The elimination of bus service for Caledonia may be reconsidered, a couple of village officials said after getting an earful from citizens on Tuesday. That's a good idea. The Village Board-which is to say the members who voted for the cut on Oct. 26-made a poor decision and should reverse it.

A choice between parks and bus service along Douglas Avenue to Greentree Shopping Center is a difficult one, although we would point out that the $36,000 for bus service is a mosquito compared to the levy of $12.9 million and a deficit of about $440,000. However, that is the choice which the board advanced, so let us examine why it is a poor choice.

Especially in the middle of a recession, one does not undercut a basis of the economy, and that is precisely what bus service is. The Greentree stop is one of the most heavily used of the 800-plus stops served by the Belle Urban System. Every year it records 20,000 trips, meaning either someone stepping off a bus or stepping on. Presume that every person who steps off also steps back on to go home, and the conclusion is that about 10,000 people use that stop annually, and that is not an insignificant number of people.

These are shoppers who are spending money in Caledonia shops (we know this because bus user data shows that there is a steady trickle of people into and out of Greentree during a day), and they're workers for Caledonia businesses.

Parks are important, but there are alternatives. A publicly minded company, perhaps a landscaper, could volunteer to provide upkeep or to pay for utilities. Private citizens could volunteer as some have already volunteered to mow highway medians after funding for that service was reduced. Alternatives to bus transportation are harder to come by or almost impossible, meaning hardship for people who want to reach jobs or buy food.

This is about more than Caledonia, too. A reduction in area bus service may impede the prospects for commuter rail, officials have opined. That will hurt the region in the future as congestion increases and as gasoline prices increase, which they will as the world economy picks up and demand drives up the price of oil.

What we should be doing is not cutting bus service but rethinking it. Except for a few adaptations, Racine's bus system is largely serving the needs of Racine of the 1970s. That should change. Perhaps we don't need full-sized buses everywhere. Perhaps on-demand service would be better for some uses. We won't know unless we re-examine what we're doing, and we may find that we can do more while spending less.

Dealing with an old service model should be a caution. We should not apply the same old solutions, such as cutting a service that appears unused but which is actually one of the beams that supports the economy.