Slippery Rock council President Ron Steele is retiring from council after 16 years. He plans to remain active with the fire department, where he's been a member for more than 50 years.

SLIPPERY ROCK — Ron Steele sat back with a relaxed look on his face just before Christmas, only a few days after he led his last borough council.

After 16 years on council, 14 of which he was president, Steele was looking forward to a relaxing holiday week with family and time off from borough worries. But he left his post with a warning for those left behind.

"I told them I'd be back to keep an eye on them," the 68-year-old native said of his fellow council members.

Steele said he would continue with the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company, where he's been a member for more than 50 years.

Steele also will stay active on the board of Slippery Rock Development, an organization that has overseen the more than $7 million, two-phase renovation project downtown.

The first phase of improvements renovated Main Street and a second phase is almost complete on Franklin Street.

With the major downtown work largely done, Steele sees the time as right to step aside from the council.

He said his decision was helped along by the repetitive nature of the arguments that some residents have been bringing to the council, including about stormwater and other issues tied to housing for Slippery Rock University students.

With Steele on council, it denied approvals for four different developments and then it lost all four of the lawsuits that followed when the contractors sued the borough.

"I have feeling for the people who want to stop them, but if (the developers) follow the letter of the law, we have to allow them to build whether we like it or not," he said. "It's hard to deal with."

Another tough battle has been people telling him borough employees aren't doing their jobs. The opposite is true, Steele said, because the borough has hard working employees.

"You spend a lot of time doing that, defending them," he said.

He's also heard the police force is understaffed. It's an issue he worries about since he was a borough officer and then an SRU police officer for most of his career.

While the borough force has had five full-time officers, it's now down to four. Steele wanted to increase that number, but the budget has been tight the past few years.

Asked what he'll miss most, Steele says his fellow council members.

"One thing about this council, Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter," he said. "All seven of us work together. I'll miss working with them."

Steele's knowledge of borough operations will be missed by council members and borough employees, said Mayor Ken Harris.

"He is a formidable politician because of what he knows and what he remembers," said Harris.

Steele would often rattle off who owned what property and list a number of previous owners as well, said Harris. He remembered when issues came up previously and how council handled things in the past.

"That all turned out to be incredibly useful," Harris said. "That kind of expertise is hard to find."

New Councilmen David Miller and Blasé Tucci will begin in January to replace Steele and Gene Allison, who also is leaving council.