With a Jan. 31 deadline approaching, Mercer County Area Agency on Aging officials and construction workers are scrambling to get the new Shenango Valley Center for Aging and Geriatric Health in Hermitage ready for occupancy.

"They're working awful hard up there," said Ann Marie Spiardi, agency chief executive officer.

It will be some time before the building is fit for all the activities planned for it, but the first priority is to make it available to seniors for social interaction and activities such as music therapy and consumer updates.

The agency has been holding activities at the Wheatland-Farrell United Methodist Church in Wheatland since the Shenango Multi-Service Center in Farrell was gutted by an asbestos-removal project.

The church set the Jan. 31 deadline.

The agency bought a building from Bill Rudge Ministries of Living Truth Inc. at 220 N. Buhl Farm Drive, and has expanded the 6,500-square-foot building to just under 17,000 square feet.

"We're excited about being in it any day now," said Christine James, 72, of Wheatland, president of the senior association. "I asked the Lord for a permanent home for the senior center and we got that."

Margaret Ulica, 88, of Farrell, said she's not holding her breath about the new center opening as planned.

"I don't believe anything they say anymore," she said. "They haven't kept any promises they've made for two years. We're tired of waiting."

Before the seniors can move into the building, the state departments of Labor and Industry and Aging have to inspect and approve it, Mrs. Spiardi said.

The project has been delayed before. When the agency agreed to buy the building in January 2001, it planned to have it open before July 1, an earlier deadline to vacate the church.

But the money from a $2.4 million bond issue guaranteed by the county did not come in until July.

Ms. James said she's keeping an open mind about the new center.

"We recognize that there's going to be some adjustment," she said.

Mrs. Ulica wanted the center to remain in Farrell, but said she will make the move to the new building. She said she hopes others also will make the move, and worries that some will be intimidated by a projected influx of new people attracted by the new building, which will serve 13 municipalities.

"I like the people in the group we're with now," she said. "It's a close-knit group. I don't know how it will be with the new people coming in. I hope we can all get along."

Tom Stanton, an agency board member and Wheatland mayor, said he thinks the new center will be "a lot better" than the church or the Farrell center, but he also admitted to some anxiety.

He said he is worried about how the new center will impact the group of residents attending activities at the church, and if it will attract back some of the seniors lost when activities moved to the church.

"I would be really happy if everyone who went before would come back," he said.

While he believes public transportation is good, he also worries that the new center will be inaccessible to some seniors now going to the church.

"If we moved it from an area where people had access, I'll feel bad," he said.

In the new center, seniors will have access to a large multi-purpose room with a walking track and shuffleboard area, a dining area, an activities room with a pool table, a computer lab and an exercise room, Mrs. Spiardi said.

"My whole motivation has been to provide a home for the seniors of the Shenango Valley," said Mercer County Commissioner Olivia Lazor, also a board member. "We did a walk-through last week and I think everyone will be pleased."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at

jpinchot@sharon-herald.com