WEST LIBERTY — With six successful terms as borough council president under his belt, Bill Buchanan still isn't your typical politician.

A retired mill operator, Buchanan has never posted a campaign sign. He's never accepted a dollar for his council duties. He offers nothing but compliments about his colleagues.

And he's a little on the shy side.

Buchanan, 66, admits he got into public service, “just to do my part,” and promised his wife Doris it would be a one-term commitment.

Some 300 council meetings later, he's retiring.

“That's long enough,” Buchanan said. “It's someone else's turn. ... Everybody should take a turn on council.”

Buchanan said he first joined council in 1987 to fill out another person's term. A year later, he became council president.

He accepted neither position for glory, recognition or power.

“I said, ‘Somebody's got to do it.' I told them I would take it if they could not get anybody else. They didn't, so I took it not knowing I'd be here 25 years later,” he said. “At the end of that first year (Doris) said, ‘It's hard to get people on council, maybe you should give it another term.' Next thing you know it's been six terms.”

West Liberty, an idyllic rural 4-square miles, has a population of fewer than 400 residents.

Buchanan said council recognizes that most folks have work and family obligations that make civic responsibilities cumbersome.

“It's hard to find people,” he said. “Even a small borough like this can involve an awful lot of work.”

Of the borough's 222 registered voters only 63 voted in the last municipal election in 2007. The tally climbed to 66 active voters in the last primary election, according to the Butler County Election Bureau.

Buchanan, at the time he joined council, was a full-time worker who never turned down overtime if it was available. His wife ran an in-home seamstress business, and together they raised three children.

Yet, still they both felt it was important to contribute to their community. Buchanan took the council job seriously, and Doris, who died in 2009, was the borough's auditor.

“This is a nice place to live,” said Buchanan, who can see the borough's four-room municipal building on Rhoer Road from his kitchen window. “I wanted to help keep it that way. In your town, things should be the way the people in your town want them.”

Through the years, Buchanan said council has been incredibly cooperative and congenial.

“Nobody is here to be the king or the big cheese or have all the power,” he said. “We talk things out and just about all of our votes are unanimous.”

Borough secretary Carrie Senge said complaints from residents “are almost unheard of.”

Senge attributed the community peace, in part, to council's easygoing style and to Buchanan's natural ability to mediate disagreements between neighbors.

“He has such a great sense of humor,” she said. “And he's always worried about the borough like in keeping taxes down for retired seniors.”

The borough, which has about 8 miles of roadways and no public water, sewerage or zoning, operates on an $80,000 annual budget.

On this particular day there were more wild turkey in a nearby field (eight) than mills on the tax roll (7.5).

“We run this whole town on what some people need to run their house,” Buchanan said. “We just pick what's important, and do our best to stretch every dollar.”

Council, for example, completed a comprehensive plan in 2006 at just $300. Comparatively, Buffalo Township paid $9,000 for its comprehensive plan in 2003.

But mandates that trickle down from larger government entities with no money to help implement them are one of Buchanan's biggest pet peeves.

“That really puts you in a pinch,” he said.

Buchanan officially resigned June 6. The same meeting was attended by two baby raccoons who'd found their way into the municipal building's furnace room.

Buchanan said he wants the free time to spend with his children and eight grandchildren, maybe travel and definitely play guitar.

“Classic rock, country, gospel ... a little bit of everything really, but just for my own entertainment,” he said of the hobby he's held since age 10.

And he's hoping his retirement will make way for fresh blood — particularly a young person — to step up and pave the way to the future.

Council plans to name a replacement on Monday. Buchanan, who also works part-time on the borough's road crew, said he'll continue to do that through the summer, “just to help out.”

Buchanan stresses he found his time on council fulfilling.

“I might be crazy for doing it. I don't know,” he said. “Money isn't everything, and I'd like to leave knowing that I contributed something good to my community.”