Former county commissioner Jim Green dies
SLIPPERY ROCK — Jim Green, former Butler County Commissioner and state representative, has died.
The longtime county political official died Monday at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was 80 years old.
Green was involved in elected and appointed offices since the early 1950s.
He was elected as a county commissioner in 1959 at the age of 29, the youngest in the state. He was re-elected in 1963 and 1967, serving 12 years as commissioner.
In 1965, when he was chairman of the commissioners, Green successfully pushed for the start of Butler County Community College despite public displeasure with the project.
And in the 1970s, he also successfully pushed for the Butler County Communications Center, the first 911 center in Pennsylvania.
In 1974, he defeated long time Republican Rep. Francis Kennedy for a seat in the state house. In 1976, he was appointed as the Butler County superintendent of highways and in 1978, he was appointed as the deputy secretary of state.
He ran for county commissioner again in 1979 and won. He was re-elected three times.
In total, he served seven terms, 28 years, as a county commissioner.
Although he planned to retire from politics in 1995, he was back in 1998, running for Slippery Rock borough council at the age of 67.
At the time of his death, he was running for re-election in Slippery Rock, having won a spot in the Democratic primary.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Smith Funeral Home in Slippery Rock.