FARRELL PROJECT Consultant outlines details to seek grant

The city must match the grant with $500,000 of its own money.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- An application seeking $500,000 in a state grant to expand a light-industrial area and improve a commercial district should be ready in two or three months.
Farrell got approved for the grant in May 2000, but the application seeking the release of funds hasn't been filed yet.
The application must include a redevelopment plan that lays out the details of the project, said Tom Graney of Graney, Grossman, Ray, Colosimo & amp; Associates Inc. of Grove City, project consultant.
Farrell must match the state grant, and Graney outlined for city council Monday how that money will be spent.
There are a number of steps to be completed before the application can be filed, he said, noting that the first, certification of the targeted areas as blighted, has been completed by the Farrell Planning Commission.
The commission completed step two after the council meeting, voting to approve the redevelopment area plan as proposed by Graney and send it to the Farrell Redevelopment Authority. There are numerous other steps before it goes to city council.
About the plan: The plan calls for redevelopment in two areas.
The first would expand the Hillside Industrial Park into an area generally bounded by French Street on the south, the rear of properties fronting on Broadway Avenue on the west, Florida Street on the north and Louisiana Avenue on the east.
The project calls for the purchase of four occupied homes, two vacant homes and 23 lots, all of which would be converted into four large building lots.
The second area is along Idaho Street, between Spearman and Fruit avenues, and proposes the purchase of four vacant commercial buildings and four vacant commercial lots which would be cleared, combined with other land owned by the city and sold as seven parcels for commercial and business use.
Also on agenda: Also Monday, council approved creation of a Traditional Neighborhood Development district that will allow Mercer County Housing Authority and the Steel City Housing Partnership to raze and replace the 100-unit Steel City Terrace apartment complex on Spearman Avenue.
The project will expand beyond the Steel City boundaries into the surrounding neighborhood with the construction of new rental units and apartments and houses for sale. A total of 145 housing units, most in duplexes and triplexes, will replace the old barracks-style apartment buildings in a project estimated at $28 million.
It tentatively approved a planned residential development proposed by Mercer County Community Action Agency which wants to build a 10-unit apartment complex on the east side of Hamilton Avenue between Union and Federal streets for tenants suffering from severe mental illness. The project price is about $900,000.