SLIPPERY ROCK — Borough council is losing two familiar faces.

Longtime councilmen Jerry Heller and Royce Lorentz declined to run for new terms and their tenures on council will end this month.

Lorentz, a retired Slippery Rock University business professor, joined council in 1994.

“After 20 years or so, I think that there are maybe some things I should be doing for myself,” Lorentz said in an interview.

He said that serving on the council could be tough. He said he sometimes would have an idea that he thought was good, but others might disagree and there would be disappointment as a result.

“It’s always a mixed bag,” Lorentz said.

Not that borough politics are terrible.

“I think we’re clearly ahead of Washington, D.C.,” Lorentz said.

One thing he liked doing was researching different issues and working up proposals for other council members who may have been too busy to be able to spend a lot of time doing research.

He also worked on improving recycling and writing grants.

“I find that to be fairly enjoyable,” Lorentz said.

Heller, a retired superintendent for the Slippery Rock School District who started on council in 1998, thanked Lorentz for encouraging him to run for office.

“I have found the experience to be very rewarding,” Heller said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

He also thanked Councilman Ron Steele for tutoring him on how to act like a council member.

Heller said the highlight of his time on council was the opportunity to work with Jim Green, a councilman and former Butler County commissioner and state representative who died in 2011.

“He was quite a treasure for this community,” Heller said.

He said that the borough is small, and everyone on council and in the public are neighbors. He said that there are controversial issues that come up from time to time, and council members do disagree with each other sometimes.

“But, we don’t have to be mean to each other,” Heller said.

He hoped that the new members can help the council run as smoothly as possible.

“Bring some civility to the meeting,” Heller said.

Lorentz and Heller will be replaced by Ken Harris, who currently is the mayor and chose to run for council, and newcomer Regina Greenwald.

Ron Fodor will be the new mayor, having run unopposed in the November election.

Harris on Tuesday presented the outgoing council members with certificates acknowledging their service.

“We will miss them,” Harris said.

He noted that, between the two of them, they have 36 years of experience on council.

“That’s astonishing,” Harris said.