Recently released audits in Wendell and Knightdale show those towns saved fairly sizeable chunks of money over the course of the past fiscal year.

That's good news in an economy that has largely been doom and gloom for much of the past four years.

It highlights a close-to-the-vest style of money management taxpayers can appreciate.

It also represents an opportunity for leaders in those towns to think creatively about how they provide services to their residents.

In Wendell, the town set aside nearly $400,000 - that's money it brought in, but didn't spend.

In Knightdale, that number was closer to $1 million.

One of the most oft-repeated phrases among government-types is that there is never enough funding to do everything elected leaders would like.

And, while those savings represent significant amounts of money to the average Wendell or Knightdale resident, they aren't huge figures to municipal governments.

Still, they are significant enough that town officials can look about for some needs that are not being met and attempt to satisfy them.

Whether it be an expansion of parks and recreation services, or even much-delayed one-time capital expenses such as purchasing equipment for the public works department, there are opportunities to spend that money prudently and in a way that benefits a significant portion of the population.

Town budget writers have successfully built up savings accounts that would help the towns operate for several months in the event something catastrophic happened and money completely stopped flowing into the town's coffers.

Of course that's not likely to happen. And even in the event of a harsh winter or some other natural disaster, local towns - including Zebulon, by the way - are well-positioned to handle the costs of dealing with emergencies.

As taxpayers tighten their belts at home, most of them realize the need to support government operations through the payment of taxes.

But we suspect that, if taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for town government, they'd like to see the money they send to town hall spent on some useful product or service - not just tucked away in an investment CD somewhere.