Damaged church under repair
ZELIENOPLE — Construction crews continued to work on the damaged Park United Presbyterian Church Wednesday amid the communitywide preparations for Horse Trading Days, which began this morning.
The southern wall of the church on Grandview Avenue near the intersection with Main Street was badly damaged when it was hit by a truck that had veered off the road Monday morning.
The damaged area has been surrounded by a chain-link fence to keep a safe buffer between the building and Four Corners Park as crews work to clear the debris.
A crew from FireDEX used a cherry-picker to remove bricks from the south wall of the church and loose or damaged bricks on the west wall, said Eric Migliorisi of FireDEX.
While removing the bricks, the crew exposed blackened wood near the roof that had been damaged in a 1910 fire, Migliorisi said.
The workers also removed the stained-glass windows, boarded up the window frames, removed loose barnstone from the foundation and shored up the corner of the building, though additional structural work will need to be done, he said.
Jennifer Ackerman, director of the Zelienople Harmony Area Chamber of Commerce, said that the blocked-off area in Four Corners Park would have been used for vendors.
“We did lose about half of the park, but I was able to relocate all of the vendors,” she said.
One popular vendor that will be moved is the Amish doughnut seller, which would have been next to the church and used the building for water and electricity.
The gazebo, also in the northeastern corner park, still will be used for live entertainment as scheduled, Ackerman said.
Church volunteers also prepared Wednesday for its flea market that will be in Park Hall, the church's multiuse building that is next to the main building.
The flea market will go on as planned for all three days of Horse Trading Days as will the live entertainment Saturday in the parking lot, said church member Leona Marburger.The church's long-term plan is to rebuild the damaged parts of the building to look like they did before, the Rev. Paul Merrill said.A contractor will be hired by its insurance company to rebuild, a process that likely will take several months to complete.In the meantime, it is unknown if any part of the building will be available for use, Merrill said.The church has a membership of 150 people, and typically has about 110 people combined to attend its two Sunday worship services, he said.Though not ideal, Park Hall will be able to accommodate everyone.“There's plenty of room in there, we will be fine,” he said.
