PLATTSBURGH — The rubber’s through the road, literally, in sections of the driveway and parking lot of the Plattsburgh United Methodist Church located at 127 Beekman St.
“Paving the Way Forward” is the grassroots campaign to address the church’s deteriorating infrastructure that serves not only the church, but the Interfaith Food Shelf, Head Start, Scouting America, Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, nonprofits, civic groups, educational programs and volunteer organizations.
“It was paved in the ‘70s, which went over the original 1956 paving. So, this would be the third paving of the parking lot,” Bonnie Black, PUMC trustees chair, said.
“There are two ways to do this. I just finished with a very nice gentleman, who really knows his business and that we really can’t afford. The idea way is, as he says, to mill or in other words to turn up the entire area and then level it. Take the milling away, and then put in good crushed stoned, compact it all, and then bind it and then a top coat. Just for the major section, that’s about the price the whole thing was three years ago from a firm that was not going to do that whole kind of a job. This top of the line. We won’t have to do this for 60 or 70 years.”
Two-thirds of Phase One has been raised due to a Cloudsplitter Foundation grant of $5,000 and generous church members, according to a press release.
“I don’t see how we’re going to be able to fund this because this one section is $153,000, and we thought it was $32,000. He’s going to look at more of a temporary, in other word, five-10-year kind of thing, knowing we’ll have to come up with this amount six digit amount in that time. I really wanted to get it all done forever. That’s been my philosophy as chair of the trustees. Whatever we do — the roof, the paving, fixtures inside — we do it forever. None of this little patchy staff. I don’t know how we’re going to do this one section at $153,000,” she said.
This was the second quote, and others will be sought. It is essential this portion is paved before winter, so PUMC is reaching out to the wider community to close the gap, according to the release.
At the moment, the church seeks placement on the New York State Register of Historic Places.
“As soon as we get on the Register, then I can go for grants. We don’t come up until September or early October for the state to approve us. I don’t have a way to leverage a capital grant. This is not serving people. So actually, the idea that he and I talking about is that if we could do the interim, sort of the five to 10 on the worst places here, then he’s going to give me an estimate on that,” Black said.
The interim fix would inch the church forward.
“Once we’re on the National Register, then I could maybe get a $150,000 to do it the right way. Right now, it looks like we’re going to need more than what we estimated three years ago for this section,” Black said.
Thus far, fundraisers have included a July ice-cream social with the Strawhatters Concert Band, which raised $1,100.
“We haven’t had another event yet, but we’re looking at having to do many more events to do this. We’re going to need a minimal amount of repair to the driveway, until we can go for the some capital grants when we get accepted. Once you get on the New York State Historic Register, then you have access to capital grants, which you don’t typically have access to unless you are a National Historic Register building,” Black said.