ROANOKE, Va. -

The famous steeples in Roanoke that came toppling down are now being used to help preserve the church and Roanoke Catholic School's future.

It's been less than a year since the construction at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. Drive down Interstate 581 and the brand new steeples greet you as you enter downtown Roanoke from the North.

The new steeples are steel and should last as long as the church itself, according to a man who was able to scoop up some of the used wood from the previous steeples.

It's truly amazing what you can do with things most people would throw away. In the case of that man and the old St. Andrew's steeples, the past is being used to help preserve the future.

Waste is a word that doesn't exist in the workshop at Black Dog Salvage. With a few screws and some precision cuts, Mike Whiteside and his team can find a use for almost anything.

"We're always looking for salvage opportunities in our area because we like working here," Black Dog Salvage Co-Owner Mike Whiteside said.

Black Dog was there when the old wood steeples came down and the new steel ones went up at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. They weren't a contractor on the project, but the undertaking was featured on an episode of the show Salvage Dawgs airing on the DIY Network. The wood was offered to Black Dog Salvage rather than sending it to a dump.

"The steeple wood was basically a throw away, we went in and cleaned up that pile of wood," Whitside said. "I didn't want to throw it away, I wanted to keep it."

In true Black Dog fashion Whiteside went to work with the reclaimed wood doing what he and his team do best, creating one of a kind treasures.

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Old St. Andrew's Catholic Church steeples funding its future

John R. North, a retired civil engineer and church organist, died March 6 at York Hospital in York, Pa., of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 77.

The son of Clyde M. North, a Green Spring Dairy stationary engineer, and Edna Erhardt North, a homemaker, John Richard North was born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville.

He was a 1958 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and after earning a civil engineering degree in 1966 from Johns Hopkins University, he served in the Maryland Air National Guard.

During his engineering career, Mr. North worked for the Williams Construction Co., Rouse Co., H.A. Harris and BEKA Industries as an estimator on heavy highway, building construction and bridge construction projects.

In later years, he had his own company, where he worked until retiring in 2009.

A longtime Parkton resident, Mr. North was an accomplished musician who played a variety of instruments including the organ, piano and harpsichord.

Mr. North began playing the organ when he was 14 years old, and in 1996 earned a degree in organ performance from what is now the Community College Baltimore County Essex.

He had been church organist at several churches in Baltimore County and most recently was organist at St. James' Episcopal Church in Parkton.

During the 1990s, he was the accompanist on the harpsichord for the Goucher College dance troupe and for Choreographie Antique.

He had been a supporting member since 1983 of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

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John R. North, civil engineer

Church Construction Day Two Raising Roof Joists Philippines
I made a video of these men when they raised the first roof joist with only a pulley and a home made center beam. I returned next day out of curiosity to see...

By: Jack Northrup

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Church Construction Day Two Raising Roof Joists Philippines - Video

RACHEL MOLENDA | Gazette photos

A drone flies around the steeple of Kanawha United Presbyterian Church on Thursday. The churchs building and grounds committee hired an Ohio company, CIS Steeplejacks, to take inventory of needed repairs.

A small drone, less then a square yard in size, rose slowly off the ground on Virginia Street and began circling the steeple of Kanawha United Presbyterian Church shortly before noon on Thursday.

The drone, flying quietly, took photographs all around the aging steeple in an effort to analyze what repairs and updates the structure needs.

Michael Hardin traveled to Charleston from CIS Steeplejacks, the company he has operated out of Medina, Ohio, since 1992. Hardin brought the drone in his car and operated it with equipment on a small, movable table.

Drones, Hardin said, make it possible for building owners to avoid bringing in large cranes and riggings to inspect the upper floors and roofs of their buildings.

Hardin has worked to maintain and repair church steeples for more than 30 years, since he was 16.

I never venture out of that realm. That is my forte, Hardin said. We do the actual construction work as well for churches. It is all about maintenance.

A heavy 10-foot piece of metal recently fell off one side of the Kanawha United Presbyterian steeple, along with several pieces of wood, drawing attention to the need to maintain the structure in the church completed in 1885.

Patterson Lyles, the minister at Kanawha United Presbyterian, is leading efforts to get the money needed to repair the steeple in Charlestons oldest house of worship.

