MERCER COUNTY Authority to fix up apartment complex

The authority's Federal Street Community Center will soon be under new management.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The Mercer County Housing Authority will spend $1.4 million to renovate the exterior of its Sharpsville Gardens apartment complex, but it's borrowing money from next year's modernization program to do it.
The authority had only $1.2 million available for the 61-unit Sharpsville Gardens project, but the lowest bids came in about $212,000 higher than that.
L. DeWitt Boosel, executive director, said the authority board decided Wednesday to take that additional money from the 2004 modernization budget of $1.4 million, which had been earmarked for improvements to the exterior of the 76-unit Frank Fay Terrace apartment complex in South Pymatuning Township.
It will push everything back, Boosel said, referring to the modernization schedule.
Federal grants
All the modernization funds are federal grants from the Department of Housing & amp; Urban Development.
The authority will pay Linton Industries of New Castle $1,244,000 for general construction work at Sharpsville Gardens, and Penn-Ohio Electrical Co. of Brookfield Township $187,300 for the electrical work.
The board agreed to let the Shenango Valley YMCA and Mercer County Behavioral Health Services/Minority Health take over operation of its Federal Street Community Center in Farrell.
The two agencies are offering to provide counseling, educational and athletic programming at the center at no charge to the authority or those who use the facility, Boosel said.
Community aid
They're doing it as part of their mission to aid the community, he said.
"We've been wrestling with Federal Street for quite some time," Boosel said, noting that the former Buhl Center hasn't been fully utilized for years.
Spending federal money on the center was always a sore point with HUD, which funds authority operations.
The government only wants its money spent on housing authority residents so it was difficult to open the center to the rest of the community, Boosel said, noting that will no longer be a problem with the YMCA and Behavioral Health now running the show.
The authority will retain oversight control of the building, and its Small Business Impact Center will still operate out of the lower level of the building, Boosel said.
Behavioral Health will move offices into the building late next week, while the YMCA will start programming there later in the year, he said.