Borrowing thy neighbor’s chapel

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 14, 2004

For now, the interior of the First Baptist Church sanctuary

is a hard hat area.

“We began worshiping at First Presbyterian Church last Sunday,” said Martha Miller who serves as music secretary, “and hope to be back into our own space by Sept. 1. We have our building centennial scheduled for Sept. 19 and a wedding a week after that, so we may be pushed a bit.”

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Work is being done on eight non-load-bearing columns that run from the apex of the ceiling of the room to various points around the circumference of the worship space.

The church had completed a total slate roof replacement

in the spring which ended up taking three years at a cost of more than $1.2 million.

“Then we discovered one of the interior beams in the sanctuary pulling away from the wall. The beams are not load bearing and are encased. The engineers determined that

there was old termite damage in the beam and that moisture had leaked through the exterior over the years – possibly a clogged drain – and dry rot had set in,” Miller said. “We had no way to determine if there was damage to the other columns, so we decided to go ahead and redo them all at this time rather than waiting for problems to develop in the future and then have to go back in.”

Miller said the church is grateful to their neighbors.

“In the mean time, we are so grateful that the Presbyterians opened their doors to us. This is not the first time. We have been over there before during repairs, and they have worshiped here during theirs,” she said. “We had a real good response from our people

to the change in time (to 9 a.m.) and place.”

Sunday school continues at 10:15 in the First Baptist building, as well as all other activities. The only change is the worship at 9 o’clock

at First Presbyterian.