Church to break ground on $500,000 addition

By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

July 02, 2009 12:37 am

— CONNEAUT — Sunday morning’s worship service at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church will have special significance and a few special guests mingled among the congregation.
Included in the 8:30 a.m. service will be a ground-breaking ceremony to kick off construction of a $500,000 addition to the church, at Grove Street and Lake Road.
“It’s a service within a service,” said the Rev. Franklin Gore, pastor.
Besides the usual parishioners, invitees include city leaders and representatives of Schwartz Construction of Conneaut, which will tackle the job starting Monday, Gore said. The project will create more classrooms — more than a half-dozen — and extra storage space, he said.
In addition, a flat portion of the roof, which has been subject to leaks, will see a new pitched roof, Gore said. The entire project should be finished by the end of summer, he said.
The project is part of a three-phase program that’s on a faster track than anticipated, Gore said. The phase set to begin Monday is three years ahead of schedule, he said.
“We’re moving right along,” Gore said.
The final phase is the construction of a family center, open to the entire city, on vacant church-owned land on the opposite side of Grove. That ambitious project may be a few years from becoming reality, Gore said.
“That will take an entire community,” he said. “That’s our long-term vision.”