As 2022 enters the homestretch and we accelerate toward 2023, our newsroom looked at what it takes now to build a life here in Butler County. Brick by brick, article by article, this special edition came together inside today’s Eagle.

For what we call our “Progress” edition of the newspaper, our team dove into a few of the many factors that contribute to how and why people choose to live here. We looked at what matters to our residents in relation to education, housing, government, recreation and business.

Our journalists tell the stories of three families who chose Butler County as their home. We profiled families in Saxonburg, Cranberry Township and North Washington. We asked Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy to write a column sharing his thoughts on life in Butler. And we wrote about what it’s like for Gary Hughes, who juggles the responsibilities of being both a business owner and the mayor of Harrisville.

Other articles cover what it’s like to buy a house in this market, how school districts are adjusting to fluctuating populations and how municipal governments are working to improve recreation and more within their borders. There are real challenges people are working hard to overcome and real progress being made in regard to quality of life here. (Just look at how our park systems across the county continue to grow.)

So why call it the “Progress” edition? It’s all about how progress is being made in Butler County.

In 2020, we looked at how the county business and health care communities were fighting through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And last October, we highlighted workers employed in a variety of local industries.

It made sense this year to look at life in the county as a whole, to ask a few people “why live in Butler County?” and to ask our leadership “what makes the county a good place to live?”

So, what does it take to build a life here?

Flip to the special “Progress” section of today’s paper — located within this edition of the Butler Eagle — and find out.

—TL