Ohio County Provides Funding To Help Finish Dream Center’s Roof
Joselyn King/File Trending
WHEELING - Suff. Bishop Darrell Cummings is praising God and lauding Ohio County Commissioners, who this week passed a motion providing Bethlehem Apostolic Temple with $89,000 in funds needed for the completion of the North Wheeling Dream Center roofing project.
The money is being made possible through an Ohio County community grant.
"Based on my memory, that may be the largest grant we've received for the Dream Center," Cummings said. "It's a shot in the arm, encouragement, and validation that somebody sees what we are trying to do.
"We are extremely grateful to the county commissioners for going through with it. Praise God, and praise the county commission."
The Dream Center is the site for the church's annual distributions of food, clothing and school supplies during holiday seasons and just before school starts.
The building has six separate flat roofs - two of which have been completed, Cummings said. The third roof is presently undergoing work.
In total, the church has thus far invested $63,000 on the roof, with the original bid to do the entire structure coming in at $150,000. Thus, the $89,000 grant should at least come close to completing the project, he continued.
"This takes us to the next step where we can start working on the inside," Cummings said. "All of our money has been going to the roof. Without a roof, the rest of the building doesn't matter. Bless them all."
The commissioner had initially intended to help fund the work through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. But County Administrator Randy Russell advised them the process could take a while, and not be in the best time interest of the project.
Cummings agreed that the roof work needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.
"The longer we take to fix the roof, the more challenges we will have," he said. "This will help us to help others quicker."
Commissioners passed the motion with the provision that Cummings get bids for the roofing work, which is required when government dollars are in play.
Kalkreuth Roofing has thus far done all the roofing work on the Dream Center. Cummings noted he took bids at the start of the project, and they were the low bidder.
"We're just grateful, and we'll do whatever needs to be done," Cummings said.
The church has applied for many grants to complete the roofing work.
"They say they love our programs but can't help our building," Cummings said. "But without the building, there are no programs."
The church is presently working with architect Wendy Scatterday, also a former member of Wheeling City Council, to determine what is going to be done inside the structure
Initial estimates are that $1 million of work is needed to bring the massive four-story complex up to a working standard, Cummings said.
The original intent of the church was to rent out much of the space to start-up businesses to help defer the cost of upgrades. But as the roof started leaking causing damage inside the building, what tenants began there didn't stay.
"Businesses are still the goal, and we still want to be an incubator for new businesses," Cummings said. "We want to feed the hungry, do the clothing and do all we've been doing for the past 30 years.
"We're not changing anything, and this money from the commissioners helps us a great deal," he added.