The year just ending had continued signs of growth, but a confounding lack of progress in turning around a drug abuse problem that killed more than 60 people.

What follows is an overview of some important stories from 2016, and where they may be headed in 2017.

[naviga:h3]Opioid Crisis[/naviga:h3]

As the region's struggles with opioid overdoses and deaths continued to sharpen, Butler County officials began a campaign to increase community awareness and combat the stigma often associated with drug addiction.

The county's first event went off in late October and featured county, state and federal officials speaking about their personal trials with addiction, how law enforcement agencies are affected, and what state and federal officials are trying to do to combat the issue.

The second forum, on Dec. 8, featured law enforcement officials and medical experts from Butler Memorial Hospital, as well as recovering addicts who stepped forward to tell their own stories.

Statistically the county has set a new high water mark for overdose deaths involving drugs, according to Butler County Coroner William Young III. Young said that his office had confirmed 63 deaths from drug overdoses into December.

In 2013 the county reported 13 overdose-related deaths.

The crisis has spurred some addiction treatment organizations, such as The Gaiser Center, to kick off expansion plans of their own. In April the center presented plans to build an addiction center at their Old Plank Road facility. Executive Director Linda Franiewski said the expansion would allow for more services for female clients.

Looking ahead to 2017, the battle against the opioid crisis will continue, as the region rolls out a response plan developed by law enforcement and medical professionals throughout the region, who worked in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh to publish a report outlining recommendations.

Those recommendations include so-called “hard handoffs” and other initiatives to promote addicts receiving treatment services earlier, and providing more accessibility to addicts seeking services.

[naviga:h3]Continued growth[/naviga:h3]

Cranberry Township saw continued growth in 2016.

Major developments under construction included St. Killian Parish's new church on Franklin Road, Goodwill on Freedom Road, Woodspring Suites on Wisconsin Avenue and Marriott Towne Place on Clear Springs Drive.

In residential development, the township continued the recent trend of seeing more than 100 new units per year, including houses and apartment sites.

Other developments that received approval from the township supervisors in 2016 included Planet Fitness, Urban Air indoor trampoline park, a Cracker Barrel restaurant and Element Hotel, Best Western hotel, an expansion to Hope Lutheran Church, a #1 Cochran collision center, a Traditions of America senior living community, and other residential developments.

In the future, the township is poised for more major land development and infrastructure improvements, especially on the Route 228 corridor.

Construction is already under way on some of the developments planned for the second phase of the Village of Cranberry Woods, a development on 57 acres off Cranberry Woods Drive. The plans include townhomes and apartments, restaurants, offices, a hotel and other businesses. Adjacent to that property, a developer is proposing Laurel Pointe, a 157-unit residential development that would have access from Franklin Road.

Development also is continuing on the Cranberry Springs property north of Route 228, where a Firebirds Wood Fired Grill is under construction and another commercial building with multiple businesses was approved. They join the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, which opened in 2015.

The MSA Thruway, a planned tunnel that will carry vehicle and pedestrian traffic underneath Route 228 connecting Cranberry Woods to Cranberry Springs, is slated for construction in 2017.

[naviga:h3]Presidential election[/naviga:h3]

With a presidential election cycle dominating political news in 2016, Butler County voters attracted national attention and participated in a stunning electoral upset victory for Republican President-elect Donald Trump in November.

All of Butler County's 89 voting precincts went for Trump on Nov. 8. The Republican claimed 61,388 votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton's 26,834, turning in a commanding 66 percent to 29 percent victory. Trump won 1,627 more votes than GOP contender Mitt Romney did in 2012, and 4,314 more votes than Arizona Sen. John McCain did in 2008. President Barack Obama won both of those elections handily.

But the national attention Butler County received started well before the general election. Fox News visited Mac's Route 8 Cafe in Butler Township twice in 2016: once on April 26, for its coverage of the state's primary election, and again on Nov. 8 as it covered the contest between Trump and Clinton. In both instances the organization sought to speak with voters about the real estate mogul's improbable candidacy, and the support that would ultimately defy predictions that the state would ultimately turn out for the Democrat.

