United Methodists don’t have money for building repairs

File photos by Tom Rivers – The First United Methodist Church in Albion, built in 1860, is located at the corner of Platt and East State streets.

ALBION – The congregation at the First United Methodist Church is looking for a buyer for its historic building, a 14,000-square-foot structure built in 1860.

The building at 19 Platt St. needs about $1 million in repairs. Its roof is structurally unsound. The church has used five tall wooden beams to help support the roof since December 2012.

The 30 active families of the church in August voted to abandon the site. The church still uses the site for its services and doesn’t have a time frame for leaving, said Terry Wilbert, chairman of the administrative council.

“We’re thinking sooner rather than later,” Wilbert said.

The congregation five months ago voted to turn the building over to the denomination. In October, denomination officials sent a letter back to Albion saying that the denomination wouldn’t take over the site.

“They didn’t want to set a precedent,” Wilbert said. “They would have 95 other churches behind us.”

The church has been using five wooden beams to help support the roof. The beams were added in December 2012.

Many of the mainline denomination churches have cavernous historic buildings with small congregations that struggle to keep up with the maintenance and bills on the structures.

In 1914, the Albion church reoriented the sanctuary. When that happened, some members didn’t like that lower beams that helped support the roof truss system were more visible. The church removed the lower beams. A century later, the roof is in danger of collapse from a truss system that needs to be totally rebuilt.

The congregation thinks the project will cost too much for the members. So the congregation is looking at three options:

Wilbert said the United Methodist congregation may leave its building and share another church building with an existing church, with the two congregations staggering their worship services.

The United Methodists may decide to acquire land and build a new site that would be smaller, handicapped accessible and have more parking than the current site.

Or the church may acquire an existing building and rehab it. He doubts the church will stay in its current site long-term. But if a big donation comes in for the repairs, Wilbert said the congregation may not go.

“If someone offers us $500,000, we’ll take it and stay,” he said. “That’s just my opinion.”

The United Methodist Church building is one of seven churches in Albion that are part of the Historic Courthouse Square, a district named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The church is working with the Landmark Society of Western New York to identify potential buyers for the building. The United Methodists also will reach out to real estate firms to see if they can help find a buyer.

“We don’t know what to ask for it,” Wilbert said. “That’s to be determined.”

The church applied for a $350,000 state grant last year through the Environmental Facilities Corporation, but was denied.  Albion also sought a state grant for Bullard Park improvements but wasn’t approved.

Wilbert said the state is directing more grants to bigger population centers.

“The money is going to ‘the haves,’ the people that already have a lot of money,” he said.

(Editor’s note: I think this building could be turned into a Sacred Sites Discovery Center, a site that would draw tourists to Albion and detail important religious movements in the state’s heritage. I wrote about this on Aug. 28. Click here to see that article.)

Albion site would like bigger freezer, money for supplies

Photos by Tom Rivers – R.J. Bannan stopped by the Community Kitchen at Christ Church in Albion on Friday. Elder Brian Houskeeper of the Mormon Church volunteered as a server.

ALBION – For 20 years Christ Church has been home to the Community Kitchen, providing hot meals on Fridays to local residents.

R.J. Bannan has been a regular at the site for more than a decade. He praised the volunteers who cook and serve the meals every week.

“It’s excellent food and the people are friendly,” Bannan said Friday evening. He sat down and ate the chicken casserole dinner, and went back for two desserts of cherry crisp.

The kitchen has become increasingly busy on Fridays. Faith Smith, the manager, says there are many working poor in the community, and elderly seniors who see their funds depleted by utilities, gas and other expenses.

“When I started here I only pictured homeless people at soup kitchens,” Smith said. “But there are so many people who need us and depend on us.”

Faith Smith, manager of the Community Kitchen at Christ Church for more than four years, is pictured with her daughter Savana Farewell.

The Community Kitchen nearly closed about four years ago, but a committed core of volunteers has kept it going.

“I’ve thought about walking away, but I just can’t do it,” Smith said. “I’ve grown to love these people.”

