SHENANGO VALLEY Enterprise zone board OKs loan

The company plans to dig up and sell old slag piles left over from Sharon Steel Corp.
SHARON, Pa. -- The Shenango Valley Enterprise Zone has approved a $150,000 loan to a company that will recover and sell blast furnace slag.
The zone's board of directors voted Wednesday to loan the money to City Materials Services Inc. as part of a $550,000 project to mine, market and distribute blast furnace slag at a site at Ohio Street and State Line Road in Hermitage.
The company plans to dig up and sell the slag, a waste byproduct of blast furnace operations at the former Sharon Steel Corp. just across the river. The slag is used in the paving industry.
There's enough slag to keep the company in business for 20 to 25 years and employ between five and 10 people.
About the loan
City Materials will get the loan at 5 years at 60 percent of the prime interest rate. It is also borrowing $150,000 each from Penn-Northwest Development Corp. and Northwest Regional Planning Commission, two local development agencies that channel state funds in the form of loans to private economic development projects, as well as $45,000 from National City Bank.
The board also voted to reduce the amount of the loan it approved in November for Custom Stone Products Inc., a new business that had planned to locate at the northeast corner of Broadway Avenue and Kirila Road in Hermitage.
The board had approved a $150,000 loan in November when the company planned to erect a building and buy equipment in a $454,300 project. However, the loan amount was reduced to $143,250 Wednesday because the company will buy the former MAACO Auto Painting building at 2125 Broadway Ave. rather than erect a new facility.
The loan is for 10 years at 60 percent of the prime rate plus 1 percent.
Custom Stone is also borrowing $143,250 from Penn-Northwest and $100,000 from the city of Hermitage. The company produces stone products for the home, including countertops, table tops and fireplace surrounds.
The cost of the project has been changed to $434,660. It will create seven jobs.