MERCER COUNTY Officials await word on $7M grant
State regulations say the money can't just be shifted to another project.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The Mercer County Industrial Development Authority is waiting for the state to decide what will happen to a $7 million grant earmarked for the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant in Sharon.
Businessman James E. Winner Jr., who owns the old plant and had sought the $7 million grant to help finance its redevelopment as an industrial and office park, said last week that he's dropping plans for the $77 million project and will no longer seek the state money.
Winner said he still hopes to lease space to tenants in the plant but won't expand his Winner Steel Service Center at the southern end of the site.
The MCIDA is still awaiting official confirmation of Winner's decision but, in the meantime, is asking Harrrisburg to keep the $7 million allocated to Mercer County.
There's a catch: That presents some problems, said Larry Reichard, executive director of Penn-Northwest Development Corp., MCIDA's administrative arm.
The money comes from a state capital budget fund and is earmarked by legislation for specific projects, he said.
Mercer County had five projects approved for capital budget consideration but only three of them actually had money allocated.
There was $2.2 million for a Greenville community recreation project, $7 million for the Westinghouse project and $500,000 for Farrell's plan for redevelopment along the east side of Broadway Avenue.
The Mercer County Area Agency on Aging Inc. was turned down for $1.7 million to renovate and expand its senior service center on Spearman Avenue in Farrell, and the Shenango Valley Industrial Development Corp. got nothing on a request for $540,000 for industrial development efforts on the west side of Broadway Avenue in Farrell.
Eligible projects: Local authorities want to keep the $7 million here, but under terms of the grant program, the only projects eligible for the money are the Agency on Aging and the SVIDC, Reichard said.
The Agency on Aging could be disqualified because it didn't rebuild its Farrell facility but moved the project to Hermitage while reducing its scope and arranging alternative financing, he said.
That could leave just the SVIDC project, and it would be eligible for no more than the $540,000 it had requested, he said, noting that any new project proposals would have to be approved by the Legislature in a new capital budget bill and then would have to file an application for funds.
Charles Bestwick, MCIDA chairman, said the $ 7 million is still allocated to the Westinghouse project right now.
"As far as we're concerned, we still have a project we're working on," he said, adding that his agency still wants to meet with Winner about the project.