Prospect Mayor Jim Butler enjoys being involved with the community and working to improve things for residents. He took office in 2002 after being elected by a single write-in vote cast by his wife. He has continued to serve the public ever since, spending up to 400 hours at the job each year.

Butler County residents living in its 23 borough's just elected mayors earlier this month.

Although mayors, who have four-year terms, are not allowed to participate in council votes, they are permitted to be a tie-breaking vote. They also supervise the police departments and are allowed to officiate weddings.

Here are what several borough mayors in the county think about their positions.

Jim Butler became the mayor of Prospect with only one vote.In the general election in November 2001, no one was running for mayor. So, Butler's wife put his name in as a write-in candidate. He said he was shocked to discover that he was the only person anyone voted for.He took the oath of office in January 2002 and has been mayor ever since, finding that he likes being involved in the community and working to move it forward.“That's really what implored me to keep running for re-election,” Butler said. “You're pretty much the figurehead of the community.”He said he puts about 350 to 400 hours into the position every year, but he said that only includes the big items.Prospect is a town of only 1,200. Butler talks to residents at community events and in places like grocery stores, but he said he has a relatively low profile.Butler does get phone calls during the middle of the night sometimes, usually during heavy snow in the winter from people who are snowed in. These late calls do not make him angry.“That comes with the position,” Butler said.

Cathy Rape has served as mayor of Harmony for five terms now, and sat on the borough's planning commission long before that.She's been involved in local service in Harmony for as long as she can remember. And she wouldn't have it any other way.“It's not that I want to be mayor because it's something prestigious,” Rape said. “I like to help people and see what their problems are.”Rape said her mayoral duties don't complicate her life much, being that she only spends an hour or two per week on official business.And being a mayor certainly isn't even close to a full-time job. Rape works at Penn Power full time and has done so for her entire tenure as mayor.But just because being mayor isn't a full-time job doesn't mean Rape isn't fully invested.The most important part of her job, she said, is interacting with people, like the time several years ago when Harmony experienced severe flooding and Rape was in the middle of relief efforts.“It started out at first as me being a taxpayer and wanting to be involved,” she said about being mayor. “But sometimes people have problems, and it's nice to help them be able to solve them.”

While Evans City Mayor Dean Zinkhann is winding up the one-year term he was appointed to after longtime mayor Gary Foster resigned for health reasons, he ran uncontested in this month's elections. Zinkhann's four-year term will begin at the first of the year.While he has a year's experience at being mayor, his focus has not changed.“I try to make myself available, and I try to answer residents' concerns or complaints,” Zinkhann said.Zinkhann figures he spends about eight hours per week on mayoral duties, which includes the stacks of papers he must sign for police Chief Joe McCombs.He enjoys the contact he has with residents at local restaurants, the drugstore, gas station, or other venues.“I get a lot of that,” Zinkhann said of residents stopping him to share their concerns. “That's where I hear a lot of complaints and concerns, out at breakfast or at the grocery store.”Zinkhann said it seems that people expect more from small-town mayors than their big-city counterparts.“Being from a small town, everyone knows each other,” he said.Regarding his start as the new mayor in January, Zinkhann said he was grateful to receive training from Foster.“He was my trainer and mentor,” Zinkhann said. “He had 23 years working with the people in the town.”

Zelienople Mayor Tom Oliverio has spent a good part of his life in public service. He was just re-elected a couple weeks ago to another four years.He has been the borough's mayor almost since 1990, only taking a term off from 1994-98 to run for district judge. Before being the mayor, he served on the borough council for 12 years.“People here look to me if they have any complaints,” said Oliverio, who tries to get them resolved or pass those concerns on to the borough council.Like other mayors in the county, Oliverio is responsible for the police department, making sure it stays within its budget and making sure officers are well trained, well educated and up to date with all of their state requirements.And, during his tenure as mayor, he has married about 75 couples.“I really enjoy being the mayor,” said Oliverio, who said the borough residents are great and the people who he works with on council have been fantastic.

East Butler Mayor Richard Day has been on the job for 20 years.Day, 90, said he has remained in the post because he enjoys the work and believes it's a necessary role in the borough.“It's a job somebody has to do,” he said.Day's duties include signing checks. The borough employs a secretary, a small maintenance crew and a zoning officer.The mayor fields calls and gets visits at his home from residents concerned about an issue. He mainly gets stopped by people who want to talk along the street.Day said he tries to address every complaint a resident might have.

Ron Fodor only was elected as Slippery Rock mayor last week and has not even been inaugurated yet, but he already has been getting calls from residents.Since he ran unopposed in the general election, he has been getting calls for a few months now. This is not a problem for him, since he wants to hear from residents and get plenty of ideas.“I enjoy that,” Fodor said.He is active in the community, having served on the borough's planning commission, its zoning hearing board and the Slippery Rock Park board. He also served as a borough councilman in the late 1980s.“It's not like I'm walking in without an idea of what I'm getting into,” Fodor said.He recently was invited to a workshop for new mayors. He plans to attend this and others, saying it is a good idea to talk to other municipal officials.“I want to attend anything I can possibly attend,” Fodor said. “There's always something to learn.”Eagle staff writers John Bojarski, Paula Grubbs, Bob Schultz, Jared Stonesifer and Tom Victoria contributed to this report.

Evans City Mayor Dean Zinkhann at the Borough building.