MERCER COUNTY Church gets renewed OK for new site

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- City commissioners have again approved a land development plan for a new St. John the Baptist Church, but a church spokesman said the parish isn't ready to build yet.
Fund raising has been a bit slower than expected, the Rev. Michael Polanichka, church pastor, said this morning.
Hermitage commissioners had approved plans for a 4,000-square-foot church at the southeast corner of Pa. Route 18 and Morefield Road last year, but the church never recorded the building plan in court.
The approval expired, and the issue came back before the commissioners again Wednesday.
City Manager Gary Hinkson said it passed without opposition.
Funding for project
Father Polanichka said the church isn't quite ready to begin the $1.5 million project.
The plan was to have $750,000 cash in hand before starting, but the fund-raising hasn't developed as quickly as expected, he said.
The church already had about $400,000 in the bank when it first announced the project in April 2003 and has raised that total to about $550,000, he said.
The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox church plans to move from its Cedar Avenue location in Sharon, Pa., to the 11-acre site in Hermitage. The church has been in Sharon since 1938.
The plan calls for selling its Cedar Avenue sanctuary, educational center and rectory. Father Polanichka said the goal is to raise $500,000 through that sale.
In other business, commissioners:
UApproved a planned residential development off Lamor Road. The Ledges at Pierce Bluffs, owned by Mill Creek Enterprises Inc. of Canfield, will build 19 single-family villas on 6.7 acres on the north side of Pierce Bluffs Drive.
UApproved a land development plan for Coates Car Care Express on South Hermitage Road. It will be a single-bay automatic carwash.
UApproved a land development plan for a 7,200-square-foot addition to the rear of the Ellwood Crankshaft and Machine Co. building at 2727 Freedland Road.