[naviga:h3]Butler VA official serves Pgh. center[/naviga:h3]

PITTSBURGH — A high-ranking official at the VA Butler Heathcare center will be the next interim director at the VA center in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Timothy Burke will take over as the interim director at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System effective Nov. 1, according to a VA news release.

Burke is the chief of staff and interim director in Butler. He was a primary care physician with VA Pittsburgh from 2004 to 2011.

Burke is the third person to be the interim director in Pittsburgh since its former director Terry Gerigk Wolf was placed on leave in June 2014. She was fired last fall over her handling of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.

Barbara Forsha, the medical center’s interim director, will return to her permanent post as deputy director of VA Pittsburgh.

VA Butler Healthcare is getting a new director. David Cord, the director at the VA center in Erie, will begin his position in Butler on Nov. 16.

[naviga:h3]Audubon gets CNG cars[/naviga:h3]

PENN TWP — The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania has gotten new compressed natural gas cars and one will be stationed at Succop Nature Park in Penn Township.

The Honda Civics come from Honda North in Connoquenessing Township.

The cars average 35 to 40 miles per gallon in city driving, and the average cost of natural gas is about $2 per gallon. The cars will be used to take society employees to schools across the region as well as for community outreach.

The society got the vehicles with the support of the EQT Foundation, the charitable arm of the EQT Corp., and Honda North.

The second car will be based at the Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve in Fox Chapel.