We like Abraham Lincoln’s view of government.

“The legitimate object of government,” he said, “is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities.”

Although we all know of Lincoln as the president who issued the emancipation proclamation, to free enslaved African Americans, and who led the nation to fight a brutal war that would keep the union whole, he was also a president who created chances for the common man, the everyday citizen.

He set up land-grant colleges across the nation, like New York State’s Cornell, that taught practical skills like farming, engineering, and science. He signed the Homestead Act, opening government lands to small family farmers, giving each family 160 acres to try farming for five years.

We like the way our current president, Joe Biden, is supporting programs that help poor Americans and everyday Americans after years of presidents who were focused on ways to help the rich and powerful.

We believe our local governments, not just our federal government, could benefit from Lincoln’s words.

Local governments are the closest to the people they serve and therefore the most attuned to their needs.

A perfect example is a dilemma portrayed last week by our Hilltown reporter, Noah Zweifel, in a front-page story about a proposal from Berne residents who live around Helderberg Lake.

The dam that makes the lake needs repairs. The state has declared it a high-hazard dam, meaning its failure could result in widespread damage to homes and roads or cause substantial environmental damage or loss of human life.

If the dam were to fail or be removed — engineers have estimated the cost of removal at nearly the cost of repairs — the homes that now surround a beautiful body of water would, instead, surround a mud pit.

The Helderberg Lake Community Association has submitted a petition to the town of Berne to create a tax district so that residents would pay the town back for the $445,000 repair costs for over 30 years at 4-percent interest.

Fifty-two out of 73 of the proposed district property owners — about 71 percent — signed the petition. A handful of residents who object to the petition spoke out at a recent public hearing.

We spoke with one of them, Janice Parrott, who believes that the association should have applied to the state or federal government for grant money so that the cost would not be so burdensome for residents; residents would be taxed about $5.35 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Parrott said at the public hearing that she was on Social Security and her husband would be retiring soon. She’s had surgery for both eyes and her husband needs knee surgery, she said.

“My problem, not yours,” Parrott told the town board, “but all of a sudden I’m expected to pay upwards of $1,000 a year for the rest of my life? And then my heirs are going to have to pay this tax.”

At the same time, though, Parrott told us, “Nobody wants to lose the lake.”

Both of her points are valid: Bearing the full cost of dam repairs may be too burdensome for individuals to shoulder alone yet the loss of the lake could be worse for them. At the worst, if the dam gave way, lives and homes could be lost; at the best, the homes, without a lake, would lose value.

So here’s where the Berne town government could step in, as Lincoln advised, to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves.

The lake association, no doubt made up of well-meaning citizens, does not have the connections or expertise to apply for grants that could lighten the cost of needed repairs.

We covered an earlier town government in Berne as it worked through a laborious process to finally get a sewer system — the town’s first — that was needed for the homes and businesses in the hamlet of Berne.

The town started planning in the late 1990s, designing a system to help those with substandard septic systems and contaminated wells, while complying with an order from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, which found pollution in the Fox Creek.

Houses and businesses were built in the hamlet long before modern conveniences like washing machines for clothes and dishwashers that tax old-fashioned systems. Users started connecting to the new sewer system in 2014 and have had their needs safely met since then.

Local governments can draw on residents’ expertise as happened in Berne with its sewer system and is happening now in Westerlo as that Hilltown is in the running for a $1.7 million federal grant that could make high-speed internet a reality in parts of town that are too rural to make it worth the while of private companies to run cable.

Right now, typical of many rural towns, only about 30 percent of Westerlo’s roughly 3,300 residents have internet service — a longstanding concern that took on a new urgency during the coronavirus pandemic, which forced people to self-isolate and do work, schooling, and almost everything else online.

When Congressman Paul Tonko visited Westerlo in June to see the work of a town committee trying to secure broadband, he heard about “the crush of people” filling the library’s parking lot to use its Wi-Fi; he heard about a cancer patient who couldn’t reach a doctor; he heard about a family who had to decide between paying a bill for internet so the three children could keep up with remote schoolwork or paying for groceries; and he heard about how the town’s population has been stagnating since people are now less likely to buy a home that doesn’t have internet capabilities.

This is another example of a problem that cannot be solved by individuals alone but can be solved with the help of government.

Now, with the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which Biden signed into law last month, there is money available, in each state, that can be used for needed projects.

Local governments, for the first time ever, have also been given federal money directly as part of pandemic aid. We urge our local town and village governments to marshall these resources carefully for the long-term good of their constituents.

Separate from the pandemic-relief funds, town and village governments can use their expertise to access grant money that will help with projects like dam repair.

Local governments must be cognizant of needs and then put in the effort and expertise to meet those needs. Two weeks ago, we wrote on this page about deteriorating asbestos-cement water mains in Altamont.

We expected the topic would be broached at the next village board meeting. Not a word on the subject was uttered.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal assigns $3 billion to New York State for clean water. While much of the focus had been on replacing lead pipes, we believe municipalities should put forth plans to replace asbestos-cement pipes as well.

Many municipalities across the state and across the nation installed asbestos-cement pipes in the mid-20th Century that are now deteriorating, possibly releasing asbestos, a known carcinogen, into the water.

After our story and editorial ran, we heard concerns from several readers about the safety of their water, which had not been tested for asbestos after a water main broke in September.

We urge our local governments to follow Lincoln’s lead and “do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities.”

Our citizens will be better served, our communities will be stronger — and our nation will prosper.