- Joshua Goyette is arrested for the beating of an elderly woman inside her Saxonburg home

- A homeless woman is killed on Interstate 79 near Cranberry as she tries to retrieve her dead dog from the road

- A new bridge in Butler opens to traffic

- Four soldiers with ties to the Butler area die in combat

- Butler residents join the outcry over state legislators’ pay raises

- Saxonburg Area Authority expands sewer service to neighboring communities

- Cranberry continues to be the leader in new development in the county

- Butler Memorial Hospital’s plans to build a new hospital motivates opposing voices and forces a revised plan

- Middlesex Township supervisors disband the police department

The past year was the deadliest for area soldiers in Iraq since the war began March 20, 2003.One was killed in 2003, one in 2004 and four in 2005.The most recent was Sgt. Shawn A. Graham, 34, of Brazoria, Texas, who was a Grove City High School graduate. Graham, a member of the Army National Guard, 124th Calvary Regiment, 34th Infantry Division based in Fort Worth, Texas, died Sept. 25 in a Balad hospital where he was taken after the vehicle he was in accidentally rolled over in Baghdad.Sgt. Carl J. Morgain, 40, of Penn Township, a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment died May 22. He was sitting in the turret of a Humvee on security detail outside a police station. A suicide bomber pulled up and detonated an explosive-filled taxi. Morgain died in a hospital in Balad. He was a 1982 Knoch High School graduate.Sgt. Michael A. Marzano, 28, of Phoenix, formerly of Butler County, died May 7 when a suicide bomber's vehicle exploded during combat in Hadithah. Marzano, who later lived in Sharon and Greenville in Mercer County, volunteered to go to Iraq and was in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division. He attended Karns City School District schools from the 5th through 10th grades and graduated from Sharon High School in 1995.Marine Lance Cpl. Saeed Jafarkhani-Torshizi Jr., 24, of Slippery Rock died in a helicopter crash Jan. 26 about 220 miles west of Baghdad. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, Charley Company, and was in the front lines in the attack in Fallujah. He attended Moniteau schools and high school and college in Texas.On May 16, 2004, Spc. Carl F. Curran II, 22, of Union City, Erie County, drowned when a bomb exploded on a bridge and the Humvee he was in fell into a canal near Fallujah. He was with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard Battery C, 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery based in Oil City. He graduated from Karns City High School in 2000.On Nov. 9, 2003, Sgt. Nicholas A. Tomko, 24, of McKees Rocks, formerly of Butler, died when his Humvee was hit by mortar fire and missiles south of Baghdad. He was a member of the Army Reserves 307th Military Police Company from New Kensington.

SAXONBURG — The community was stunned this June by a brutal attack on a sleeping elderly woman in Saxonburg.News reports that suspect Joshua Goyette, 26, was arrested three days later brought relief to this traditionally quaint and quiet town.But those same reports also brought more disturbing details.Goyette — who police said had a history of "Peeping Tom-style activities" — earlier allegedly fondled two other women, ages 74 and 90, while burglarizing their Saxonburg apartments.Goyette, who moved back and forth from his mother's home in Saxonburg and his stepfather's house in New Bedford, Mass., was arrested in Massachusetts and brought back to Butler County where he will face trial.According to court records, Goyette confessed to the June 25 attack on 86-year-old Gertrude Johanson as well as the two sexual assaults.Johanson, who was beaten with her own crystal candlestick, suffered severe head and finger injuries and still is recovering.Among the charges Goyette is facing are attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal mischief.Goyette already has filed paperwork indicating that he may seek a mental health defense.Court records indicate Goyette already served six months in a Massachusetts prison for a 2004 burglary and stalking conviction there.<BR>

Traffic began using the finished portion of the new Gen. Richard Butler Bridge a week ahead of schedule Oct. 29, relieving drivers of having to use the detour they faced for 14 weeks.The old Main Street Viaduct, which carried Route 8 over the Connoquenessing Creek and railroad tracks below, was closed to traffic July 23. That weekend, it was open to pedestrians to take their last nostalgic walks across the span, built in 1917. The new bridge will be the fifth over the valley since Butler was settled, according to the state Department of Transportation.Butler businessman Al Worsley took the last official walk across it the following Monday morning before demolition began.For the next 14 weeks, traffic was detoured to Hansen Avenue and the Picklegate Crossing. But the nightmare of traffic jams many people expected didn't turn out to be so bad.The contractor, the Joseph B. Fay Co., began work on the new $23.1 million four-lane bridge with a groundbreaking June 8, 2004.The bridge is being built in two sections, separated by a barrier. Traffic in both directions began using the northbound side when it was finished Oct. 29. The bridge is scheduled for completion in November.Traffic studies show an average of 22,000 vehicles use the bridge each day. The new bridge is expected to last 100 years, and the deck about 30, according to PennDOT.On July 14, Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill sponsored by state Sen. Mary Jo White, R-21st, to name the new span the Gen. Richard Butler Bridge to honor the Revolutionary War hero for whom the city and county are named.

