in the past few weeks. More information will be coming. Meanwhile, the idea of towns and villages picking off county assets raises basic questions about the number and nature of needed local governments. These questions were buried under the monolith of machine-dominated government until recently, and should have been asked and answered decades ago.

Counties, towns, villages. Pick two out of three.

For generations, counties were units of state government, towns were groups of people and villages were groups of people with lawyers. As our suburbs grew together, so did the activities of local governments.

For example, special districts (and some villages) were created so that towns could provide services to growing neighborhoods without raising the general town tax. Now that our towns are built-out, it makes no sense to have dozens of similar districts all pressed together. Strategic planning is secondary to local impulse. Our water districts do a very good job of pumping water, but overall water strategy in Nassau is scary, and will get scarier as shoreline communities lose more wells to saltwater and central spine communities lose them to pollution plumes.

In the early '60s, there was serious talk about dissolving suburban townships. With few powers, towns couldn't meet the needs of large, urbanizing populations. A series of constitutional and statute changes gave the big towns big powers, stronger supervisors and the ability, if desired, to govern vast populations in the most modern fashion. It was thought that some towns would develop their own social service, health and transportation systems, and anything else several hundred thousand people might need from a local government.

None of that happened, mainly due to transient political interests. Unfortunately, decades of neglected problems are not transient. But the towns remain, mainly watching.

Big changes almost happened three decades ago. The public purchase of water districts, the elimination of town tax receivers and the merger of town and county highway departments were all agreed upon, but sunk at the last minute. County Executive Nickerson proposed to phase out townships. But later, with firm machine control, serious talk of reform was limited to occasional lawsuits and editorials.

Financial issues are the toughest ones in municipal consolidations. Consolidation can pay off outstanding local debts and even compensate particular communities for previous exceptional capital investments.

Towns and villages were frequently dissolved as populations moved in last century's industrial revolution. When Greater New York City was created, five counties worth of towns, villages and little cities went out of business. Neighborhoods kept their identities because people, not artificial political boundaries, really determine local character.

And vision and intelligence determine the character of our leaders in a crisis. It's time to address the basics.