Chicora — The Chicora Medical Center has been accepted to the Eden Alternative's Registry, an international support network for change in nursing homes.

The homes on the Eden Registry are available as role models for other organizations seeking culture change. There are only about 200 Eden Alternative homes in the world, and Chicora Medical Center is the only nursing home in Butler County.

Culture change is the transformation of a medical, institutional, task-oriented model of a nursing home to a person-directed human place where individuals are encouraged to grow and mature.

The Eden Alternative is an international not-for-profit organization based on the belief that aging is a continued stage of growth and development.

Butler County Chamber of Commerce members recently elected the 2011 board of directors.They are: Nicholas Neupauer, president Butler County Community College, chairman; Joe Taylor, Armstrong, first vice chairman; Tammy Schuey, Butler Eagle, second vice chairwoman; Sherry Kyne, Eisler Nurseries, treasurer; and Brenda Lemmon, Minuteman Press, immediate past chairwoman.The chamber welcomes these new members to the board: Elisabeth Howard Sommers, C.W. Howard Insurance Agency in Butler; Brett Ligo, Ligo Architects in Slippery Rock; and Janice Pakozdi-Luffy, Bear Metallurgical in Butler.

HERMITAGE — F.N.B. Corp. and Comm Bancorp in Clarks Summit have received regulatory approval of their merger.Office of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking have approved merging Community Bank and Trust into First National Bank of Pennsylvania. The merger will close on Jan. 1F.N.B. has branch offices in Butler County.Community Bank and Trust has branches in the Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.F.N.B. also announced the retirement of Peter Mortensen, longtime board member. He has been associated with the bank for more than 50 years. His term expires in May.

PITTSBURGH — Colcom Foundation has established a $1 million Marcellus Shale Environmental Fund to deal the environmental impact of shale drilling in Western Pennsylvania.The fund will address drilling issues through public education, community engagement, best practices, baseline data collection, ongoing monitoring, land owner guidance and collaborative projects.Grants for such programs will be made at the discretion of the foundation's board of directors. Applications will be accepted until Jan. 14 for grants to be awarded in February, and will be accepted until March 14 for grants to be awarded in May.Go to www.colcomfdn.org for more information.

CRANBERRY TWP — Westinghouse Electric soon will begin to make fuel at the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina for nuclear power plants in China.Westinghouse is contracted to build four AP1000 power plants in China.More than 100 employees at three separate Westinghouse facilities — Columbia, S.C., Blairsville and Monroeville — have worked on the fuel program since 2006.Westinghouse's headquarters is in Cranberry.

DALLAS — Chief Oil & Gas of Dallas has announced it will sell certain Marcellus Shale natural gas properties to EXCO Holding PA, a subsidiary of EXCO Resources for about $459 million.The sale includes 15 producing natural gas wells, 11 wells waiting completion and about 50,000 acres in Lycoming, Sullivan and Columbia counties.Chief Oil & Gas has drilled 95 Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and after the sale, remains one of the largest leaseholders and active operators of the Marcellus Shale.

CLINTON TWP — II-VI has bought Max Levy Autograph in Philadelphia.MLA makes micro-fine conductive mesh patterns for optical, mechanical and ceramic components for applications such as circuitry, metrology standards, target calibration and suppression of electromagnetic interference.These technologies are key to the military market protecting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems of aircraft and land vehicles.In 2010, MLA became a supplier to II-VI's Exotic Electro-Optics subsidiary. MLA has 30 employees and generated about $5 million in revenue for the year ended Sept. 30, 2010.

The Butler County Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with Clearview Mall, will host the 9th Health, Wealth, Wellness & More Expo at the mall on Feb. 4 and 5.It is open to all businesses and will take place from noon to 6 p.m. on Feb. 4, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Feb. 5. Cost to participate is $125 per exhibitor. Electricity is limited and available upon request.To register or for information, call the chamber at 724.283.2222, or e-mail Jennifer@ButlerCountyChamber.com or download a registration form at www.Butler-CountyChamber.com.

• FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, has announced an unchanged dividend of 55 cents per share of outstanding common stock and provided contingent dividend payment scenarios to reflect possible timing of the completion of FirstEnergy’s pending merger with Allegheny Energy.