Friends and Family for Center

I am pleased with such a turn out for the last meeting with Preservation North Dakota, especially on such short notice. We were fortunate that the weather held nice for us that day. As we step into spring it is hard to tell what the weather will bring. It is not unlikely to have a blizzard one day and 70 to 80 degree weather the next.

This letter is to supplement the regular news letter for Friends and Family for Center. Some issues that I did not bring up in the news letter are as follows : we do need to get together with the Cemetery Board to discuss any arrangement we can come to in regards to the church and being able to work on it, we need to address the issue of the wall that has become so famous, and the quote on how much to take care of the basement.

First in line open for discussion is what do you as individuals and as a group feel that we can come together with the Cemetery Board to help secure the future of Center Church ? I know we are wanting to see the church fixed and to stay where it is for the future generations, which is probably our ultimate goal, but what kind of arrangement ideas do you think would work? Do you think as a whole, that we would be able to secure an interest in the church by taking control of the church by way of purchase, since in fact they did have the church and all belongings for sale in anyone in the local newspapers, or do you think that we could join in a partnership with there board in the decision making part of the church, leaving the ownership to the Cemetery Board, and loosing grant moneys because we don�t own the building, but we could fix it and risk the ideas of someone else down the road to try and sell the church for scrap again. I personally think to secure our interest we would be able to have half ownership, this would open the window for grants, plus it would save an ultimate loss of the church if it was to be sold out from under us. Any ideas in this matter?

Second line of discussion is the wall repair and/or stabilization to prevent a cave in that would ultimately cause severe damage and rune to the building. I have a quote from Heyd Construction on the wall and the other walls. It is steep in prices but it is a worst case scenario and not taking into the fact that we could manage some of the work ourselves and if we had donated materials. The bid was $18,600 and that would remove the old wall, building a new wall to meet historic standard and replace the cement walk on the south side. The other bid was $12,700 to build interior walls on the north and east walls, pouring concrete footings for stabilizing the walls and connecting the walls together. This also covers the removal of the north walk. I know it is a lot of money, but I think we will be able to find someone who would be closer to a figure that we can work with. This is just a base bid to find out what we are looking at as far as the expense and how quick we need to do something. Heyd did say that the wall does need to be supported for safety and to prevent cave in. A few braces can be fashioned to help buy us some time and can ultimately save the wall and building from any further damage.

The biggest issue is when to meet with the Cemetery Board. This needs to be done soon so we can see where we sit and every one can get back to normal, as far as that goes. I would like to paint the church this spring before any services are held, so we need to talk to the board and ask for permission. Maybe since they have such an interest and the money for the church and cemetery, that they could pay for paint and we could take care of labor? Just a thought, this would show them that we are serious about the church and how much we care.

I will be asking for a meeting shortly with us and with the Cemetery Board, hopefully the same day so we can get the ball rolling on the painting and bracing of the wall. Thank you for listening.

Sincerely yours,

Ann Lilleoien-Ridl