2016 was a bad year for another Democrat in Butler County as well: State Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10th. Gibbons, the county's only Democrat in the state House and Senate, was ultimately defeated by GOP challenger Aaron Bernstine, a Beaver County businessman and farmer.

While 2017's municipal election cycle is sure to be a quieter affair than this year's presidential election, there is still reason for Butler County voters to take notice and turn out. The election cycle will feature a crush of races to fill municipal and school boards.

[naviga:h3]Jackson development[/naviga:h3]

Business and residential development also continued to spread north of Cranberry into Jackson Township.

The board of supervisors approved preliminary plans for phases three and four of Jackson's Pointe, which will focus on retail. These include a restaurant and a hotel. Another development by Plunkett Motor Freight Rentals will install retail businesses on 42 acres near Route 528 and Interstate 79. Grading work has begun for both developments.

The long-awaited Fed-Ex distribution center on Tomlinson Road opened in August. It employs about 400 people.

A new intersection was created in the process, bringing Route 528, Tomlinson Road and Jo Deener Drive together, with the latter being readjusted. Developer Don Rodgers also plans on creating a business development near Route 19 on Little Creek Road. Although potential tenants have not been named, Rodgers said road improvements will be made to the area according to an agreement with the state Department of Transportation. One possible change would be a roundabout at Little Creek Road and Mercer Road.

A new Steamfitters trading school was created this year with a ceremony held in November. The ceremony was attended by Gov. Tom Wolf. The first classes will take place in January.

The state Department of Transportation completed its paving project for Route 528 — also known as Lindsay Road — in November. The project was a source of controversy due to a condition that the 10-ton weight limit be removed upon completion, allowing heavy trucks to use the road. Township officials, police, residents and officials from the Seneca Valley School District opposed the lifting of the weight limit as a safety issue.

[naviga:h3]Other development[/naviga:h3]

Other development, both real and planned, showed up in the Route 228 corridor in Adams and Middlesex townships.

In February, the state Department of Transportation rolled out a final, $24 million version of the upgrades to the stretch of Route 228 between Old Route 8 and the western side of Balls Bend.

The model is a compromise between the straight highway recommended by the state Department of Transportation and the online version preferred by residents.

The township planning commission and supervisors then began considering the best use for the new highway once it is complete. Work is expected to start in 2021. The planning commission decided an overlay district would be the best option.

Al Terek, the planning commission chairman, said in September that the overlay zoning is necessary because of the new configuration of Route 228 in the township.

Terek said the new highway would be mostly commercial, with retail and residential areas as well.

More than 60 residents in November heard the township supervisors approve an ordinance that would add commercial zoning to 59 properties along the new Route 228 alignment.

According to John Trant, the township's planning consultant, the property owners affected by the overlay zoning can pursue uses permitted in their existing zoning district, and the overlay zoning will be added to those properties.

The purpose of the overlay district, Trant said, is to allow commercial and office development while preserving the rural character of the township.

[naviga:h3]VA Butler Healthcare[/naviga:h3]

The project to construct a new VA Healthcare center in Center Township made significant strides in 2016 — as did parallel projects: one to create a special zoning overlay district around the facility, and another to rehabilitate land in Butler Township that was initially expected to host the center.

Center Township officials have moved to capitalize on the VA project. Supervisors voted in April to approve an economic resource overlay district that would permit a variety of professional and business developments on the northern and western sides of North Duffy Road, where the center is being built.

The township anticipates using nearly $5.3 million in Tax Increment Financing to finance road and sewer upgrades in that area. In Butler Township a project to rehabilitate the Deshon Woods property took a major step forward in September, when township commissioners approved rezoning the 21-acre parcel to permit general commercial use at the request of the group of investors who purchased the property in March at a sheriff's sale.

But the group, which suffered a significant loss with the recent death of spokesman Ted Cranmer, hasn't released any information on their search for a tenant for the property.

Meanwhile, the VA's new facility is still on track to be completed by July, and outpatient and specialty services are set to move there shortly after the $160 million, 168,000-square-foot facility opens.

VA officials say it will likely be much longer before they figure out what will be done with the system's current main building at its New Castle Road campus.