On Friday, the church served nearly 300 meals with 121 take-outs and 171 people eating in the dining room. There were 29 kids, 43 seniors and 99 other adults who ate at the dining hall on Friday.

Smith has served as the volunteer manager for the kitchen since September 2009. The first night she managed the site, she served 79 dinners. The record so far: 384. On that night, Baxter Healthcare paid for and prepared tacos.

Baxter in Medina provides about $5,000 a year for the kitchen, which has about a $9,000 annual budget. It relies on many donations from Foodlink and the community.

It takes about a dozen volunteers each Friday to prep the food, serve it and then clean up the kitchen and dining hall. Baxter employees serve on the first and second Fridays. Holy Family Parish takes the third Fridays and the Free Methodist Church works on the fourth Fridays. West Barre United Methodist Church serves on the fifth Fridays.

Debbie Mulcahy, an employee at Baxter Healthcare in Medina, helps at Community Kitchen.

Debbie Mulcahy of Byron has been serving in the kitchen the first and second Fridays for more than a year. She has worked a Baxter the past 2 ½ years. She worked at a different company for 24 years and then was let go in a downsizing. She was unemployed for a year before getting a job in Medina. She had a tough year when she was without a job.

“I realize there by the grace of God go I,” she said.

She is surprised to see so many people at the kitchen, including many families with young children.

“It’s sad to see that many people in need,” she said.

Stephanie Cox has been coming to the kitchen the past two months. She stops by after working at the Main Street Store.

She talks with some of the other people in the dining hall. She said the meals and the fellowship is important to local residents.

“It’s that one time a week for a lot of people that they get a hot meal,” she said.

Smith said the volunteers will serve anybody who comes in.

“You could be a millionaire and you get treated the same as a homeless person,” she said.

Robin Dirmyer, a Baxter employee, works in the kitchen with her husband Chuck, a Kodak employee. Baxter employees help prepare and serve meals the first and second Fridays each month.

Smith said she has enough volunteers to prepare and serve the meals each week, but the Community Kitchen could use donations for paper products – plates, cups, take-out containers and cups.

She would like to replace a small household-size freezer with an industrial-size one. That would cost about $3,000. A bigger freezer would let her store more food and give her more options for planning the meals.

She would also like to upgrade the kitchen, which was designed for occasional servings in the fellowship hall for the Episcoal congregation.

“This wasn’t designed to put out 300-plus meals on a Friday,” she said.

For more information on the kitchen, contact Smith at 585-319-1578.

ALBION – For years she served on the Albion Recreation Committee and was a cheerleader for the local parks and the youths that played there.

Soon a new swingset will provide more than exercise and thrills for youngsters. The swingset will serve as a memorial for Kathy LaLonde, who was 54 when she died on Oct. 6 after fighting cancer.

The new swingset will go at Pee Wee Park, a part of Bullard Park with playground equipment for young children. The Village Board approved spending $3,727 for the swingset during its meeting on Wednesday.

LaLonde had volunteered in recent years by spearheading a long-term master plan for Bullard Park. The village sought a state grant to implement some of those improvements but was denied in the most recent funding round.

In other action at Wednesday’s meeting:

Sgt. Joe Fuller notified the village he plans to retire from the Police Department in June after a 20-year career.

Larsen Engineers did an initial survey of village-owned buildings to see if the sites are good candidates for installing solar panels to help reduce the village’s electric bills.

The company looked at the DPW garage on Washington Street and sewer plant on Densmore Street. Those buildings have enough space for panels that would cut Albion’s electric bill by 17 percent, according to Larsen.

The village would like more savings than that if it pursues a solar project, village officials said.

DPW Superintendent Dale Brooks said he will work with the firm to identify other possible locations. Larsen worked with Medina to install panels at the Medina DPW and at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, a project that Brooks said has been a success in cutting Medina’s electric bills.

The board renewed the lease with the Orleans Economic Development Agency. The EDA will pay $22,080 in 2014 to use the second floor of 121 North Main St., a village owned building. That is up from $21,600 in 2013. The EDA will pay a monthly rent of $1,840.