Independence Park Inc. has received permission to build a 10-apartment complex for chronically mentally ill people who can live on their own.

Independence Park is a nonprofit corporation set up by Mercer County Community Action Agency for the purpose of building the apartment complex.

Local officials and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development signed papers dealing with the development at a closing Monday, said Ron Errett, the agency's executive director.

The agency was awarded a $714,700 federal grant in October 2000 to build the project, but the plans bogged down as officials searched for a site and dickered with the federal government over terms.

The agency, working with consultant Housing and Neighborhood Development Service, Erie, had wanted to build in the former Farrell City Park, but Farrell council nixed that idea.

The agency asked the city to pick a site, but that location, between Federal and Union streets, contains soil that was deemed not suitable for building.

Officials finally settled on the 600 block of Spearman Avenue.

Contractor Wesex Corp. will move a trailer onto the site Wednesday and will start work soon, Errett said. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held April 30.

The federal grant also includes $142,500 in rental subsidies for qualified tenants.

The Federal Home Loan Bank also is putting about $45,000 into the project, through local member First National Bank of Pennsylvania.

Community Counseling Center would oversee many residents' needs, including vocational and education training, socialization and family support.

But residents will live independently and the counseling center will not oversee day-to-day needs.

The apartments will meet a very specific need in the community, officials have said. Mercer County Housing Authority has very few apartments available for single men, and many of Independence Park's potential residents will earn low incomes, officials have said.

Architect John N. Gruitza designed a two-building complex, one of which holds six apartments and the other, four.