Emma McFarland spent 36 years living in the 400 block of West Main Avenue, but left for two years to live in a Housing Authority of Bowling Green unit. Now, however, she’s back to stay.

“I’m not going to move again,” McFarland said Wednesday morning at the ribbon-cutting for her new home, Independence Place Apartments.

She was the first resident of the 24-unit complex of modest gray buildings on West Main, moving with her granddaughter in February, before Clayton Watkins Construction Co. had finished other units. McFarland said she jumped at the chance to move into the new apartments, marketed heavily to military veterans, but open to all low- and moderate-income elderly.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful place. It’s quiet and everything.”

McFarland posed for a ribbon-cutting picture with the heads of various groups involved in building Independence Place: government officials, financiers and the heads of project developers Housing Assistance and Development Services and Wabuck Development Co. About 40 people from those organizations turned up for the ceremony and half a dozen residents watched from their new patios.

HANDS began taking applications for Independence Place around the start of May 2008, said Deborah Williams, the nonprofit group’s executive director.

“We were totally full by the end of June,” she said. Now all units are full, and there are about 20 on a waiting list, Williams said.

Though they may not get into Independence Place, those people will have another option in about nine months, she said. HANDS is also building 24 apartments for the elderly at Marita Manor, next to the Scholar House complex for college students with children, which was completed earlier this year.

Williams said she’s not sure what proportion of Independence Place residents are veterans, but she knows some are. She worked with several local veterans organizations to market Independence Place to their members.

The complex was designed with them in mind; local veterans advocate Robert Spiller, a retired Air Force colonel, has said that based on nationwide averages, about 80 of the 8,100 veterans in Warren County are probably homeless, and about 1,800 are disabled.

Mayor Elaine Walker said it’s important for the community – and thus local officials and businesses – to take note of people who need help finding affordable housing, especially veterans.

“These are people who put their lives on the line for our country, and we cannot forget them,” she said.

Independence Place consists of 20 two-bedroom and four one-bedroom apartments in the 300 and 500 blocks of West Main. Its $2,865,917 total cost was covered by $2.5 million from Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing, $824,000 from Independence Bank, a $296,697 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, $275,000 in housing credits from Kentucky Housing Corp. and $80,000 worth of land from the city, according to a fact sheet distributed at the event.

Judy Rose, senior community investment representative for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, said her job is to get lenders and local governments in this region “excited about affordable housing” – and that’s a lot easier in Bowling Green than it is most places.

“You really have a great team here,” she said, praising local officials for their commitment and support.

Rose also thanked Independence Bank for easy terms on the construction loan.

“They didn’t make much money off this,” she said. “It was really a community service.”

Independence Bank staff even did some of the landscaping, Rose said.

Chris Young, vice president of Independence Bank, singled out bank employees Amanda Payne, Sarona Grant and Debbie Clayborn as the ones who put in many hours mulching and doing similar tasks.

William Anderson and Donna Ross were among the residents watching Wednesday’s ceremony. They lived on Normalview Drive until a car hit their house, Ross said. They lived with her son on North Lee Street while applying for other apartments, and that’s when they heard about Independence Place, she said.

“I love it. The people are nice, and we all get along,” Ross said. “That’s the main thing.”

Neither Anderson nor Ross are veterans, but both are happy to find a quiet, comfortable home, Anderson said.

“You wouldn’t want it (any) better,” he said. “You could drop a pin and hear it next week.”