In her comprehensive article on the borough council and township supervisor seats going unfilled in the county’s rural municipalities, Eagle reporter Irina Bucur detailed the dilemma this election season created by a lack of candidates.

Harrisville has one vacant seat, left by the former council president, that has no candidate. Bruin has no candidates on the ballot, and Callery and Washington Township’s candidates are all incumbents.

Wally Emery, Bruin council president, said younger people are leaving civic service positions like councilperson and volunteer firefighter “up to us older people.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen down the road,” Emery said. “Everyone wants to sit down and complain, and nobody wants to help.”

Harrisville Mayor Gary Hughes said he has tried to recruit younger people to run for borough council, but to no avail.

Rose Marie Wirtz, longtime Callery councilwoman, said she would like to see residents come to at least a few monthly council meetings per year to be more engaged with their council members.

Emery raises a valid point regarding the future of small, rural boroughs.

Unless younger adults begin to step up and put themselves out there as council candidates, small boroughs could find themselves without enough bodies to fill the chairs on the dais at council meetings.

In that case, the boroughs could perhaps be swallowed up by the townships in which they are located, but rural townships struggle financially to care for their own roads and residents.

In fact, maybe the idea of an official, elected council in a remote borough with an impossibly small population is now outdated.

Either way, residents of small-town America deserve the same benefits and opportunities as their counterparts in larger townships, cities or boroughs.

Maybe it’s time for Harrisburg to come up with a plan for the rural-candidate issue, as it is surely happening in many other counties across Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, the Eagle hopes individuals who appreciate their neighborhoods and communities will toss their hats into the ring in rural boroughs and townships to ensure all Butler County residents are being governed as they deserve.

— PG