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Local church uses drone to assess preservation needs

HYDERABAD: The forcible taking over of St Thomas SPG Church's land at Secunderabad for metro rail construction has taken a new turn with church representatives demanding the land back.

The church representatives along with former MLA of Sanatnagar M Shashidhar Reddy met chief secretary Rajiv Sharma, who is also the chairman of HMRL, and told him about the takeover of 2,007 sq yards of the church land and wanted restoration of the property to the church. They said that they were willing to dismantle, at their cost, the metro pillar that had been built hastily on the land. They explained to the chief secretary how the church had in the past expressed its willingness to cooperate with the metro rail authorities and a 'third option' had also been agreed upon wherein a pillar would be allowed to be built just within seven and a half metres inside the church land.

However, on the night of January 28, the metro rail authorities along with the police had barged into the church premises and occupied 2,007 square yards of land after assaulting the priests and taking them into custody, the church authorities alleged. Addressing a press conference at the church on Wednesday, Shashidhar Reddy said the HMRL's actions showed that they were acting without transparency. He said though the high court had given a stay order, the HMRL authorities without responding to the court order had gone ahead and constructed the metro rail pillar on the church property.

"The church was willing to allow the metro rail to take over a small portion of its land where the Alpha hotel and a petrol bunk stand. It's strange that, instead of accepting the offer, the metro rail authorities chose only to take over the church land," Shashidhar Reddy said.

He also pointed out that the metro rail authorities had chosen to negotiate with the SPG church authorities when it came to constructing a pillar in the cemetery of the church but when it needed the front portion of the church for the same purpose, they negotiated with the Church of South India (CSI) which is also a claimant of the property. "The metro rail authorities are acting in a way that is convenient to them without taking into consideration religious sentiments," Shashidhar Reddy said. At the meeting with the chief secretary on Tuesday, the church authorities even offered to meet the expenditure to remove the metro rail pillar constructed on its premises as they needed the land for its meetings.

Meanwhile, a representative of the church Das Roberts said the HMRL authorities had completed construction of the metro rail pillar even though the matter was in the high court. He said the high court had once again directed the authorities to file their counter on the petition filed by the church against forcible takeover of the church land.

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SPG church seeks demolition of Hyderabad Metro pillars

March 12, 2015, 4 a.m.

St Brigid's Catholic Church will celebrate 150 years this year, with a number of activities planned throughout the year.

St Brigid's School, Parish Priest, Father Greg. Photo: TAYLOR JURD

St Brigid's Catholic Church will celebrate 150 years this year, with a number of activities planned throughout the year.

The actual date of the church's construction is a little fluid, but a barbecue was held earlier this year to commence the many celebrations.

St Brigid's Parish Priest, Father Greg, arrived six weeks ago, but had previously been parish priest between 1991 and 1994.

He said 150 years is a big landmark to achieve.

"It's a big milestone," he said.

Father Greg hopes the celebrations give St Brigid's students and the community a sense of history.

The next celebrations for the sesquicentenary will begin on Friday, May 1 from 6pm at St Brigid's with a Violins, Vespers and Vino event.

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Big celebrations for St Brigids 150th birthday

Map of the affected area of the future project on Church Street. /Matthew Thielke

OTTUMWA, IOWA -- A major construction project will shut down two blocks of Church Street on Ottumwas south side for over two months.

That's what city officials told the public at the informational neighborhood meeting concerning the upcoming Church Street reconstruction project.

The city says starting on April 6, Church Street will be closed from Ransom to Richmond Streets.

During the 10-week project, the city will be installing a new water main along with storm and sanitation lines, as well as putting in new sidewalks.

Ottumwa City Administrator Joe Helfenberger says federal and state grants are the only reason these projects can happen.

We are very happy to be able to do these projects, and the only reason we are able to do as much construction as we can is because the city is gotten about 76 percent grants for the last two years, Helfenberger said.

The city says they are creating custom signs for detouring traffic around the area.

All businesses on Church Street will remain open during the construction work.

The city encourages anyone with questions about the reconstruction project to call or visit city hall.

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Ottumwa prepares for Church Street reconstruction

Every Sunday, the downtown congregation of First Presbyterian Church gets together to talk about one of the more famous carpenters in history.

