Butler Eagle file photo.

BUTLER TWP — Township commissioners approved the renovation of a building on Fairground Hill Road that will be the new office space for a county magistrate during their meeting Monday, April 17.

Luke Gindlesperger, a civil engineer with the site’s developer H.F. Lenz, said the plan for District Judge Kevin O’Donnell’s office is to utilize the right half of the building, which occupies around 4,500 square feet.

The parking lot will get some updates, however.

“We are repaving all of the existing asphalt,” Gindlesperger said. “We’re adding some new lights as well.”

Commissioners also approved a land development request for #1 Cochran to build a 30,000-square-foot facility on Evans City Road near Eberhart Road and Butler County Memorial Park Cemetery and Mausoleum.

The facility is planned to be a “state-of-the-art building,” which would include a collision repair shop in the rear and a new dealership on the left side of the driveway.

Ray Gusty, representing Fahringer, McCarty, Grey, a land-development consulting firm in Monroeville, said the company hopes to start work on the project as early as June. It will be the new hub for #1 Cochran — which acquired the former Butler County Ford in March 2022 — moving from its longtime location on Main Street in Butler.

Commissioners also accepted the resignation of two longtime employees of the public works department Monday, both of whom are retiring.

The township will begin advertising for open full-time positions in the public works department, with township manager Tom Knights saying that the timeline for hiring depends on the number of applicants for the jobs.

“We’re looking to replace the people who just retired,” Knights said. “The candidate pool is going to dictate that.”

Knights also said the positions don’t have a job description at this time because of the labor union’s collective bargaining agreement with the township.