Mars borough one step closer to repairing abandoned church
MARS — There may be a new lease of life on the horizon for the long-abandoned Dutilh United Methodist Church building in Mars.
At their meeting on Monday night, Nov. 20, the Mars borough council indicated they would soon act on a quote of $12,900 for repairs to the structure, although no decision was voted on.
For the moment, most of the repairs would be concentrated on the church’s bell tower. This would involve repointing the brick structure — repairing the mortar — as well as removing the two sets of louvers on the tower and replacing them with a fiber cement siding.
“We decided to regrout, repoint (the bricks), fix the bell tower, and look into the gutter system,” said council vice president Robert Bost.
The borough received two quotes. The other quote, which comes in around $20,870, involves tearing down the church’s bell tower and filling in the resulting hole in the roof.
“It's cheaper to do the pointing and do the repairs to the gutter work than it is to take the steeple off and do a new roof on that part of the building,” said Mars Mayor Gregg Hartung.
Although council prefers the option that keeps the bell tower intact, no final decision was made Monday night. According to borough secretary/treasurer Bonnie Forsythe, council will seek an updated quote addressing the bell tower’s gutter problems.
Before its closure in mid-2018, the building at 525 Pittsburgh St. in Mars was occupied by the Dutilh United Methodist Church, which used it as an auxiliary campus to their still-operational main church in Cranberry Township.
“I think the group that was in there was getting too small, and the overhead for keeping the building up was getting too costly,” Hartung said.
The borough took control of the property in November 2019, purchasing it from Dutilh for $325,000. Since then, there have been debates and proposals regarding what to do with the property. This April, two borough employees — Forsythe and assistant secretary Amy Brown — presented a plan to turn the space into a community center.
However, Forsythe is unsure of whether the community center proposal is even on the table anymore.
“I’d have to go back and talk with the other people who were invested in the project,” Forsythe said. “At this point it’s been so long that the team we put together may no longer be available.”
Hartung said the borough has also received a proposal from a “private business” who expressed interest in moving in and using the old church as office space, although he did not specify which business it was.
