Saxonburg honors two departing council members
SAXONBURG — After approving the 2024 budget and with few other items on the agenda at their monthly meeting on Tuesday night, Dec. 19, the Saxonburg borough council took time to honor their two departing members, Carol Neubert and Patricia Rinebolt.
Both members, who have served a combined 46 years on the Saxonburg borough council, are retiring at the end of this year. Their seats will be occupied by Joyce Hutterer and Jason Goehring starting next month.
Each of the women was honored with a bouquet of flowers and a ceremonial plaque for their decades of service to the borough.
Neubert was first appointed to the Saxonburg borough council in May of 2010. Before that, she had decades of volunteer service under her belt for the borough as an ambulance driver starting in 1973 and as a member of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company starting in 1977. Neubert was the first woman ever accepted into the Saxonburg VFC.
“I’d be glad to stand up for this,” said Neubert, who is currently confined to a wheelchair. “It’s been an honor.”
Rinebolt has served on the borough council since August 1990 and has held the title of council vice president over a majority of that time, up to this year.
She was Saxonburg’s representative on numerous intermunicipal boards in Butler County, including the Butler County Council of Governments, the Butler County Boroughs Association (where she served as both president and vice president), and the Pennsylvania Borough Councils Association.
She also won numerous awards for her service, including the Pennsylvania State Association of Borough’s Board of Directors Award in 2011 for 30 or more years of service.
Both Neubert and Rinebolt were also noted for the years of volunteer work they gave to the now-defunct Saxonburg Festival of the Arts event.
Although Rinebolt is retiring, she said she will be part of Saxonburg even after she leaves the borough council.
“It has been an honor to serve as a representative,” Rinebolt said. “I hope you don't mind if I come and just sit here and observe some of your meetings, because I'm going to miss all of you.”
