Pictured is the bell tower at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown during a site visit by potential contractors. The church’s bell tower restoration project is now expected to cost significantly more than previously estimated. Submitted photo

St. Luke Episcopal Church’s bell tower repair project is now expected to cost significantly more than previously estimated.

The Rev. Luke Fodor said that while he is not able to provide specific details regarding potential contracts until the church makes a final determination, he is able to announce that the public bidding period for the project has closed. The church has received what he described as “two qualified bids from reputable firms.” As a result, the church leadership is currently evaluating the next step for the project.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising costs of inflation, St. Luke’s in Jamestown had a professional estimator provide an estimate for the bell tower project. At the time, Fodor said the estimate was roughly $1.6 million.

Now, Fodor said the bidding estimates are significantly higher.

“It was already a stretch at $1.6 million,” he said. “When it was $1.6 million, we thought we could do the financing and pay it back over a certain number of years. At this price point, it’s very difficult to even find financing.”

According to Fodor, the bell tower would cost roughly $2 million to tear down or roughly $2.5 million to fix. While Fodor said the church is committed to finishing the project and restoring the safety and integrity of the bell tower, he indicated that the church will need to raise more funds in order to cover the cost of the repairs.

“We’re still trying to figure out how to value engineer it down,” he said. “We’re in a really difficult place because we had the $500,000 grant from the state. We have $400,000 matching in the bank accounts right now kind of trying to deal with that problem, but that’s give or take $1 million, and then we’re going to need to get a million plus more. That’s the real challenge for us.”

Fodor admitted that maintaining historical structures like St. Luke’s is “really expensive,” which is one reason why he believes public dollars are often allocated to help preserve buildings like St. Luke’s Nevertheless, while the cost of the much-needed repairs to the bell tower will be very costly, Fodor said the church is willing to invest in the project for the benefit of the community.

“The reason that preservation is important is because it’s not just our building, it’s the city’s building,” he said. “What I love is that all the buildings in this town don’t belong to any individual. They are our buildings, and they create a sense of place. When you lose these historic structures, it’s a shame.”

Fodor described the congregation of St. Luke’s as a steward of the building. He explained that in the Episcopal Church, the Diocese owns the church buildings, and the individual congregations are responsible for helping maintain the buildings. Fodor believes the congregation of St. Luke’s serves as a steward for the Diocese as well as a steward for the Jamestown community.

Currently, Fodor said he is working with church-based lending groups to help with additional funding for the project. Fodor said the church is also planning on asking major donors from the parish and people with historic connections to St. Luke’s to consider helping the church with financing options.

One way or another, Fodor said the church will have to find a way to raise the money and complete the bell tower project.

“The truth is, somehow, God always provides not just us because we’re important, but God always provides for all of us when we have the eyes to see and the heart to move,” he said. “We’re praying that some resources open themselves up, and it’s been my experience that generally they do. It’s one of those things through hope and a prayer, we’re trying to get done.”

Fodor said the biblical account of “Isaac and the ram” is a story that provides him with hope that “God provides.”

“That’s just what happens,” he said. “Sometimes it’s through sacrifice and we have to think through how we’re going to do this, and sometimes God just pours out God’s abundance.”

As the church moves forward with the next step of the project, Fodor indicated that the leadership may need to reduce some of the work originally included in the proposal in order to lower the price of the bidding estimates. Whichever way the church chooses to approach the next step, Fodor said the maximum amount he believes the church could afford would be about $2.1 million.

Fodor said the bell tower repair project is something that needs to be completed sooner rather than later.

“It’s not immediately life-threatening, but we’ve seen the deterioration and unless we actually take care of it soon, it’ll be very dangerous,” he said. “We have bricks falling around town constantly, and we’re trying to get ahead of that so that kind of thing doesn’t happen.”

In addition to the significant increase of the bell tower project, Fodor revealed that St. Luke’s did not receive a consolidated funding application grant that the church had applied for this past year to address the second phase of the church’s repair project.

While the bell tower is the first phase of the church’s repair project, the church also plans on addressing other structural issues. Fodor said one of the church walls is “bowing” due to water damage and multiple arches are broken due to the issues with the building settling.

Although the church did not receive the consolidated funding application grant, Fodor remains positive and hopeful that the church’s repair project will be completed one portion at a time.

“It’s always competitive, and we didn’t get it this year, which might be a bit of mercy, because when this price is much more, you can’t bite off more than you can chew,” he said.