Roof in ruins
High winds cause substantial damage to new roof at former church
A community group hoping to repurpose a closed church is devastated after high winds caused substantial damage to the new roof on the former St. Alphonsus church on Thursday.
“We don’t know how much the damage will be yet but it will be into the thousands,” said Melanie Sampson, chair of the Stone Church Restoration Society, noting the society owes $14,000 for the original roofing materials.
“We have a large bill for the materials for the roof and now we are looking at a much larger one because of repairs that will have to be done.”
Sampson said she found out about the damage after members of the Canadian Armed Forces called her from the church grounds at about 7 a.m. on Thursday.
The military provided the labour in replacing the church’s decaying roof as part of its Exercise Nihilo Sapper 2017, which recently finished up in Cape Breton.
Arriving at the scene, she said the roof was a mess, with a large number of shingles missing.
“I felt so bad for the soldiers,” she said. “They worked so hard and put their heart and soul into this. They did a fabulous job through terrible weather and were proud of their work.”
Sampson said perhaps Mother Nature is to blame for
the high winds that tore the shingles off, but she also believes that if it weren’t for the delays caused by the Diocese of Antigonish, the project would have been completed during the recent mild weather. This would have helped set the shingles, instead of the cold and rainy weather the military was forced to work in.
“Obviously the diocese can’t be blamed for the wind. But because of the diocese not dealing with us in a timely manner and tying up this deed and the roof project not begin able to start on time because of that, this has come at a grave cost to us.”
In September 2015, the diocese accepted an offer of $40,000 from the society for the former church. As per the agreement, payment was made in four instalments, the last being made in August 2016.
The agreement was to see the society given the deed for the church in January 2016 after the first $20,000 was raised. The entire $40,000 was raised by the agreed July 2016 date but there was still no deed.
In the meantime, the Canadian Armed Forces agreed to restore the church’s roof. But Sampson said the diocese’s delays put this in jeopardy, as the society needed proof of ownership before the military would agree to do the work.
“It’s all because we were tied up waiting for the diocese and left the soldiers sitting here idle for days waiting for us to get the deed.”
Sampson the soldiers returned to Gagetown, N.B., on Wednesday, except for four left behind to finish off smaller jobs such as tacking down extra shingles in preparation for winter.
Sampson said the soldiers told her there was nothing they could do about the shingles on Thursday because of the high winds.
“They were going to get more supplies and the armed forces was keeping them here until Saturday to see what they could do to temporarily fix the roof for now. They promised they will be here sometime late spring or early summer to do repairs.” Sampson said the military also had agreed to do the electricity and heating. But without the deed from the diocese, the society could not apply for grants to pay for the materials and lost out on a chance to get this work done.
In a recent story in the Cape Breton Post, the diocese was asked about the society’s concerns about the delays in getting the deed.
A spokesperson for the diocese said if the society has concerns they should bring them to the diocese, as they will not negotiate the sale of this building in the press.
The diocese also said if the society is no longer interested in a, they are welcome to withdraw.