The new year is already shaping up as one that will contain a number of events that will impact Butler County far into the future.

They range from elections and the scheduled openings of businesses to school issues and a nationally promoted Jeep festival. Here is a look at some of those events.

Politics

Numerous seats for school boards, boroughs, and townships will be up for grabs in the primary and general elections.

Butler County commissioners posts also are on the ballot with one open seat since incumbent Jim Kennedy is not seeking re-election.

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State Sen. Jane Orie’s trial is expected to begin Feb. 7 on charges that she illegally used her legislative staff to do campaign work for herself and her sister, Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin. Orie was re-elected in November.

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Congressman-elect Mike Kelly of Butler will be sworn into office on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. He will be the first country resident to be in Congress in 30 years.

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The state Legislature this spring will redistrict every state House and Senate seat and all congressional seats.

This means parts of Butler County could get new representatives at the state and national levels.

Pennsylvania will lose one seat in Congress in the 2012 election, leaving the state with 18 U.S. House members.

Events

The U.S. Running Association has added Butler County to its 2010-11 half marathon series schedule. The Butler County Half Marathon will be April 17 in Zelienople.

The 13.12-mile race is expected to attract 500 to 700 runners. It is one of 30 half marathons in the USRA series.

A 5K and fun run will accompany the event.

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The Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau will host the first Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival in Butler, the birthplace of the Jeep, Aug. 12 to 14.

The festival will feature a parade in downtown, off-road trails for Jeeps, a Jeep marketplace and other events at the Butler Fairgrounds on Route 422.

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The Keystone Trails Association will have its fall state meeting Sept 30 to Oct. 2 at Camp Lutherlyn.

About 150 people from across the state are expected to attend and hike.

Business

After six years of planning, the 75-room Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites off Route 108 in Slippery Rock is expected to open in June.

The construction is being done by RBI Development in Pittsburgh.

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A new Butler Health System outpatient clinic in Slippery Rock is scheduled to open in April.

Also, a partnership between the health system and Drs. Kathryn Ryan and Tony Smaldino to be called South Butler Commons in Saxonburg, featuring doctors offices and outpatient facilities will open in May.

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The Centre City project in Butler, which proposes a hotel, events center and parking deck downtown, has a developer and feasibility studies are being done to determine if the city could support such a development.

One study produced favorable results for a hotel, though its size was not determined, and the events center study is ongoing. Should the events center study also be favorable, a final study would determine if a parking deck is feasible.

Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation announced in May its partnership with the city’s redevelopment authority on the project.

Courts/crime

A teenager who claims he accidentally killed a childhood friend with a 12-gauge shotgun will spend time in Butler County Court this year.

Eric Rutledge, 18, is charged with homicide in the Nov. 16 death Courtney Rose Daily, 18.

Daily, who was visiting from Colorado, was shot in Rutledge’s Seven Fields home.

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Butler Court officials hope to hold a homicide trial early this year for the former tattoo shop owner accused of killing a customer.

Although a date has not been set, lawyers are ready to present Kevin Edward Campbell’s case to a jury.

Campbell is accused of shooting and killing Shawn Michael Murphey, 24, on Christmas Eve 2008.

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Police continue to investigate the Nov. 24 death of a Seneca Valley High School math teacher.

Steven Russo, 48, was found dead at his rental home on Route 19 in Lancaster Township.

He died of a gunshot wound to the side of the head. The death was ruled a homicide.

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Superior Court rulings are expected to set the course for the prosecution of a Butler doctor accused of sexual abuse.

Dr. David Evanko, 57, faces two criminal court cases involving allegations that he inappropriately touched boys.

He’s accused of molesting a child he met through the Boy Scouts in the 1990s. The other case involves allegations related to two Summit Academy residents who Evanko treated for medical problems.

Both cases are awaiting trial, pending the outcome of separate appeals.

Education

The Karns City School Board will decide whether or not to consolidate the district’s three elementary schools in a vote that could occur in February or later.

The plan would close Bruin Elementary School and consolidate kindergarten through third grades at Chicora Elementary School and fourth through sixth grades at Sugarcreek Elementary School.

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The Freeport School Board will gather public input to determine how to move forward with its plan to close the junior high school, which was built in 1924.

School officials are scheduled to get cost estimates in January. The board also is scheduled to hear options for keeping junior and senior high school students separated.

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Butler County Community College will offer classes in new facilities beginning Jan. 18, the first day of the spring semester.

BC3’s building in Mercer County, BC3@Linden Point, will open for classes for the first time. In addition, BC3@Upper Allegheny will offer online and classroom studies to students in 11 counties that form the Education Consortium of the Upper Allegheny

Other

The state Department of Transportation will continue work on the Route 228/Interstate 79 ramp project.

The $18 million plan calls for construction of a northbound offramp and a southbound on ramp to the interstate, which will provide easier access from the interstate to the Seneca Valley School District. The project also will upgrade two existing ramps.

The project is expected to be done by November.

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Butler Township’s Preston Property Board will continue to deliberate what to do with the 90 acres on Eberhart Road left to the township by the late Jane Preston. She was the widow of Frank Preston, a founder of American Glass Research, known as AGR.

The property has several buildings, exotic plantings and an example of the Pennsylvania prairie. The property must be used for the recreation, according to Preston’s will.

Sports

Butler High School will hire a new football coach, most likely in January.

Coach Jim Rankin resigned after one season at the helm of the Golden Tornado, posting an 0-9 record.

Butler has had winless seasons in three of the past four years. The Tornado’s next head coach will be the program’s fourth in six years.

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Race car driver Brian Swartzlander will break the late Lou Blaney’s long-standing Modified feature win record at Lernerville Speedway with his first victory there this season.

The Leechburg driver of the No. 83 car tied Blaney’s division record of 69 career wins in August.

Lernerville’s season begins March 25.

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Slippery Rock High graduate Jence Rhoads is a potential WNBA draft pick when the professional women’s basketball league convenes for its annual draft in April.

Rhoads is in her senior season as a point guard at Vanderbilt University. She averaged 13.8 points, 5.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game and should reach 1,000 career points and 500 career assists this season.

Rhoads scored a Butler County record 2,170 points during her high school basketball career.

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Butler High graduate Meghan Schnur may be selected to play for the U.S. women’s national soccer team this summer.

Schnur is among the 42-player pool for consideration. She currently is not on the 24-player national roster.

The U.S. women’s team is ranked No. 1 in the world. The Women’s World Cup is June 26 through July 17 in Germany.