Seven years and more than $500,000 in public money later, the Gen. George C. Marshall Plaza project is still bogged down in mud at the Five Corners intersection in Uniontown. Missing are the bronze memorial plaques, the flags, the landscaping, the bridge and the lighted concrete walkways proposed to boost tourism by honoring Uniontown's favorite native son. "We need more money. We haven't lost faith in ourselves. We'd like to complete it by summer," said Charles Cluss, chairman of The Friends of Marshall.

The project - which Cluss estimates will cost between $600,000 and $700,000 - is being funded through various sources, including a $540,000 legislative initiative grant under the now defunct "Walking Around Money" program.

The Friends of Marshall got a WAM in 1992 with the help of one of the organization's board members, House Democratic Leader William DeWeese of Greene County and former state Rep. Fred Taylor of Uniontown. Since then, DeWeese has had almost no luck in securing grants under the program that GOP Gov. Tom Ridge established to replace WAMs, his staffers say.

In the meantime, critics charge that little has been done to advance the Marshall project.

The group used $150,000 to purchase a plot of land from Uniontown businessman Jesse Risha, who in 1994 pleaded guilty and received a federal prison term on charges of tax evasion and money laundering stemming from his video poker machine operation. The site is across the street from where Marshall's boyhood home once stood.

Cluss said "another $50,000 or so" was spent to "enhance the land" and open a creek running through the property at the intersection of Main and Fayette streets and Mt. Vernon Avenue.

Four years after the WAM grant award, state Auditor General Barbara Hafer attacked The Friends of Marshall for its lack of progress. Her office audited the project, but found no illegality.

"Although the group's expenditures were not legally improper, some of them were not well advised," Hafer said in December 1996. "There is little money left and little progress toward the group's lofty goal of constructing a memorial and visitor's center honoring Gen. Marshall."

Marshall was chief of staff of the Armed Forces during World War II. He later become secretary of defense and secretary of state. He authored the Marshall Plan, which saved post-World War II Europe from starvation. In 1953 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

"We started with a grand scheme, but we could never raise the money to support it," Cluss conceded. "We're back to what we can accomplish. We're doing it in little bits and pieces."

Cluss last week took umbrage at further scrutiny of the project, saying it's been audited twice by the state. He admitted that the original plans - which included the center and a sculpture of Marshall - have been scrapped for lack of money.

"If we knew then what we know now, we'd have done it differently. You can be as critical as you want about the first grant money, but that's history. We've been audited and we can account for every penny. The worst thing that can happen is more negative publicity that will stop people from donating," Cluss said.

Bad press hasn't forced the organization to shy away from public funds and private donations.

Cluss said the group is waiting for a $150,000 federal appropriation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to complete the project. U.S. Rep. Frank Mascara - who helped secure the appropriation - announced in October 1997 that the money had been set aside by HUD.

The Eberly Foundation donated $150,000 to the cause. Other private contributions have been collected, but Cluss refused to release those figures.

Cluss refuses to discuss many aspects of the project in specific terms.

He would not identify the project's contractors, who are working under the management of Fairchance Construction. The firm is being paid a management fee of $15,000 to oversee construction work totaling about $380,000.

He insists the project - which has not been advertised for bids - is being competitively bid, but would not identify how contracts have been awarded. He said the Fairchance firm was "picked through experience."

"I can tell you, but I don't choose to at the moment. To my knowledge, we don't have to advertise. But I will say that the competition is as fair as if I would be using my own money," Cluss said. "We're going to build this in accordance with sound, honest business practices."