SHARON, PA. City will buy, raze two old buildings and add more parking

The city has federal approval to use grant money to clear the land.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The city is moving ahead with plans to buy and raze two vacant commercial buildings at 200-204 and 206-212 E. State St.
The Sharon Redevelopment Authority was to meet at 4 p.m. today to approve the purchase on the city's behalf.
Sharon is getting the multistory structures at a total cost of $1,135 but will have to spend an estimated $187,500 to have them torn down.
That cost will include the expense of asbestos removal, said Rosette Fisher, executive director of Sharon's Community Development Department.
The buildings -- one two stories and the other, three -- once housed Elite Fashions and Bridal Shop and other businesses.
They have been vacant for years and have become a hazard with portions of their roofs caving in.
They are joined with a common wall.
The city is buying them through a Mercer County Repository for Unsold Properties sale for $500 each plus transfer taxes.
Were up for sale
The county put up the buildings for tax sale but got no bidders, resulting in the county's selling them to the city free and clear of all taxes and liens.
There were a total of $44,500 in back taxes due on the two structures.
City council approved a plan last month to tap $237,500 in federal Community Development Block Grant money to buy and raze them and replace them with a public parking lot.
Fisher said the U.S. Department of Housing & amp; Urban Development, which oversees the CDBG program, sent the city a letter last week formally approving the expenditure.
The key to using the federal money is providing some sort of service to the general public, she said, noting that the plan to put in a small parking lot satisfied that requirement.
As soon as the authority takes title to the buildings, the city will advertise for a demolition contractor, and council could award that contract in August, Fisher said.
Small park in plan
The site is expected to include a small public park with some benches and perhaps a bus stop shelter in addition to parking spaces, but there have been suggestions that more greenery at that entrance to the downtown business district is needed.
Sharon businessman James E. Winner Jr. has told the city that if the city builds a park there, he will put a fountain in it.
The city will have an estimated $50,000 for the parking lot and pedestrian amenities.
Mayor David O. Ryan said the parking lot will be needed when the city has to close the two-level parking deck at the Shenango Valley Community Library located across State Street.
That deck, used by visitors to the library and businesses in the area, has deteriorated and will be replaced by the city.
Councilman Lou Rotunno said he thinks the East State Street property should be returned to commercial use once temporary parking is no longer needed for the library.
Anyone buying the property for commercial development, however, would have to pay what the city has in it, including the $237,500 in CDBG funds which HUD would insist the city return, Ryan said.
Fisher said having a parking lot there would likely help with the development of the largely vacant commercial building next door at 194 E. State St. which has no parking lot of its own.