An act passed by state legislators on Independence Day 2004 that was meant to spell property tax relief for Pennsylvania property owners turned into a major controversy in 2005.Act 72 was designed to use revenue from slot machines to provide that relief.The act also mandates that voters can vote on significant property tax increases.But, a May 30 deadline to opt into or out of the program so upset officials in the Mars School District that they initiated two lawsuits to have the deadline extended.The district also questioned whether the money to fund the program would be available since the law allowing slots also was being challenged.Various other school districts in the county joined the lawsuits to delay implementation of Act 72.Seneca Valley was the first district in the county to opt out of Act 72, on April 11. Mars and South Butler opted out in early May, and Butler, Karns City, Moniteau and Slippery Rock opted out on May 23. Statewide, only 111 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts opted to participate in Act 72.Gov. Ed Rendell suggested in September that the act be mandatory for school districts.

Voters irate over a middle of the night pay raise for state legislators, executive branch officials and state judges proved the power of the ballot box in November.For the first time, voters rejected a judge seeking retention, and in so doing showed their anger with Harrisburg lawmakers who approved the 16 percent to 54 percent pay hikes on July 7.Eight days after Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro was turned out of office, the Legislature agreed on a bill that repealed the pay raises. Gov. Ed Rendell wasted no time signing the bill into law Nov. 16.The action sealed victory for pay raise critics across the commonwealth who claimed the legislators' action during the summer was proof of rampant greed and arrogance at the state capital.Some lawmakers, however, joined with critics. Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County's 12th District, was among the most vocal legislators blasting the pay raise.Metcalfe in August quit the Commonwealth Caucus, a group of lawmakers formed to support conservative causes, over his objection to the caucus chairman's support of the pay raise.He later signed onto separate bills that would repeal both the pay raise and so-called "unvouchered expenses," a loophole in the measure that allowed lawmakers to immediately receive their salary hikes instead of waiting until the next term in office as the state constitution mandates.When House leaders bottled up the bills in committee, Metcalfe proposed the seldom-used discharge petition to force the bills to the floor for a vote.The only legislators among Butler County's contingent to vote in July for the pay raises were Sen. Bob Robbins, R-50th; and Rep. Frank LaGrotta, D-10th.But Robbins and LaGrotta by Nov. 16 had gotten the message of an outraged public and joined with all but one House member who voted to repeal the pay raises. The Senate voted unanimously for the repeal.

The saga that is Butler Memorial Hospital's future continued to slog on in 2005, initially to good news that a federal Veterans Affairs committee thought it would be a good idea to combine the Butler VA Medical Center and BMH campuses on the VA's Butler Township site.That prompted the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center and BMH to begin studying if a marriage of the two would work and how it would work.By the end of 2005, these plans were on hold as the hospital's administration explores what it is calling "the third option." This option would split off the hospital's outpatient services to a new facility on Benbrook Road, while retaining emergency inpatient medical services at the current hospital.In January, the hospital announced the results of a study conducted by the Hammes Co., which concluded that the board's decision to build a new hospital on a new site was the correct decision for BMH.In April and May, a vocal new group formed to oppose the hospital board's plans. Save Our Hospital gathered more than 10,000 signatures from Butler County residents who asked for better communication from the hospital to the community on the hospital's future.Meanwhile, construction on an ambulatory surgery center began on Benbrook Road. The center is owned by 11 area doctors andthe hospital, andshould be open in early 2006.In August, Dr. Philip Lenko sued the hospital for access to documents about the hospital's future. Lenko later agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement to see the paperwork.In October, Dr. Joseph Nour, who has developed the county's first pain management clinic, also sued the hospital so that he could install a private line to his hospital-based practice. He was denied such a line after he told the hospital he was ending his in-house practice in April 2006.He is instead building a private office in the same Benbrook Road medical complex where the ambulatory surgical center is located, and where BMH has since bought an additional 11 acres.Nour received a court order for the telephone line, but sued the hospital again on Dec. 16 for interference to his business and for slander. Tom King, one of the hospital's lawyers, said that Nour's accusations are untrue.

