Leaders in southeastern Butler County are preparing for future growth by working together now as development booms in the county’s southwestern communities.

Jefferson, Winfield, Clinton and Buffalo townships and Saxonburg borough formed the Southeast Butler Municipal Collaborative in late 2024. The group worked jointly on several initiatives throughout 2025.

Together, the municipalities are addressing shared challenges in the region and plan to continue their collaboration.

“Problems don’t start or stop at a municipal boundary; problems don’t start or stop at a county boundary or a PennDOT district boundary” said Mark Gordon, chief of economic development and planning for Butler County.

The group came together thanks to CID Associates president Scott Docherty, who viewed the corner as a “forgotten portion of Butler County,” according to Buffalo Township manager Rich Hill.

At first, the group pondered a multi-municipal comprehensive plan. It shifted away from the concept and toward mutual aid and collaborative efforts aimed at common goals.

Already, the group established a half-mill EMS tax within the member municipalities after learning of a need from the emergency medical service providers in the region.

Jerry Andree, a former Cranberry Township manager, and Chuck Lewis, Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company Ambulance Division president, worked to guide the collaborative through this effort.

“We’re glad to report that, I think, everybody has passed that. So we’re giving a half a mil to our EMS services,” Hill said, speaking at a December county commissioners’ meeting where a handful of the group members spoke.

And while no comprehensive plan formed between the members, Hill said Buffalo Township is actively pursuing a comprehensive plan with Freeport borough in Armstrong County, which has also effectively joined the collaborative.

Hill said the collaborative also met with PennDOT District 10 executive Brian Allen to discuss transportation issues. He added that Allen was planning to bring staff to a January meeting so the officials could have a “good discussion with their department about our needs.”

“Those are just some of the ideas,” Hill said. “In the future, things we would like to talk about possibly are recreation opportunities, maybe some shared service opportunities such as public works.”

Among those opportunities is the chance to widen Route 356, which runs through Buffalo, Winfield and Jefferson townships. An initiative aims to add a lane for the roughly 3-mile stretch between Routes 28 and 228.

Before wrapping up at its December meeting with the commissioners, the group made sure to advocate for that project.

“We’ve got 18,000 people who drive through Buffalo Township a day,” John Haven, a former Buffalo Township supervisor said. “I would like to start a dialogue with the county commissioners, the (Southwest Pennsylvania Commission) or whoever I have to at PennDOT to get that project extended because right now, it’s only half a mile.”

Haven said after the meeting that part of the collaborative’s role is being able to voice shared concerns as a group.

“Usually, with a higher entity, you go to a single person, and they might write it down,” Haven said. “That might be as far as it gets.

“But when you go as a collaborative, then they will listen to you.”

Hill added that inviting elected officials and organizational representatives to the collaborative’s meetings gives the municipalities a platform to use that unified voice.

“That way, we have five municipalities there talking to one person instead of each going individually,” Hill said. “That’s the thing I was looking for, bringing people in like that to talk to us and that we keep in contact with and we’re all together in one place.”

Former Jefferson Township Supervisor John Cypher said despite each township having its different problems and ways of solving them, there are a lot of similarities that the collaborative can work together on, including improvements to Route 356.

“When we (work together) as a whole, I think the progress and the thoughts are more aligned, then we’re going for the combined efforts in asking for grants and in having goals,” he said.

But being in the collaborative hasn’t just helped the municipalities voice their concerns upward. Representatives at the collaborative are able to use actions taken by other municipalities to advocate on certain issues.

“Last year, I tried to do the EMS tax in Winfield Township, and I got nowhere,” Winfield Township Supervisor Matt Klabnik said. “I think the fact that now we came out, and the Eagle covered that Jefferson did it, and Saxonburg did it, that sort of helps the case for me to go back to my board, and say ‘everybody else is doing it.’”

Haven also noted that the collaborative has further opened dialogue among the municipalities, which can help avoid tunnel vision when working on problems.

“We thought about just our little part of the world, (but) it’s a collaborative effort now,” he said.

While the dedicated EMS tax is one of the collaborative’s biggest accomplishments thus far, the group said another win was simply learning to work together. With that experience, the group hopes it will be able to take on larger projects.

“The last year and a half has been an opportunity for all of us to get to know one another,” Kathy Allen, former Clinton Township supervisor, said. “We have been working within a decentralized system, doing our own thing, then all of a sudden, we’re making that expansion.”

Looking to the future, Kathy Allen said the collaborative sees growth is likely coming and wants to be ahead of it.

“We do have an idea — or maybe we don’t — of what’s going to happen in five years, 10, 15,” she said. “The point being, growth will be here, and I think as municipalities, we need to be responsible and understanding, so that we continue to keep our citizens safe, we continue to have good traffic flow with improved roads, and it just goes on and on.”