FARRELL New housing project has community feel

Sen. Rick Santorum said he sponsored the project because of the spirit in the community.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Carol Gregory and Lorraine Jones never moved out of the Steel City Terrace public housing apartment complex as it was being converted into Centennial Place.
"I had a vision. I wanted to see the vision come," Gregory said, explaining that they were able to stay in an apartment building that hasn't been razed yet.
"I've been here 32 years," Jones said, after a grand opening for the development Thursday.
The new complex is a much better environment than the old barracks-style Steel City, she said.
"It's uplifting," Jones said, noting she moved into her new apartment in May.
"It's not an apartment, more like a townhouse, like a home," Jones said.
"It was well worth waiting for," added Gregory, who recently moved into her new apartment as well.
The complex is owned by Mercer County Housing Authority, which formed a partnership with Falbo-Penrose of Pittsburgh to raze the old 100-unit complex and start work on a $30 million community to replace it.
First phase
The first phase, 53 apartments, is well under way with apartments in triplexes and four-plexes. The final development will include 145 housing units, 26 of them single-family homes built for sale.
"It's a wonderful complex so far," said U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who stopped by for the grand opening.
It was Santorum who helped spearhead the project through the U.S. Department of Housing & amp; Urban Development, earning it a $9 million HOPE VI grant.
Santorum said he was "impressed with the spirit up here," and felt the authority and Falbo-Penrose made a good team.
Supports one project
The senator said he supports only one HOPE VI applicant from Pennsylvania each year and chose Centennial Place for his backing. These projects usually go into big cities but Santorum said it was time that a small mill town got a piece of the action.
This community has had a lot of difficult times and Santorum said he was impressed with the people planning the project and those in the community who wanted to see it happen.
"It looked like a good team from top to bottom," he said, adding that it doesn't look like a housing project, but has a community feel to it.
"It looks like a middle-class American community," said state Sen. Robert Robbins of Greenville, R-50th, who has also been a backer of the project.
That's pretty much the look the housing authority and Falbo-Penrose were going for.
The goal was to create a new community that doesn't have boundaries like the old complex did. Centennial Place will extend well beyond the old boundaries, said Ralph Falbo, a partner in the project.
It goes beyond brick and mortar in the community sense because it includes a community supportive services component that provides things like job training and basic home maintenance skills to tenants, he said.
"I've been living here about all my life," said Ernestine Ford, who moved into her new apartment with her son in May.
She said she hopes the change in appearance will translate into a change in the community, making it a nicer place to live.
"It's completely different. I don't recognize it," said Janisha Thomas, who moved into her new apartment in May. "We can get the grass to grow now."