MIDDLESEX TWP — Residents in this rural community found themselves without their own police department by the end of 2005.Residents packed a supervisors meeting in January to support police after Sgt. Randy Reudiger circulated a petition to "retain the full complement of officers" in the seven-man, full-time police force. Reudiger did so after supervisors told him they might reduce the number of officers to four, or even disband the police department to pay for repairs to the township's badly deteriorating 60 miles of roadway.More than 250 residents packed the February supervisors meeting to support police.In March, supervisors voted to study the possibility of regional police consolidation and to form a citizens advisory committee on township finances. It also accepted the resignation of the township manager and, in May, voted to eliminate the police chief position.In August, a financial advisory committee reported that the police department needed to be cut so the township could afford to fix its roads.Under strenuous public opposition, the police force was eliminated at a special supervisors meeting on Dec. 1. Middlesex Township will now rely on state police for protection.

Melissa Dawn Cralton, 23, of Morgantown, W. Va., faces 1 to 7 years in prison if convicted of a June 24 hit-and-run crash that killed a homeless woman in Cranberry Township.Cralton, a West Virginia University nursing student, allegedly struck and killed Cheryl McKinney, 47, between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on Interstate 79 southbound next to a weigh station just north of the exit onto Route 228. McKinney and her husband Howard, 50, were living in their car and had stopped at the weigh station overnight.Around 4 a.m., Cheryl discovered their basset hound, Rocky, had been hit by a car. She was recovering the dog's body on Interstate 79 when she was hit by a vehicle that police later said was Cralton's 2001 Chevrolet Impala. District Judge Pete Shaffer on Aug. 7 issued a warrant for Cralton's arrest. Police charged her with the third-degree felony charge of accidents involving death or personal injury, along with three traffic offenses.A pending criminal case in West Virginia has delayed Cralton's extradition to Butler County to face those charges.Cralton is in the North Central Regional Jail in Greenwood, W.Va., where she's been held on $5,000 bond since July 20 when she was arrested for allegedly selling heroin in Morgantown.She faces trial in Monongalia County Court on a felony charge of delivery of a controlled substance.West Virginia authorities have told authorities here they won't turn over Cralton until her criminal case in West Virginia is resolved, said Butler County First Assistant District Attorney Randa Clark.

The Saxonburg Area Authority moved forward with its more than $50 million sewage treatment expansion project, which will add residents of Middlesex and Penn townships to its system.Once the preliminary design was completed, the authority began acquiring the necessary rights of way.While many residents negotiated with the authority on the location of lines on their properties, some challenged the plan, causing the authority to condemn nearly 900 parcels.Although future customers living in Penn and Middlesex townships faced a total of $7,000 to $8,000 in hookup costs, both townships attempted to help residents with limited incomes pay for the fees through federal grant money.Bids for the project came in over budget by $8 million, setting the total cost at $52.5 million. However, the authority successfully obtained more state loan money, which now totals $34.4 million.The rest of the cost will be paid by about $13 million in tap-in fees and a bond issue.The project includes the construction of 85 miles of sewer lines, five pump stations and a new wastewater treatment plant capable of processing more than 2 million gallons a day.Already servicing 1,125 customers in Saxonburg, Jefferson and Clinton townships, the expanded system would increase to more than 3,750 customers.Construction is scheduled to begin this spring and last 14 months.

