The top stories of 2023 in Butler County included the collapse of a teenage quarterback in Karns City, the potential sale of the Butler Area Sewer Authority and much more.

Recently, editors reviewed the news from the past year and identified 12 top stories from 2023.

They are summarized below:

Mason Martin collapsed Sept. 1 while playing quarterback for the Karns City Area Jr./Sr. High School Gremlins in the third quarter of a home game against Redbank Valley High School.

The senior was airlifted to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh with what was diagnosed as a brain injury and collapsed lung. He has undergone surgery and endured a meningitis infection.

During Mason’s recovery, his mother Stacy L. Martin, a nurse, died Oct. 15 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. Well over 100 people attended her funeral at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Fairview Township.

Using social media, his family posts updates on his recovery and rehabilitation at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Schools and communities across the county and surrounding area have shown support for the Martin family. Prayer vigils and a number of fundraisers have been held. “Mason Strong” signs decorate front yards throughout Butler County. Schools in the county adopted Karns City Area School District’s purple and gold colors as a sign of respect and support.

In a split 3-2 vote in November, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved the $230 million sale of the Butler Area Sewer Authority to Pennsylvania American Water.

The sale was set to close before the end of 2023 but is on hold because Center and Summit township supervisors filed an appeal with Commonwealth Court.

The appeal cites the recommendation from an administrative law judge that the PUC deny the sale due to the cost to authority customers as well as a court ruling from July 2023 that overturned a similar sale involving a Chester County sewer system. The court ruled the PUC “erred and/or abused its discretion” in July 2022 when it approved the $54.9 million sale of East Whiteland Township’s sewage system to Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater.

Proceeds of the sale of the sewer authority to Pennsylvania American would be split between Butler and Butler Township. Center and Summit township supervisors have contested the sale since Butler and Butler Township entered confidentiality agreements with the water company for negotiations. In addition to those municipalities, the sewer authority serves customers in Penn and Oakland townships and East Butler and Connoquenessing.

Former registered nurse Heather Pressdee, of Natrona Heights, has been linked to the deaths of at least 10 patients at two Butler County nursing homes and is accused of administering lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients at care facilities across Western Pennsylvania, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Pressdee is accused of killing four people at two Butler County nursing homes and is linked to the deaths of six others in charges filed between May and November.

She is accused of killing two people and attempting to kill four others at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Home in Butler Township, according to charges filed in November.

She was accused in May of killing two people at Quality Life Services in Donegal Township and mistreating another patient. Additional charges in November indicate she attempted to kill two others. Three others survived alleged insulin injections. Two showed signs of hypoglycemia.

In total, she is facing charges related to the alleged mistreatment of 22 patients at Butler, Westmoreland, Allegheny and Armstrong county nursing homes. Court documents indicate Pressdee admitted to harming, with intent to kill, the patients in a series of incidents between January 2020 and May 2023.

Charging documents indicate Pressdee worked at 12 facilities in Butler, Allegheny, Westmoreland and Armstrong counties between October 2018 and May 2023. She is accused of killing or attempting to kill patients at five of the locations.

Family of some of the deceased victims have filed lawsuits against the nursing homes.

Presdee remains in custody at Butler County Prison without bail.

Financial concerns mounted for Butler Health System as documents showed more money was lost in 2023 than in 2022.

The Butler Health System merged in 2023 with Excela Health of Greenburg, forming Independence Health System, but Butler Health still maintains its own financial books.

In November, the Butler portion of the health system reported an operating loss of $43.2 million for its fiscal year ending June 30. The loss is nearly double the $22.7 million loss from a year ago.

Butler’s loss means the five-hospital Independence Health System had a combined loss from operations of $79.3 million for the 12 months ending June 30. The red ink continued at Butler Health System in September, which saw an operating loss of $12.9 million, 30% higher than the $9.9 million loss the system had projected.

Expenses, fueled by higher labor costs, outpaced revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30. Operating revenue inched down less than 1% to $396.4 million for the year, while operating expenses rose 4.2% to $439.7 million, according to the health system report.

Independence includes Butler Health’s two hospitals — Butler Memorial Hospital and Clarion Hospital — and Excela’s three hospitals in Westmoreland County.

Since the merger, the hospital system has laid off at least 226 staff members, including 13 managers who were let go in March, just two months after the merger took effect.

Independence told bondholders the health system is negotiating with private insurers to increase reimbursement for medical services to keep pace with operating costs inflated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The talks were expected to yield higher payments to the system starting in January, according to the health system.

Highmark’s Blue Cross Blue Shield plans and UPMC Health Plan are among its biggest payers, making up 27% of patient revenue.

The East Butler Baseball Association has moved on since it was blocked in early August from using the ball fields it has maintained for more than 70 years in East Butler.

East Butler borough council ended the borough’s relationship with the association in December after the sides were not able to reach a contract agreement to use the borough’s ball fields, and the association moved its operation to fields in Prospect.

The borough owns the land, but the association built the multiple-field complex and has maintained it for more than 70 years.

Borough officials said the association has failed to provide the same level of documentation as other youth baseball associations in the county.

A former Butler Area School District board member, William Halle was sentenced Oct. 25 to serve 60 days in jail and house arrest, two days after his bond was modified for violating the no-contact order regarding a teenage girl.

Halle is accused of having intimate contact with a 17-year-old girl he employed and counseled at the Net Outreach Center in Butler.

