A step closer: Church seeks permit to rebuild its sanctuary

Published 8:48 pm Monday, January 19, 2015

Washington’s First Christian Church is taking another step toward rebuilding its sanctuary after a fire destroyed it April 28, 2014.

Washington’s Board of Adjustment is scheduled Thursday to consider the church’s request for a special-use permit to rebuild on property at 401 E. Third St., which is adjacent to where the sanctuary was located on East Second Street. The Third Street property is zoned R6S (single family residential). The board would have to issue a special-use permit for the church to construct new facilities there. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

Last week, adjoining property owners were mailed notices about the request and the board’s meeting.

Since the fire, the church has been conducting worship services at the Red Men’s Lodge on East Third Street and other church-related meetings at various locations. The church was established in 1891.

COURTESY OF CITY OF WASHINGTON
REBUILDING: The congregation of Washington’s First Christian Church wants to build its new sanctuary on this site between East Second and East Third streets.

An investigation determined a malfunctioning baptismal caused the fire.

The application for the special-use permit, signed by Bryan Ross, chairman of the church’s properties department, states the proposed use will not adversely affect existing uses of adjacent properties and the health and safety of city residents. It also states the proposed building is being developed in compliance with state building and fire codes.

“What we decided from everything is we’re going to rebuild the church in the parking lot over there, between Second and Third Streets,” Ross said in a brief interview. “We’ve got architectural plans and a we’ve builder onboard. We’re just trying to get the permitting process done.”

Ross addressed how the church plans to pay for the new building.

“I’m hoping, and I say hoping — and that’s one of the things the congregation gave us when we started working on the plans — is to build it within the parameters of the insurance money so we don’t have to have a capital campaign,” he said.

Ross said sometime this week, possibly today, WIMCO is expected to erect a sign on the property, a sign that will show the proposed layout of the proposed new building and other details. WIMCO is a general contractor based in Washington.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.