[naviga:h3]Worsley's fire[/naviga:h3]

A fire burned the historic Worsley's building in March, rendering the building uninhabitable for its apartment tenants and Mystique Moon Antiques & Artisans store owners.

No official cause of the fire was determined. The building, at the corner of Main and North streets, had housed the Worsley's, wallpaper, paint and furniture store from 1963 to 2014. The Worsley family, which owns the building, wanted to repair the building, but the cost was too high, so the building was demolished.

Property owner Lorraine Worsley said she is working with a real estate agent and has options to sell, including one prospective buyer who said they would need at least nine months before any purchase. However, Worsley said there is currently no timetable for selling the property.

[naviga:h3]City budget woes[/naviga:h3]

The city's finances have been said by all five council members to be in a difficult state. The size of the tax anticipation loan has trended upward in recent years, from $600,000 in 2010 to $750,000 in 2014, to $1 million in the 2017 budget.

While the council members don't always agree on how to save money, they do agree that changes need to be made. “The balanced budget is going to be more difficult next year,” Corey Roche said in November. “It's not an easy thing or a fun thing to do, but it's what we're faced with.”

Mayor Tom Donaldson said an added difficulty is that the city's expenses keep increasing. He pointed to union contracts, three of which are up for renewal this year, as wiggle room for saving money. “Whether it's through arbitration or through negotiation, I feel confident that we'll get some of what we need through the unions,” he said.

[naviga:h3]Anti-discrimination ordinance[/naviga:h3]

An anti-discrimination ordinance that includes LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and allied) rights was hotly debated for months at city council meetings. The ordinance, drafted by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, is in part meant to protect LGBTQA members of the community from employment and housing discrimination.

However, religious and business leaders spoke out against the ordinance for fear that certain wording would limit their religious and business freedoms.

Though the ordinance was debated by residents at council meetings from June through October, it has not yet reached council's agenda. Both sides still are meeting with members of council to agree on ordinance language.

“I knew it would take time but I'm still very hopeful,” Councilwoman Kathy Kline said. “Some wonderful conversation has taken place.”

The next meeting will be in January. Kline said there is no timetable for placing a proposed ordinance on council's agenda.

[naviga:h3]Gas well issue[/naviga:h3]

In April, Rex Energy announced that work to set up horizontal drilling at the six Geyer wells would begin immediately.

Work had stopped at the Geyer site for several months while a series of hearings before the Middlesex Township zoning hearing board took place. The hearings became necessary after five residents and two environmental groups filed an objection to an amendment to the township zoning code that determined where unconventional gas drilling operations could take place.

Work resumed after a Butler County court judge ruled in favor of the amendment.

In June, a county court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a number of property owners who felt that the parent group and environmental groups were infringing on their right to earn money from their land through Marcellus shale leases.

The residents and environmental groups appealed to Commonwealth Court the county judge's ruling to uphold the Middlesex zoning amendment. A panel of judges in Pittsburgh's Commonwealth Court heard testimony regarding the second appeal of the zoning amendment, which would allow various types of shale gas operations in much of the township.

Later in November, the Adams Township board of supervisors voted to approve the conditional use of three shale gas wells, known as the Wilson wells, at the intersection of Three Degree and List Hill roads.

Many residents of that neighborhood opposed the wells, but were satisfied after Rex Energy agreed to enhanced safety and air quality measures at the wells.

The next step for the development of shale gas in Middlesex Township will come when the three Commonwealth Court judges make their decision on the township's zoning amendment. It is not known when that that will happen.

Well development is ongoing at the Geyer site.

[naviga:h3]10 murals shine[/naviga:h3]

The Butler County Historical Society held a five-day Butler Brush-Up event in July.

The Walldogs, a group of muralists from across the world, came to the downtown area to paint 10 murals representing Butler's history on the walls of the city. Three were painted on panels and still need to be sponsored by businesses.

Society executive director Pat Collins, who was instrumental in bringing the Walldogs to Butler, said once all the murals are on walls, brochures for self-guided murals tours will be released. Collins also said history of the subject matter also will be available on the society's website in the coming months.

Eagle staff writers Aaron McKrell, Phillip Rau, Amerigo Allegretto, Joe Genco and Paula Grubbs contributed to this report.