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11/08/2009
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Staff photo by Andy Molloyfrom the Kennebec Journal
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from the Morning Sentinel
Now a town deadline has passed that orders plans for removal or repair of the steeple.
The building's occupant is a basement food pantry run by Earl Lemieux.
"We're hoping to get it fixed," Lemieux said. "The whole thing is they're kind of forcing us to take it down.
"But I had a carpenter up there the other day and he thinks it can be fixed without too much problem. I talked to (Code Enforcement Officer Arthur Strout) last week. He said he wants it down by the end of the month. We don't have any money for that."
Strout issued a 10-day correction order to Lemieux in mid-October to create a "specific plan of action."
Lemieux claims control of the building because the church no longer has a minister or congregation.
"Nobody owns the church," Lemieux said. "Whoever is occupying the church has control of it. We are occupying it right now. We have the food pantry there that serves 69 families in Whitefield and Alna and this is what we don't want to lose. That's what's keeping us there, more or less."
Resident Stephen Smith said the church was a multifaith church -- different congregations were so small they shared the building. He was a member of a volunteer committee that sought funding in 2007 to restore the steeple and preserve the 140-year-old church for community use.
Smith said the Whitefield Union Church Preservation Committee spoke with the church's pastor and remaining members in 2007.
"We approached Lemieux and the minister and what few members of the church they had, like two or three, about working and getting grants to repair the steeple and we basically got no cooperation. In fact they refused us," Smith said.
"The issue is the title and (Lemieux) doesn't have one. I have as much authority there as he does. And he doesn't have any. It's a public building. It's a beautiful historic church with painted ceilings and walls behind the old 1950-type paneling.
"My interest is to maintain the building," Smith said. "My family has been in the area for a long time, they were members of the original settlers. And I know my grandmother went to that church."
Selectmen plan to discuss the steeple at their meeting, Monday at 7 p.m. in the Town Office.
Selectwoman Susan McKeen said the church is a beautiful building that because of neglect has "gone to rack and ruin."
Meanwhile, keeping the public safe is Strout's primary concern.
"They've got to do something. It's leaning more than it did last year and it was bad last year," said Strout, the code officer. "My main concern is public safety more than anything else. There's a lot of school buses that go by there and it's leaning towards the road."
Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, ext. 408
mcooper@centralmaine.com
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