You know when you’re in Mars. The space — the downtown — feels different from anywhere else in Butler County, or anywhere at all for that matter.

The personality that downtown Mars exudes makes the municipality the ideal spot for community events like car cruises, the Mars Brew Fest or the upcoming Mars Applefest, but also a nice spot for a stroll down the street, shopping on a Saturday or a bite to eat.

Details like the spaceship in the heart of downtown make Mars immediately recognizable. We’ve complimented the borough before for the spaceship when we noted how the city of Butler recently added a Jeep statue to its downtown landscape.

Now, we want to compliment another nice detail added to Mars — a town clock.

A generous donation from the Rich-Mar Rotary and other local organizations allowed the new town clock to be installed near the spaceship, we reported in the Tuesday edition of the Eagle.

Mayor Gregg Hartung said the new clock is a replacement for the previous one that fell over about two years ago when the base had rusted and rotted.

One of the best parts of this news was reporting on the collaboration it took to bring the clock back.

The Rotary took the lead, and then Armstrong, the Mars Area History and Landmarks Society, Lectromat, Clocks Repaired by Jeff, Mars Bank (now NexTier Bank) and borough’s public works department contributed to the effort.

We applaud that collaborative effort, and hope to see ever more of it going into the future.

The clock is a beautiful addition to downtown Mars. Kudos to those who pay attention to the details in Mars. It makes a difference.

— TL

The new clock was installed in downtown Mars, with help from the Rich-Mar Rotary and other local companies. Submitted photo