Weeks after news broke that an aging rural church with a crumbling foundation would be demolished – two local companies have volunteered to make the repairs necessary to keep it standing.
Back on Feb. 20, when CTV News first reported on the story of Spaca Moskalyk, Tom Bradka with Helical Pier Systems or HPS, and Kevin Braddell of Abarent Construction were both watching.
Almost serendipitously, they both had the same thought.
“I was watching this newscast, and what struck me is that these people wanted to destroy something that really didn’t require that, because it was just a foundation problem,” Bradka said.
Soon after, Bradka contacted the church to donate HPS’s screw-in pilings and engineering expertise to fix the foundation.
Enter Braddell – who works for a company that would install the pilings.
“I saw the same story, and I was thinking the same thing that Tom was,” Braddell said.
It’s a procedure both companies have done for larger and heavier structures – including some historic ones.
The church’s designation as a historic building had previously lead to a financial barrier for parishioners looking to fix it – as it was estimated repairing the foundation to certain specifications would cost about $750,000, a sum the church couldn’t come up with.
However, after it was decided in 2011 to demolish the structure by burning it down, the historic designation was transferred to the nearby bell tower which allowed for other options that couldn’t be considered before.
For now, the demolition has been put on hold indefinitely, while the bishop considers options.
In the meantime, the two companies will tour the church, and will wait to hear back from church officials, to see if they can start work to save the building.
With files from David Ewasuk
