The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 31, 2012

Housing start excites mayor

By Tom Davidson Herald Staff Writer

FARRELL — Farrell Mayor Olive McKeithan was known as Councilwoman Ollie Brown when she first proposed the city seek out affordable new housing.

“How many years has it been?” she pondered.

At least eight years have passed since “Miss Ollie” as many people in Farrell know her talked about how a new housing project could be a boon to the city.

For a week now, clearing, grading and other prep work have been under way at the corner of Spearman Avenue and Roemer Boulevard across from the Farrell city building.

“I’m really excited about it,” McKeithan said. “It lets you know that if we work together we can get things done.”

Persistence also helps and it’s a virtue McKeithan possesses in abundance. She’s long been an advocate for the people of Farrell, first as founder and director of the now-defunct Minority Health program and regular at city council meetings and later as a councilwoman and since 2008, she’s been mayor of Farrell.

Her persistence has helped get the project to this point – about a year from completion of a 34-unit apartment complex and 10 single-family homes that will soon grace the city’s hillside.

A pre-construction meeting will be held this morning and after that the $9.6 million project will officially begin, according to Phil Smith, president of CHOICE Inc., Youngstown.

CHOICE is a nonprofit group that’s partnering with for-profit residential developers NRP Group, Cleveland to build the complex.

“After tomorrow you’ll see full-blown digging,” Smith said Monday. “All in all, things came together. It’s going to be a good project. The home quality is going to be great.”

Smith, who worked as chief executive officer of the Shenango Valley Urban League in the 1990s, said despite some setbacks and bureaucratic hurdles, the project’s going well.

In the spring, heightened levels of arsenic and other hazardous wastes were found in the groundwater of the site, which formerly was used by three different filling stations.

Those issues have been dealt with and a couple weeks ago the state officially awarded about $980,000 in tax credits that were sold to come up with most of the $9.6 million it will cost; the remainder is being funded by a $1.15 million PennHOMES load, Smith said.

It should be done in “364 days,” according to Smith.

“The phone’s been ringing off the hook,” McKeithan said of people wanting to find out more about the complex. “It’s just an exciting time.”

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