Londonderry church construction pauses for winter

By Chris Mays

cmays@reformer.com @CMaysReformer on Twitter

First Baptist Church of South Londonderry construction will pick back up in April.

LONDONDERRY >> First Baptist Church of South Londonderry has paused construction for the winter after builders and the church community decided holding off would be best.

"A lot of the stuff that needed to be done now, we would have had to heat," Co-Pastor Kathleen Blackey said. "This gives us time to see where we're at and see what we need to do in the future. Everybody was happy with the decision."

Efforts to rebuild the church, which burned down in a fire in August 2010, began over the summer. The foundation was poured, walls were constructed and the roof was placed on the building that will be in the same spot as its predecessor and can already be seen while crossing the bridge on Route 100, a press release stated.

Construction is expected to begin again at the beginning of April. Previously, church officials expected construction to continue through the winter. Brick will be added to the sanctuary portion of the building and shingling to the roof when construction resumes.

So far, donations have helped move the project forward and people are still contributing funds through firstbaptistlondonderryvt.org.

"We're hoping as long as we can get the funding that we need, we'll open maybe next fall. But it's hard to say at this point," said Blackey. "We're doing more work to figure it out all out."

Another approximately $600,000 may be necessary for completing the project, Blackey estimated. She said one of the challenges of building a new commercial building in Vermont involves regulation. There are codes that need to be followed.

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Londonderry church construction pauses for winter