Post by admin on Jun 28, 2010 5:45:30 GMT -5
www.app.com/article/20100623/NEWS/6230365/Freehold-pastor-seeks-public-s-help-to-finish-church
FREEHOLD — For one band of Freehold parishioners, the long wait for a new home just keeps getting longer.
Expansion of the Macedonia-Freehold Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ should have been completed by July 2008. But structural deficiencies forced congregants to instead tear down the Throckmorton Street church and start over.
Construction had been proceeding, albeit slowly. Framing was done, wiring had begun, and the contractor was to start on interior work.
That all came screeching to a halt in December, when Pastor Selvin McDonald says the contractor unexpectedly demanded $170,000 more than originally negotiated.
"We worked hard, saved hard, for somebody to come and just take that?" said parishioner Betty Jackson, of Florence.
Church members have so far sunk more than $600,000 into construction of the 5,845-square foot church. McDonald and his wife, Evelyn, said they personally contributed $170,000 of their own savings and mortgaged their Aberdeen home.
Freehold's Macedonian church is small, numbering about 80 members. Parishioners cannot spare any more money for the rebuilding effort, says McDonald.
"(It is) very, very difficult," McDonald said on a recent warm Sunday, as he stood in his unfinished church. "We can't ask the members for money these days. . . . Everybody is getting leery."
With their resources dwindling, church members are now turning to the community for assistance.
"Anybody that could help us finish up, we'd appreciate it because we're struggling," Jackson said.
On the legal front, the church's attorney, Thomas J. Dichiara of Drazin and Warshaw P.C., expects to enter into arbitration proceedings with the church's contractor, Rudow Contractors LLC of Jackson.
The church had wanted to go to court but its contract with the company requires the two sides to resolve such disputes through arbitration.
"It's our position that the contractor left the site and certainly left us in a very bad state," Dichiara said.
Rudow Contractors did not respond to requests for comment.
As the legal process goes forward, the Macedonian church remains in limbo.
Parishioners gather each Sunday not at their home base, but in rented space at the Old Tennent Church in Manalapan.
Three miles away, their true home stands idle.
Outside, piles of dirt and stone dot the yard. Wooden stakes indicate where a parking lot is planned.
Inside, white tubing and construction material litter the bright, airy space. Electrical wiring pokes from an unfinished outlet. And the wooden skeleton of a pulpit rises up from the floor, waiting for the day when McDonald and his followers will return.
As the process drags on, parishioners are losing heart. Members are beginning to leave, says McDonald.
The burden of his church's troubles has fallen on his shoulders, but, says McDonald, "I'm keeping the faith.
"Everybody (is) looking to the pastor for an answer," he said. "But I'm looking to God."
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com
FREEHOLD — For one band of Freehold parishioners, the long wait for a new home just keeps getting longer.
Expansion of the Macedonia-Freehold Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ should have been completed by July 2008. But structural deficiencies forced congregants to instead tear down the Throckmorton Street church and start over.
Construction had been proceeding, albeit slowly. Framing was done, wiring had begun, and the contractor was to start on interior work.
That all came screeching to a halt in December, when Pastor Selvin McDonald says the contractor unexpectedly demanded $170,000 more than originally negotiated.
"We worked hard, saved hard, for somebody to come and just take that?" said parishioner Betty Jackson, of Florence.
Church members have so far sunk more than $600,000 into construction of the 5,845-square foot church. McDonald and his wife, Evelyn, said they personally contributed $170,000 of their own savings and mortgaged their Aberdeen home.
Freehold's Macedonian church is small, numbering about 80 members. Parishioners cannot spare any more money for the rebuilding effort, says McDonald.
"(It is) very, very difficult," McDonald said on a recent warm Sunday, as he stood in his unfinished church. "We can't ask the members for money these days. . . . Everybody is getting leery."
With their resources dwindling, church members are now turning to the community for assistance.
"Anybody that could help us finish up, we'd appreciate it because we're struggling," Jackson said.
On the legal front, the church's attorney, Thomas J. Dichiara of Drazin and Warshaw P.C., expects to enter into arbitration proceedings with the church's contractor, Rudow Contractors LLC of Jackson.
The church had wanted to go to court but its contract with the company requires the two sides to resolve such disputes through arbitration.
"It's our position that the contractor left the site and certainly left us in a very bad state," Dichiara said.
Rudow Contractors did not respond to requests for comment.
As the legal process goes forward, the Macedonian church remains in limbo.
Parishioners gather each Sunday not at their home base, but in rented space at the Old Tennent Church in Manalapan.
Three miles away, their true home stands idle.
Outside, piles of dirt and stone dot the yard. Wooden stakes indicate where a parking lot is planned.
Inside, white tubing and construction material litter the bright, airy space. Electrical wiring pokes from an unfinished outlet. And the wooden skeleton of a pulpit rises up from the floor, waiting for the day when McDonald and his followers will return.
As the process drags on, parishioners are losing heart. Members are beginning to leave, says McDonald.
The burden of his church's troubles has fallen on his shoulders, but, says McDonald, "I'm keeping the faith.
"Everybody (is) looking to the pastor for an answer," he said. "But I'm looking to God."
Kim Predham: (732) 308-7752 or kpredham@app.com