Butler Downtown celebrates year of progress
At their annual awards banquet on Wednesday night, Nov. 6, the economic revitalization nonprofit group Butler Downtown celebrated an eventful year for the city of Butler and honored some of the people and businesses that make the city’s main street special.
During the show, held at the historic Penn Theater on Main Street, the Butler Downtown group reflected on some of its accomplishments over the past 12 months. These include the construction of the full-scale Bantam Jeep sculpture project in June, as well as the success of events such as Sips in the City and Carved in Ice.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve gotten all of our committees revitalized again, and we’ve gotten things happening downtown and sparked other businesses and groups to do the same,” said Butler Downtown president Audrianna Bly.
During the presentation, Butler mayor Bob Dandoy came to the stage to express optimism about Butler’s future, and touted the recently-completed sale of the Butler Area Sewer Authority to Pennsylvania American Water. The sale of the municipal water authority, which officially closed last week, will provide over $100 million for the city, who split the proceeds evenly with Butler Township.
“We'll be able to do the things that, for a lot of years, we were unable to do because of financial restrictions and challenges,” Dandoy said. “Now we have the money.”
Specifically, Dandoy pointed toward improvements to city parking garages, sidewalks on Main Street, Father Marinaro Park, and the Farmers Market on South Chestnut Street.
“By investing in all of these various components that make up city life. what we're going to be able to do is make this city more attractive and more marketable,” Dandoy said. “We should be able to look at people and say, ‘Please invest in our downtown area. Come open your small business here.’”
Four awards were handed out on Wednesday night, with the first — Volunteer of the Year — going to Amanda Fleming, an executive assistant at Butler County Community College.
“This award is about all the amazing individuals I’ve had the privilege of working with over these past couple of years,” Fleming said. “Volunteering, to me, is always a group effort, and I have learned so much from all the dedicated and passionate volunteers in this organization. You are all wonderful and I am so blessed to know you.”
The second award, Small Business of the Year, went to Vintage Coffeehouse, opened by Peter and Angela Kupas in May 2022 after the couple sold their house and left their jobs to start their own business.
“We want to thank all the other Butler downtown businesses that make us successful by bringing people into town,” Peter Kupas said upon receiving the award. “Thank you to all of our customers. You guys are truly the lifeblood behind all of this, and we thank you so much for coming and supporting us and bringing this dream of ours to life.”
The third award, for Economic Impact, went to Belleville International, a steel component manufacturer located on East Cunningham Street. The company president and owner, Ralph Hardt, who took control of Belleville in 2022, was unable to attend, as he was in Abu Dhabi for a global energy conference. However, his wife, Carla, the director of administration, accepted the award and spoke on Ralph’s behalf.
“We have benefited from being in Butler County and in the city of Butler,” she said. “There are many resources here. You just need to reach out and use them.”
The fourth award was a special recognition for Totalus Cafe, a bubble tea cafe located on East Jefferson Street that also organized the Taste of Italy Crawl this August.
“It was pretty awesome,” said Kayla Fleming, a co-owner of the cafe. “I feel like it was a lot of hard work.”
