Group drops plans for animal shelter

FARRELL, Pa. -- The Mercer County Humane Society has backed away from plans to build an indoor animal shelter-office at Roemer Boulevard and Fruit Avenue.
"We're getting too much controversy. We're a professional organization. We want to make the community happy. We don't want to cause any problems," said Rick Harakal, society president.
The Farrell Zoning Hearing Board approved a permit for the project in September but the move angered members of the Pentecostal House of Prayer located just one door away from the building site.
Congregation members and the pastor as well as others in the community spoke out against the project. The church appealed the Zoning Hearing Board's decision to Mercer County Common Pleas Court.
The dispute was scheduled for a court hearing today, but the Humane Society announced Monday that it had dropped its plans and the hearing was canceled.
Money to build a shelter was a key issue for the society, and Harakal, who owns the Roemer Boulevard site, said he had planned to help the agency erect its building and get paid for the land sometime in the future.
Money is still the major stumbling block, but Harakal said the society is looking at a couple of buildings that it may be able to buy under a land contract, which means the owner would allow the society to pay for a building over a period of years.
He declined to identify their locations except to say that they are not in Farrell.