Service to mark church project

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - Members of the Christ United Methodist Church on Rocky Hill Road will gather Sunday to celebrate a recently completed $500,000 building renovation with a dedication at 10 a.m. followed by a lunch at 11:30.

Kirk Birrell, building committee chairman, the celebratory church service will be presided over by the Rev. Michael R. Stotts, the current pastor of the church and the Rev. Peter A. Hey, who was pastor when the idea for renovations was first proposed more than 10 years ago.

Renovations, which took 28 weeks to complete, include the installment of a three-stop elevator, the modification of bathrooms for disabled access and the creation of a four-stall women's bathroom; the re-painting and re-carpeting of the church's sanctuary; replacing old pews; a new entrance to the church's organ loft; and an expansion of the pastor's office.

"We spent $500,000 on these renovations and that is something the community should appreciate because a lot of jobs were created in conjunction with this," Birrell said. "It's nice to know that in this economy, someone is still spending some bucks."

The original plan in 2000 included a major expansion, but Roxanne A. Pin, chairwoman of the church's capital campaign, said as time passed renovations became the top priority.

"We had actually talked about adding on to the building but scaled back to those plans and focused more on the immediate needs and making the church more welcoming," Pin said.

Also discovered during the work, Birrell said, were deficiencies in the church's bell tower, which required the removal of the bells and some renovations to the inside.

"We hope to have those bells on display in front of the church sometime soon," Birrell said.

The event will include a tour of the renovations, a scavenger hunt and addresses from Hey, Stotts and Mark Ledwell, the General Contractor for Wright Builders Inc.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.