Halle initially was placed on probation in June after violating a sexual violence protection order filed against him in April. The order was followed by criminal charges filed in May, in which city police accused Halle of having intimate contact with the girl, who is now 18.

No-contact orders were put in place for the civil and criminal cases. The Oct. 25 hearing before Judge William Robinson was in connection to the civil case.

In the April case, Halle was found guilty of indirect criminal contempt in June and sentenced to six months parole for that violation.

As a fallout from the case, Grace Youth and Family Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Halle, was closed and the summer feeding program for youths it operated for the city was canceled.

When the Penn Theater opened in 1938 in downtown Butler, it quickly became a popular venue for concerts, comedians, musicals and private events. After several decades as Main Street's movie destination, the Penn Theater closed its doors in May 1991.

The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation lent the Butler Redevelopment Authority $290,000 to buy the building in 2009.

On Nov. 10, 2022, the authority voted unanimously to accept a $65,000 offer from Bryan Frenchak to buy the building. At the same time, he donated $10,000 to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

Bryan and his wife, Marina Frenchak, invested about $1 million of their own money into the roughly $1.5 million renovation project.

The Frenchaks hosted a private event Nov. 18 to show a limited number of guests the progress of the renovation project.

The first public show since the work was completed was Dec. 22 when local theater company Hobnob Theater staged an interactive musical retelling of the Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Christmas Carol.” A New Year’s Eve party is planned to celebrate the theater’s renovation.

Seven Fields and Evans City borough councils voted in October to allow the municipalities to vote to dissolve the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department after 10 years of service.

On Dec. 11, Seven Fields approved a four-year contract for police services with the Northern Regional Police Department. Patrols in Seven Fields began Jan. 1. Based in Allegheny County, the regional department covers Pine, Marshall and Richland townships, and Bradford Woods.

Following the conclusion of talks between the departments, Evans City has been relying on state police as the dissolution concludes.

An electronic billboard with controversial messages that was put up in January along Route 422 in Summit Township drew a lot of attention and was the site of a suicide.

The billboard displayed a variety of messages including, “Whites are under attack stop it now!!”; “Stop teaching critical racist theory to our kids”; “God’s law ‘marriage’ one man-one woman”; and “God prohibits same sex marriage.”

In response, the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau placed 24 advertisements on other billboards in the area featuring a welcoming message.

Other billboards containing controversial material went up in Armstrong County, prompting the Armstrong County Democratic Committee to place an “inclusive” message about the county on another billboard. The committee’s message was removed after the landowner reportedly received death threats.

The death of a man who shot himself in the chest at the controversial billboard in Summit Township was ruled a suicide by the Butler County Coroner’s Office. The man was found dead near the intersection of Route 422 and Bonniebrook Road on Sept. 4.

A Nashville, Tenn., man convicted in the December 2020 murder of Butler County native Caitlyn Kaufman was sentenced March 29 to 25 years in prison.

DeVaunte Hill, 23, was convicted in January in Nashville of second-degree murder and received the maximum prison sentence.

A second suspect, James Cowan, 29, who was driving the car from which Hill fired at least six gunshots in the Dec. 3, 2020, road-rage incident that left Kaufman dead, was acquitted earlier by a jury following a four-day trial in Davidson County Court. The jury deliberated for two days before rendering verdicts for Hill and Cowan.

Kaufman, of Chicora, was 26. She was driving to St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville, where she worked as an intensive care nurse, when Hill shot her. She was found dead in her vehicle along Interstate 440 several hours after the shooting after she didn’t arrive for work.

Former Knoch Primary School principal Gregory G. Mandalas was charged May 23 with a misdemeanor charge of willingly failing to report suspected child abuse as a mandated reporter after state police investigated an August 2022 ChildLine report against his son, Matthew G. Mandalas.

Mandalas was placed on paid indefinite administrative leave from the primary school, and at a June meeting, the Knoch school board voted unanimously to approve Mandalas’ retirement. He had been the school’s principal for more than six years. The board hired a new principal July 12.

State police said the ChildLine report revealed a 6-year-old female said Matthew Mandalas touched her in an intimate area and then forced her to also touch him inappropriately, according to police.

Matthew Mandalas was charged with a felony charge of corruption of minors and a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault on Aug. 26, 2022. He was 19 years old and the girl was 5 years old at the time of the alleged incident.

Police said the girl’s parents contacted Gregory Mandalas about their daughter’s disclosure on several occasions throughout August. According to police, the parents reached out twice on Aug. 4 and four more times in August. Gregory Mandalas had knowledge of the alleged incident for 22 days and did not report it, police said.

County officials said they are pleased with the progress of the $4.2-million Marion Township sewer project even though it is behind schedule.

Work on the project started in the spring to provide sewage service to more than 100 homes and businesses in Boyers and was supposed to be finished by the end of the year.

County commissioners in December approved a no-cost, six-month extension of project engineering firm EADS Group’s contract from Jan. 17 this year to July 17, 2024.

The new treatment plant is 25% complete, but the project is behind schedule because of material delivery delays and the slow process of removing sludge from the lagoon of the old treatment plant, officials said.

The sewage collection system is 40% complete, and all materials and supplies including piping, tanks, grinder pumps and liners have been delivered. Installation of pipes and grinder pumps, which are parts of the collection system, is underway, officials said.

Funded with 2020 Community Development Block Grant funds, a competitive CDBG grant and supplemental CDBG funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020, the project is intended to replace Boyers’ antiquated sewer system.