[naviga:h3]Parking garage built under budget[/naviga:h3]

The Centre City Parking Garage was completed well under budget, project manager Joe Saeler announced at Tuesday’s Butler City Council meeting.

Saeler said Tuesday that the project went over by $161.62 to Merritt Electric, but was $15,096 under budget with Thomas Construction and also was under budget with Reno Bros.

In all, the project was under budget by $20,250.

“I feel at this point in time you have a structurally sound parking garage,” Saeler said.

The parking garage is a four-floor, 239-space structure at the corner of McKean and Jefferson streets. It is part of the $13.2 million Centre City project, along with a 76-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel that is under construction next to it.

[naviga:h3]City gets grant; will use it for festival[/naviga:h3]

Butler Councilman Michael Walter announced at Tuesday’s meeting that the city has been awarded a grant for festival purposes.

The Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau awarded the city $5,000 to be used by Dec. 31. Walter said the money will be used for the Butler Italian Festival, which will be held Labor Day weekend.

“It was such an honor to receive that grant from the tourism bureau, because they understand that bringing in festivals to the downtown and community is beneficial,” Councilman Kenny Bonus said.

The festival will be held Sept. 1-4, and will include food vendors, music and activities for children.

[naviga:h3]Study: Few women hold top CEO jobs[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — Women CEOs earned big bucks last year, but there’s still very few of them running the world’s largest companies.

The median pay for a female CEO was $13.1 million last year, up 9 percent from 2015, according to an analysis by executive data firm Equilar and The Associated Press. By comparison, male CEOs earned $11.4 million, also up 9 percent.

But the number of women in CEO roles has barely budged. Just 6 percent of the top paid CEOs in the U.S. last year were women, according to the Equilar and AP analysis, a slight increase from about 5 percent in 2015 and 2014.

The highest paid woman was Virginia Rometty of International Business Machines Corp., bumping out Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer from the top spot.

Rometty earned $32.3 million last year from the technology company, a 63 percent jump from the year before, mainly due to $12.1 million in stock option awards. Mayer earned $27.4 million last year, making her the second-highest paid woman.

[naviga:h3]Lowe’s reports 1Q profits of $602M[/naviga:h3]

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe’s is reporting fiscal first-quarter profit of $602 million.

On a per-share basis, the Mooresville, N.C.-based company said it had profit of 70 cents. Earnings, adjusted to extinguish debt, came to $1.03 per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.07 per share.

Lowe’s expects full-year earnings to be $4.30 per share.