Mercer County Area Agency on Aging hasn't had a permanent home for a senior-citizens' center in the Shenango Valley for almost three years.

Actually, for exactly "two years, seven months and 12 days," according to Anne Marie Spiardi, chief executive officer of the agency.

Mrs. Spiardi won't be counting days much longer.

The agency broke ground Thursday on a $2.4 million construction and renovation project on a two-acre site on North Buhl Farm Drive in Hermitage.

The site will be home to the Shenango Valley Center for Aging and Geriatric Health, a "one-stop shop" for those 59 and older, an agency news release announcing the ground-breaking said. "(It) will be centrally located in the 13-municipality service area," the release added.

Paul O'Brien, project construction manager with Brookfield-based Rien Construction, said the project should be completed by February. The project includes remodeling an existing 6,500-square-foot building at 220 N. Buhl Farm -- the former Bill Rudge Ministries -- and expanding it by about 8,800 square feet. Earlier this year the agency bought the building for $379,000.

Parts of the center should be open as early as October, said Mercer County Commissioner Olivia M. Lazor, also an agency board member. Remodeling work on the existing building is "going to start tomorrow," Mrs. Lazor said. By October, an auditorium and health center in that area should open, she added.

Primary Health will lease the health center space. Doctors will be at the site and the rent checks will bring money into the center, Mrs. Lazor said. The added-on space will be for staff offices and a food provider, she said.

Fourteen people who had a hand in bringing the center to Hermitage grabbed shovels and broke ground Thursday in an area that will be a parking lot. Then 14 people from the 13 communities and the surrounding area to be served by the center dumped bags full of dirt from their respective communities on the broken ground.

A half-dozen officials -- Paul G. Flint, agency board; state Sen. Robert D. Robbins, Greenville; state Reps. Michael C. Gruitza, Hermitage, and Rod Wilt, Greenville; and County Commissioners Olivia M. Lazor and Brian W. Shipley -- made remarks. They touted the project, the persistence of those who worked to find a permanent home for the center and the patience of the seniors who had to wait.

"A turtle doesn't make progress unless he sticks his neck out," said Gruitza, who represents most of the communities serviced by the center. Gruitza referred to controversy surrounding the agency's decision earlier this year to locate the center in Hermitage.

The former Shenango Valley Multi-Service Center was located for years at 1020 Spearman Ave., Farrell. Problems with the building forced the agency to move the center in January 1999 to a temporary home at Wheatland-Farrell Methodist Church. The agency board had indicated it would either renovate the former site or construct a new building in Farrell.

After Farrell City Council decided not to give land in the former city park for the center, the agency said it was buying the Hermitage building. Outraged council members said either Farrell's large black community or a secretive deal fueled the decision to move to Hermitage. The agency and county denied those claims.