Church rebuilding following October fire

Published 9:54 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Fire can’t keep an addition to a local church down.

A fire in early October destroyed the roof to the new addition of the Christian Life Assembly of God that was nearing completion is being rebuilt this week.

Within a day, the workers had the beams for the roof up and the addition was beginning to look like its pre-fire self again. The Rev. Darrell Worley said by Friday he expects to have the basic structure up again. After that, the addition will only need shingles and interior work done to complete this stage, Worley said.

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“I’m just glad to get started again,” the pastor said. “It’s only been a few months but it seems like a year to me.”

Worley said the entire project to construct addition should be done within five to six months, if the other subcontractors work as fast the crew that was working on the building onTuesday.

Constructdion of the addition before the fire was projected to cost about $920,000, which included a new parking lot, landscaping, exterior lighting and remodeling of the old building. Since the fire also damaged the original section of the church with water and smoke, local businesses, residents and other churches have lent a hand in remodeling that section of the church. Now Worley expects completion of the addition to cost about $700,000.

The addition will increase the seating capacity of the church from 170 to 450, alleviating the need to hold two Sunday worship sessions that the church is having to implement this Sunday, one at 8:30 a.m. and another at 11 a.m., Worley said.

Worley said he would like to thank all the numerous businesses, individuals and other churches for their support since the fire.