Small municipalities can be close-knit. They can also be isolated from the kind of funding larger municipalities receive. Some also see a lack of candidates during election season.

In Harrisville, a town with about 802 residents, three incumbent candidates are running for council with a vacant seat left by former council president Eric Snyder.

No names are on the ballot in Bruin, where the population hovers around 423.

In Washington Township, another northern Butler County municipality, secretary Amy Cousins described both the area and the board of supervisors meetings as “pretty small and quiet.” Incumbent Jeff Holt is the only candidate on the ballot.

Bruin council president Wally Emery said finding people to run for council or work for the borough is a challenge.

“You can’t get anyone anymore,” he said. Emery said just he and another employee, who are both retired from their full-time jobs, work for the borough.

He said he has tried to encourage people to run for council without much success.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen down the road,” he said. “Everyone wants to sit down and complain, and nobody wants to help.”

Recruiting younger voices is also difficult.

Harrisville Mayor Gary Hughes said he tried to recruit a junior councilperson a few years ago who attended a local high school, but the arrangement with the student ultimately fell through.

“He maybe came to three meetings and didn’t follow up,” Hughes said.

The idea was to give the students some experience and minor responsibilities in local government. Depending on the student’s level of interest down the road, Hughes said he could have possibly been “bumped up” to a more active role.

“When it comes to fire departments, municipalities, elections, (younger people) leave it up to us older people,” Bruin Borough Council President Wally Emery said.

In Harrisville, getting people involved on council has been a challenge, Hughes said, due to tensions among council members and vacant seats left by past council members, and most recently, the former council president.

Hughes said he has brought up the question of running for office with members of the public who regularly attend council meetings, as well as locals from different churches around town, he said.

“A lot of people in this town would be fantastic on council,” Hughes said.

Hughes previously said he has worked with about six or seven secretaries, and several council presidents and solicitors. The turnover rate may be one of the things turning people away from running for council, he said.

“If you get the right three people in there as write-ins, things would settle down,” Hughes said.

Having more voices representing the borough could promote unity, he said, and make it easier for council to make sound, objective decisions around finances.

“If we could get a decent, levelheaded council, who knows where we would be in four or five years,” he said.

He also said he would like to see more women represented on council to break up “the good old boys club.”

Other challenges, like funding, are ongoing for small municipalities, no matter the season.

“I would like to see more funding to keep the roads and streets up to snuff,” Emery said. “Stuff is just expensive, and smaller municipalities can’t afford to get that much. You’ve got to work with the budget you have and make do and, later on, hope things get better.”

Emery said the struggle is felt by institutions within small municipalities including fire departments and ambulance services.

“We’d like more funding for our fire department,” Emery said.

Emery said little money comes into the borough compared to bigger municipalities. There aren’t many businesses in town, he said, and he expressed concern about the state of Bruin Elementary School, which closed in 2012 due to declining enrollment.

Where Bruin used to be populated by coal miners and workers from nearby oil refineries and strip mines, Emery said it is not what it used to be. There is a big disconnect between different generations moving in and out of Bruin, he said.

“We see people moving, and new ones coming in,” Emery said. “I don’t know half the people in town anymore. There’s people moving out, people coming in. It used to be that our town was full of older people, and they pass on.”

When it comes to “small town America,” Hughes said he would also like to one day see council working with a local solicitor “closer to home.” Many of council’s past solicitors have been based around Wexford, he said.

“You get to know your neighbors,” Hughes said about living in a smaller municipality. “You know people and what they do for a living, what they like, what they don’t like. You get to know the kids of people around town.”

Hughes has lived in Harrisville his entire life. He and his wife, councilperson Mary Ann Hughes, own and operate the Hughes Penn Gold Ice Cream shop that has been in his family since 1927.

“Things have changed,” Hughes said. “I wish I still knew everyone in town, and in recent years, a lot of people have been moving away due to jobs.”

When people come to council meetings, Hughes said he and other community members get the opportunity to get to know their neighbors better.

“Maybe you’ve seen their face, but you have no name, no job title to put it with until then,” he said.

In Callery borough, where three candidates for council are running uncontested for four four-year seats, council president Rose Marie Wirtz said there aren’t many challenges around election time, except for the ongoing efforts of budgeting for road maintenance.

She said she would like to see locals engage more with borough council. It could be helpful to residents if more of them came to a couple council meetings a year to familiarize themselves with their local government, she said. In a year, Wirtz, who has been on council for about 22 years, said she sees about two or three residents attend meetings.

“I feel like we’re doing things alright in (Callery),” she said. “Nobody’s coming to complain, but we would want people to sit and ask questions, and offer some suggestions.”