Cranberry Township’s continued growth didn’t slow in 2005, and in fact broke an all-time record with more than $100 million in construction value.The year’s development activity broke the previous record by more than $20 million. And next year, could approach the $100-million mark with the recent approval of the largest development in the township’s history — Park Place.The supervisors in December approved the first phase of the traditional neighborhood development, which will also include six urban parks and two community centers to complement 54 acres of open space on the 199 acres along Rochester and Powell roads near the new Graham Park.When the development is completed, it will have nearly 800 housing units.The traditional housing designs are patterned after neighborhoods in pre-World War II communities and borrow many of their designs from communities such as Zelienople, Harmony and Sewickley, Allegheny County.While that development awaits groundbreaking, several other projects, including the long-awaited Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA, broke ground this year.The $13.5 million facility will be located at Ehrman Road and Route 19, across from the Butler Auto Auction. Preparation work on the 20-acre site has already begun, with construction expected to take 14 months to complete. The 80,700-square-foot facility is projected to open in January 2007.Farther south on Route 19, the first major renovation to the Cranberry Mall since it was built by J.J. Gumberg Co. in the 1980s kicked off earlier this year. The mall was built in three distinct phases. Phase I was opened in 1980, Phase II and III opened in 1988.The renovations will result in the complete restyling of the mall into a contemporary shopping environment, company officials said.

The year just ended had other stories besides the ones offered elsewhere on these pages.The impact of the following stories ranged from the individual to whole communities.- Jan. 13: A Jackson Township woman and her children are winners of the $171 million Powerball jackpot. Florence Ayers, of Oak Hill Drive and her children, James Ayers of Mars and Sharon Kreindel of Beachwood, Ohio, bought the computer generated ticket at a New Castle grocery store.And the Ayers family wasn’t the only one to win big in 2005. Bob and Patty MacZura of Cranberry Township were presented with their $10 million lottery winnings from a ticket sold in Marshall Township, Allegheny County, in March. And in October, seven employees from National City Bank’s South Side office won second place in a record-setting Powerball drawing, splitting $853,492.- April 28: Slippery Rock University breaks ground on a $110 million housing project, which includes the demolition of six dormitories and the construction of at least four buildings. The project, managed by the SRU Foundation, is on the fast track for completion, with students expected to move in as soon as Fall 2006.- May 29: County commissioners reveal that the cost of the new county prison — initially estimated to cost $30 million — jumped to $39.5 million. Commissioners blamed the nearly $10 million increase on the demolition of the prison annex and the purchase and demolition of the Craftsman-Ziegler Printing building, and the relocation of utility lines.- July: The city’s West End Revitalization project, already three years old, creeps forward when the Community Development Corporation of Butler County buys the 43-acre Trinity Industries property on Hanson Avenue. Later in the month, demolition contractors began razing 700,000 square feet of the buildings on the property. Maggie Stock, who would be elected mayor of Butler in November, ran on the platform of continuing the revitalization projects.- Aug. 25: More than four months after finding the body of Anthony “Tony” Back on the side of the road in Perry Township, Clarion County, police arrest a Parker man in connection with the death. Jesse McFadden, 20, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy of criminal homicide in the killing.- Aug. 29: A plane that flew over Niagara Falls for a wedding proposal crashes in Lake Erie. The plane’s pilot, James Regal, 23, of Franklin Township, and the two passengers, Kevin Jesteadt, 24, formerly of Franklin Township, and his girlfriend, Lindsey Myers, 23, of Venango County, died in the crash. Both Regal and Jesteadt graduated from Slippery Rock High School in 2000.- October: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, county residents open their hearts and their homes to victims of the devastating storm. Families opened up their homes to relatives left homeless from the storm, while a group of volunteers rescued dogs and cats from Louisiana. National Guard Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry, also aided hurricane victims. The reservists, who returned home Oct. 6, were stationed in Hammond, La.- Oct. 11: Citizens National Bank of Evans City unveils a new name and logo — Nextier Bank — to more than 250 employees. The change is the result of more than four years of legal battling between Nextier and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. In 2001, Citizens National sued Citizens Bank for trademark infringement when the latter bank bought out the Mellon Bank chain and renamed it Citizens Bank.- Oct. 19: After a three-month search, the Moniteau School Board names Trudy Peterman superintendent. Peterman, of Johnstown, replaced former superintendent Michael Panza, who left the district in July. Peterman, who served as assistant superintendent in the Greater Johnstown School District for a year, started Nov. 14.- Nov. 9: Democrat Maggie Stock is elected mayor, defeating her Republican opponent Drusilla Rensel by nearly 1,000 votes. Stock, who got 1,667 votes, replaces outgoing Mayor Leonard Pintell. A professor at Butler County Community College, Stock said she supports the continuation of revitalization projects in the city, including the West End plan.- Nov. 9: District Attorney Tim McCune wins the seat on the bench as the newly created sixth judge in Butler County Court. McCune was unopposed for the position. Serving as district attorney nine years over three terms, McCune will begin service this month.