First Baptist Church of Selma had some much-needed work done Thursday morning to its tower.

The church brought in a 200-foot crane to repair part of the tower, which stands around 130 feet tall.

“The tower is 107-years-old, and we had some engineers go up and look at it last year. They determined that some of the stone was beginning to crumble, so they cleaned up there,” said pastor Jerry Light.

Light said some of the stone was damaged due to weather since it was erected in 1904.

“The four pylons that come up around the roofline up there were wind damaged, rain [damaged] and just aged. They were wearing out and cracking,” Light said.

The front two pylons were worked on earlier this year, Light said, but they were not able to get to the back two to repair them as well.

“They went up and repaired the front two about six months ago. We’ve been waiting for the crane to come because it is a 200-foot crane because nothing else can get up there that high really to work on those,” Light said. “It actually has to reach over the top of the tower and then drop the people in the bucket down.”

Light said he did not envy the men that had to go up there to fix it.

“Jokingly, Art Scroggins, who is with Alabama Power and takes care of our buildings, said, ‘you want to go up there in the bucket?’ And I said no way. I said I don’t go up in the tower of the church, let alone above the tower. That is way too high,” Light laughed.

Light said the tower should be in good shape after Thursday’s repairs.

“They cleaned [the pylons] and then patched the holes, and went back and resealed all of that, which seems kind of ridiculous for four little edifices up there, but it was necessary because we didn’t want any of that crumbling and falling down,” Light said.

Light said it is amazing to think about how the tower was constructed in 1904 by using scaffolding.

“I’m amazed that that was built in the early part of the 1900s,” Light said. “It was about 1903 or 1904 when they completed that tower. That is unbelievable. I can’t imagine something that tall back then.”