The coming year will be a season of change for government in Butler County.

The most immediate changes — and maybe the most dramatic — will be in Butler’s city government, where Tom Donaldson is about to become the city’s first Repulican mayor since 1985.

Donaldson, a former police officer, says his main focus will be on the police department.

Donaldson ran for election on a platform emphasizing the restoration of neighborhoods, mainly by reducing crime.

To cut into crime, Donaldson says he would like to institute a neighborhood watch program once the weather gets nicer to help monitor the streets. He’d like watch volunteers to coordinate and communicate with patrolmen, and he intends to have more police foot patrols.

Elections for county commissioner are still 22 months away in November 2015, but already that election is taking on added significance and is bound to shape the board of commissioners’ actions in 2014.

Incumbent Republicans Bill McCarrier, the board chairman, and Dale Pinkerton have indicated they won’t seek re-election, creating the likelihood of multiple candidates vying to succeed them.

Together Pinkerton and McCarrier are pursuing two major projects: privatization of the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; and construction of a county administrative annex.

Democratic minority Commissioner Jim Eckstein has fought aggressively against both projects and seems likely to make his opposition a campaign issue in the 2015 campaign — although he doesn’t know yet who his opponents will be in that election.

Congressman Mike Kelly is up for re-election in November. The Republican from Butler has gained a national following in his two terms in Congress; no challenger for his seat has emerged yet.

Plenty of challengers have come forward for Gov. Tom Corbett’s job. Corbett also faces re-election in November.

The accounced retirements of state Rep. Dick Stevenson, R-8th District, and Sen. Bob Robbins, R-50th District, mean new leadership in their districts, which include parts of northwestern Butler County. Their combined 46 years’ legislative experience in Harrisburg will leave big shoes for their successors to fill.

In addition to Stevenson, all four remaining state representatives with jurisdiction in part of Butler County will face re-election in 2014: 10th District Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-Slippery Rock; 11th District Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Lyndora; 12th District Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry; and 64th District Rep. R. Lee James, R-Seneca. Noteworthy among them is Metcalfe, whose strident conservatism has captured the attention — and indignation — of state- and national-level Democrats.

Sen. Randy Vulokovich, whose 40th District includes southern Butler County, also faces election in 2014.

All told, 2014 is shaping up as a lively political season.