Procedurally, Kingfield should have taken a donation from Poland Spring water to a town meeting before accepting it. That was a mistake.

Morally, it might be fair to question whether the large water bottling company was hoping to curry good favor with the town as it is considering building a new facility there. It probably didn’t figure a gift would be the worst thing it could do since its trucks already travel through town.

But from an economic development standpoint, the gift is like a cool drink of water on a hot day.

Too often, companies looking to build a new facility in a town go to great lengths to extract concessions from the local government. They use the promise of new jobs to cajole elected officials into granting large tax breaks and making costly improvements.

We doubt that a gift of $10,000 to Kingfield – some of which has already been spent – would change anyone’s mind on Poland Spring’s potential facility. But it will buy a new warning signal for the fire department, a computer for the town assessor, a generator for the wastewater department and a laundry list of other smallish items the town needs.

Poland Spring donates almost $1 million a year in cash and goods to communities in Maine, especially ones affected by its operations. We’d much rather see a company make civic-minded gifts than exhort communities for big tax concessions.

It’s refreshing – like that drink of water.