On March 1, as part of an annual partnership with Habitat for Humanity called Project 240, church members gave the old trade a try. The project turned the First Presbyterian parking lot into a construction site as about 300 volunteers worked to build the frames of five Habitat houses within the span of 240 minutes.

Interim Pastor Ron Scates made his way through the crowd of volunteers as music blasted overhead.

This is absolutely awesome, he said. Just to see all these folks, Id like to say, 'walking the walk instead of 'talking the talk. Its easy to go to church then go home but these folks are sacrificing their time, their energy. Theres a lot of other things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Habitat for Humanity official Stephanie Wiese said Project 240 has been going strong for four years. Habitat works with about 15,000 volunteers each year to build apprximately 55 homes throughout San Antonio.

Habitat needs lots of supporters, so we cant do it without the help of churches like First Presbyterian, Wiese said. The more the merrier.

Ruth Bixcul, 34, and her son, John Saenz, 11, will live in one of the homes assembled at the event. Bixcul, who came to San Antonio from Houston about a decade ago, will live with Saenz near JT Brackenridge Elementary school on the near West Side.

Its really exciting, especially bringing our kids so they can see what its like to be part of building homes for people like us people who need a home, an affordable home, said Bixcul, whos already logged about 300 sweat equity hours with Habitat, where future homeowners also work alongside volunteers.

Saenz has been with his mom every step of the way.

It feels good to be working on this house, he said. (We) have an opportunity here.

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Downtown church lays frames for West Side homes

The Madison Plan Commission delayed the construction of a new church and elementary school on the east side during its meeting Monday night, after high costs forced architects to change their original plans for the building.

Architect David Baum, who presented the changes to the commission, said costs for the new church had increased over the winter and exceeded its budget, leading the architects to redesign the buildings planned gymnasium.

We tried to anticipate that [cost] by providing three options with the basement, a half gym and material reductions, and those didnt even satisfy the costs, Baum said.

The church and elementary school belong to the Holy Cross Lutheran Church. The ministry is planning to relocate from its longtime home on Milwaukee Street to a 12-acre plot on Holy Cross Way, on the eastern edge of town. The church hopes to expand its early childhood center and elementary school with the larger space, according to its website.

In order to cut costs, one of the gyms walls would have to be built from metal rather than the original cement, Baum said.

Baum said the metal would have to be painted a different color from the buildings cement walls because they are different materials. Designers made that change Monday morning, too soon for a colored elevation plan to be redrawn. This led the commission to hold off on making a decision until new colored elevations were submitted.

[The Plan Commission] asked for us to submit colored elevations to ensure that we dont just have a big, green building, Baum said. They want some interest to the building based on the colors.

During that meeting, the Plan Commission also approved extending the construction period for a new St. Paul University Catholic Center on State Streets 700 block. St. Paul plans to break ground for the new church in 2016.

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Plan Commission delays church construction

NEW YORK (WABC) --

The afternoon sun broke through the clouds as the majestic procession for Cardinal Egan got underway at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Priests and clergy, bishops and cardinals entered the great cathedral as New York's current archbishop - Timothy Cardinal Dolan - greeted them.

Inside the church, a who's who of dignitaries listened as Cardinal Dolan spoke about his predecessor.

Egan, he said, was a gift from God who worked heroically for parishes, charities, health care and education.

Dolan told the 2,500 people packing the cathedral that Egan "was uncomfortable with eulogies" but Dolan went on to praise him nonetheless. He said Catholics from fellow cardinals to "God's good people" could tell of "consolation given on and after 9/11, prayers offered, sick visited, prisoners encouraged, children taught, immigrants welcomed, and parishes strengthened."

"Now this Church thanks God for him and commends his noble, priestly soul to the everlasting mercy of Jesus," Dolan said.

Egan died Thursday after a heart attack. A Vatican theological force, he led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York for almost a decade, including on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and more than 2,700 died. In the days and weeks that followed, Egan performed many funerals.

"I remember one particular firefighter's funeral that he presided over that was so moving and so beautiful," former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. "And then what people didn't know is even when he didn't preside over a funeral, he would often drive out to a parish and just sit there and give a blessing."

Among those taking part in the funeral Mass were Cardinal Egan's family members, who served as lectors, readers and gift bearers.

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Thousands turn out to bid a final farewell to Cardinal Edward Egan