Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A new era of county commissioners is ready to get to work in Butler County as the five district leaders were sworn in last Tuesday night at the Greenville courthouse.

Many of the faces are familiar.

Joey Peavy will resume his role as commissioner over District 1. Jesse McWilliams will serve over District 2. Allin Whittle will be in charge of District 4, and Darrell Sanders will reside over District 5.

There was one new face, however, as Rebecca Butts was sworn in as District 3 commissioner, after she defeated the incumbent, Frank Hickman.

“I have a strong support system that has helped to guide me this far,” Butts said. “I’m excited about this new position. I know the hard work that these other four gentlemen put into the commission over their terms, and I just want to be able to carry that out as well.”

Joey Peavy is no new face to the area, as he has served as a commissioner in Butler County for many years. He was blunt when he talked about his plan for the next four years.

“There a lot of roads in the area that people need paved, and I’m here to say we won’t be able to pave them a lot of the time. There’s 550 miles of roads in the county, and some get different funding than others. We have to be transparent and tell people when some projects aren’t possible,” Peavy said.

“What really important is that we keep a balanced budget. I can say as District 1 Commissioner that we’ve balanced the budget every year since I’ve been in here. We have a great team on the financial end of things here in Butler County.”

Butler County appears to be in good hands, at least according to District 2 Jesse McWilliams.

“We’re going to have five people working together with a joint goal, and that’s to make Butler County the best it can be. The gasoline tax will not fix every road in this county, but it will help to fix some that have needed attention for the last 60 plus years. “