The 100th Anniversary Project update March 16, 2010
Dedication Service – 100th Anniversary Restoration & Renovation Project – 03/14/10
It was wonderful to see so many faces in our Church on March 14th celebrating the completion of the renovation project. The Lord’s house was packed. Special guests were former Pastor Fred and JoAnn Westermaier, and their daughter, Rebekah and former Pastor Howard Fritz and his wife, Marian, and Beverly McConnell from the Commission on Ministry. Also in attendance were Robert Stoelker and his wife (the construction engineer); general contractors, Bob Evans and his sons, Matt and Bob, and their wives, from Evans & Sons; and a representative and his wife from Eric Hafer & Associates, the architects. We also had Mayor Rink with us.
This project was first headed by Pastor Fred and Rick Rettinger.
Anyone who has ever been involved in a renovation project can appreciate the magnitude of obstacles we faced from initially identifying our problems, including many structural defects that could have rendered our Church unsafe, establishing a plan of action, organizing task forces and finding the right construction engineer, architects and contractors.
There were years of fund raisers including the annual yard sale, bake sales and most memorable dinners organized and cooked by Tony and Bonnie Bolton and Jack and Floss Zane. Bonnie Bolton also organized several Peach Festivals. Other fund raisers included the Riversharks games and the lucrative (and fun) Blues Brothers, with the theme “We are on a Mission from God” golf outing, headed by Rick Rettinger and his family.
We met our goals and today we have a Church that is safe, handicap accessible with a new elevator system, new bathrooms, meeting rooms and library, a new Pastor’s office, a large coat closet, magnificent sliding doors that separate the sanctuary and hallway, and a beautiful grand entrance hallway that welcomes everyone to worship.
This is a new era in the First Presbyterian Church of Barrington. Our goal for this Church most importantly was to see this renovation project through which would enable us to move forward and meet new challenges. Phase III is next!
Our deepest gratitude goes out to everyone who has been involved in this renovation project. Many, many, many hours were spent by Bob Finch and Sylvia Hearne at the Church seeing this project through. The fine craftsmanship of the contractors and attention to detail was admired by everyone.
The following is a replication of Bob Finch’s dedication speech from March 14th:
Good morning everyone and welcome to the Dedication service for our 100th Anniversary Restoration & Renovation Project. We are here to celebrate the completion of an important step in making our church a safe comfortable place to worship God.
I am very pleased with how things turned out. We have not overdone it. The new work complements and fits in with the original design and feeling of our Church. Though there is one thing that you don’t see too often and that is stained glass windows in the restrooms.
Members who have just started using the new rooms say they feel comfortable in them. This makes me happy. As the work progressed, I also got joy out of seeing each important step being completed.
During the Project the work went fairly smooth although General Contractor Matt Evans did have to deal with one thing on the job he did not expect. When he would call out and say, “hey Bob look at this”, five of us Bobs would show up.
Thanks to the following people for a job well done:
Engineers Robert Stoelker & Michael Villanueva from Eden Analytical
Architects Ryan Day and Jeff Mayberry from Eric Hafer & Associates
General Contractors Bob Evans and his sons Matt & Bob from Evans & Sons
Face Lift Committee Members Bob Kessler and Sylvia Hearne
And most importantly, I thank all the people present and not who contributed their time and money to this project. Without your contributions none of this would have happened.
I don’t think of this as the end of a phase in our project but as the beginning of our second 100 years caring for each other and reaching out to the community and the world with the good news about Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you all for attending and sharing in our celebration service.
In addition to the photos below there are more under “Pictures.”
