Union officials: Housing agency didn't follow through

PAT LITOWITZ
plitowitz@ncnewsonline.com

A nonprofit group pictured Union Township as home for its first housing project. That vision remains unrealized.

Affordable Housing of Lawrence County announced plans in August 2004 to build Dale Country Estates. The proposed $2.5 million project, to be located on Dale Road, featured 30 housing units for low-income senior citizens.

To assist with the project, the Federal Home Loan Bank's Affordable Housing Program awarded a $168,000 grant. First Commonwealth Bank was lined up to be the local lending institution. Those financial arrangements were announced at the same time.

Township supervisors Steve Galizia, Pat Angiolelli and Kevin Guinaugh agreed that Affordable Housing - and not the township - failed to follow through on the plan.

"There was never even a (formal) discussion," Guinaugh said after Dec. 20's supervisors meeting.

Galizia recalled the lone meeting on the project, saying he met with Robert Evanick, Angelo Burelli and Roger Smith.

"We sat around the cafeteria table, and they had an idea what they would like to do," Galizia said. "I said you would have to go through the stages. They didn't follow me. Period."

Evanick, who heads the Lawrence County Housing Authority, was Affordable Housing's board chairman. He resigned from the board this month. Burelli is retired from the housing authority, where he had been the maintenance supervisor. Smith, a consultant for Affordable Housing, leads New Visions for New Castle, a nonprofit group.

Donald "Ducky" Conti, Affordable Housing's secretary and housing authority board member, said Dec. 21 that community response kept the group from moving forward with the development.

Conti and the Union supervisors agreed this week that Smith's announcement of the project last year had generated a negative reaction.

Conti said that Evanick's name is synonymous with public housing. Instead of seeing the development as a good opportunity, the community rejected it as a another housing project.

"We got bombarded by a bunch of people," Galizia said.

"I called back to Evanick and said, 'What the hell is he saying something like that for?' And he said, 'Well, he should have never spoke out like that.' Talk about shooting yourself in the foot before you get started."

Affordable Housing officials were told they would need to seek a zoning variance and then meet with Union's sewer authority. If the project had received those approvals, the supervisors would have scheduled a public hearing.

Noting it had sounded like a good project, Galizia recalled, "I said, 'Guys, it doesn't matter what we think right now. You have to go through the procedures.'

"At that juncture, they knew the avenue, they just didn't take it."

Conti said Affordable Housing still wants to move forward with that development. He said that in March, Union's zoning inspector and supervisors were invited to a meeting in New Castle, but no one from Union appeared.

Galizia said Affordable Housing is welcome to resubmit the idea.

"That would be fantastic," Conti said. "It's a fantastic location."

The group, created in 2003 by the Lawrence County Housing Authority, purchased eight properties this year. Instead of building new homes, they are rehabilitating old ones.

"That's one of the reasons I resigned," Evanick said last week. "I was just excited about building something new."

Conti said Affordable Housing will have to reapply for federal funding. The deadline to tap into the money was Dec. 18.


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