SHARON Lawyer for Winners tells council Donna's Diner will be expanded

A plan approved in 2000 is being revived.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- It's still got a "For Sale" sign in the front window, but an attorney representing Jim and Donna Winner said that Donna's Diner at 10 W. State St. is no longer on the market.
Atty. John F. Hornbostel Jr., told city council Monday that the diner isn't for sale and that the Winners plan to move ahead with earlier plans for a 1,970-square-foot expansion of the restaurant.
Hornbostel attended the meeting to ask council to again approve a land swap needed for that expansion.
Veterans Walkway
The diner is adjacent to Veterans Walkway, and Winner wants 560 square feet of the walkway in exchange for 621 square feet of land he owns adjacent to the walkway but farther from the diner.
The Winners had the 1950-style diner built in Florida and erected in Sharon in late 1999 in a project that cost more than $500,000.
The earlier land swap deal with the city was set up in 2000 but never completed.
The Winners closed the restaurant in January of this year because business was slow and put it up for sale in April.
However, it never sold, and Hornbostel said plans have been revived to expand it.
Terms must be met
City council passed a resolution in a 3-1 vote Monday to again approve the land swap deal, but President Fred Hoffman reminded Hornbostel that, of the five terms that were put on the original deal, two remain to be fulfilled.
That involves erecting a life-size bronze statue of an American soldier and providing permanent lighting for that statue, he said.
Hornbostel asked if those requirements could be waived, but Hoffman refused, pointing out that the last time the deal was proposed, council had a roomful of angry veterans to deal with when they heard part of the walkway would be lost.
The statue was part of an agreement worked out between Winner and the veterans, Hoffman said.
Hornbostel said those terms would be met.
Hoffman said the deed for the land won't be transferred until they are met.
Councilwoman Chris Outrakis cast the dissenting vote, saying the soldier statue was supposed to be in place a long time ago.
Councilman George Gulla was absent.