COG director will step downThe longtime executive director of the Butler County Council of Governments will step down at the end of the year.Jeff Smith, 60, of Butler submitted a letter of resignation Monday to the COG effective Dec. 31. Smith was involved in the founding of the group in 2007, serving as its first president. In 2009, he became executive director.“It’s sort of like a self-imposed term limit,” Smith said. “Change is good.”He said he is not sure what direction the COG will go in, whether to hire a new executive director or just have the president run the group.The COG will have its organizational meeting in January.In his letter, Smith noted that the COG saved its members more than a $500,000 and has “fostered intermunicipal cooperation” in the county.The COG is a group of roughly 40 municipalities, authorities and school districts in the county that work together on buying items and projects, particularly projects that are too large for just one municipality to handle.

Group gives out cookiesThe Center for Community Resources on Wednesday passed out Christmas cheer in the form of free cookies in downtown Butler.The agency passed out about 200 tins of cookies over the lunch hour on the sidewalk in front of its S. Main St. office, according to the Chris Lunn, chief financial officer.Lunn was joined by Eric Schultz, the agency’s former CFO, and Mike Robb, the executive director, who came up with the idea.“We’ve just been looking for some ways to spread some Christmas cheer,” Lunn said.This was the first year the agency has done this, and Lunn expects it will do it again next year.

Eagle website offers view of nestYou can get an up close view of the bald eagle nest in the Hays neighborhood of Pittsburgh through the Butler Eagle website.The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania has kicked off the third season of its live camera on that eagle’s nest.A live stream of the nest is online through the Murrysville-based PixController.The video stream can be found by visiting butlereagle.com and clicking on the eagle next link.The parenting eagles have been at the nest along the Monongahela River in recent years.