By Tom Davidson
FARRELL — Something’s afoot on Hamilton Avenue in Farrell.
Earth movers are parked near French Street. Old, cracked slate sidewalks have been removed, leveled gravel spread in its place, with wood forms that will soon be filled with cement and create a level pedestrian walkway that’s handicapped-accessible. Orange barrels cordon off the area in the first visible actions undertaken by the Sharon-Farrell Elm Street program.
“We just wanted to make a residential throughway with a unified look from one business area to another,” said planner Adrienne Gordon, who works for Community Action Partnership of Mercer County.
Ms. Gordon has spearheaded the program, which has brought about $250,000 in state cash to improve Hamilton Avenue in Farrell and South Oakland Avenue in Sharon.
The Elm Street Program has been ballyhooed by Gov. Ed Rendell as a way to revitalize decaying urban residential neighborhoods. Elm Street monies have also been used to improve Eagle Street in Greenville.
“The vision was to go from the viaduct in Sharon to the Wheatland border,” Ms. Gordon said.
It took three years for plans to be made and cash to flow for the project and the sidewalks and curbs should be finished in a few weeks, Ms. Gordon said.
“It’s awesome,” that the project has become more than words on a sheaf of papers and is now a visible work-in-progress, she said.
It’s also another piece in the puzzle that officials in Sharon and Farrell hope will produce a revitalized Shenango Valley.
“It’s just another good link to show we’re doing things in our area,” Ms. Gordon said. “We’re trying to address crime, we’re trying to improve the neighborhood.”
The improvements are being made in the heart of the federally-designated Weed-and-Seed area of the Shenango Valley that once was the heart of the local drug trade and was a high crime area.
Weed-and-Seed aims to transform said areas by “weeding” out criminals and “seeding” positive development.
While just one part of planned improvements, the work being done to the sidewalks and curbs shows something’s being done, Ms. Gordon said.
“We’re a community that’s worth moving to,” she said. “The whole thing is being able to have a plan.”
These plans keep evolving: “We keep making new ones and working off the old ones,” Ms. Gordon said.
“As long as residents are interested in changing their communities, then these programs will grow,” she said.
