Morinville’s biggest church will sport a steel cage this summer as crews work to renovate its historic steeple.
Steel scaffolds sprung up around Morinville’s St. Jean Baptiste Church last week as part of a $500,000 project to fix its roof, walls and steeple.
The roughly 106-year-old church is one of the town’s most iconic buildings and a provincial historic resource.
But it’s also showing its age. The paint on the inside of the steeple is cracked and falling off in places, and the belfry is known to sway in the wind. Water leaks into the steeple during heavy rains. The church’s north side roof has mould, and its brick frontage has many cracks.
Last fall, church and community members raised some $349,393.62 to address these problems. The federal government chipped in a $250,000 grant this past March.
Now, it’s up to site superintendent Don Ferguson and his fellow workers with Delnor Construction to get the job done.
A Morinville resident, Ferguson said his company has experience restoring historic landmarks and had previously worked on St. Albert’s Little White Schoolhouse and grain elevators. “This is a beautiful building,” he said of the church, and he’s excited to work on it.
George Johnson of Prairie Gold Scaffolding said his crew should be finished erecting the 46-metre-tall scaffold around the church later this week. They’ve been at it since April 29, despite the blinding snowstorm that froze Morinville that day. Hot drinks and warm coats helped them get through that, he said.
The scaffold itself weighs about 30,000 pounds, Johnson said – equivalent to about two elephants – and includes about 600 deck plates, all of which must be hauled up piece by piece during construction. They’ll re-inspect it for safety purposes every 21 days, and then take it apart from top to bottom when the job’s done.
The church’s historic nature makes the renovation a tricky task. “On a house renovation, it’s usually quite often rip-and-tear,” Ferguson said, but here he has to preserve as much of the church as possible. Everything they take off – even individual bricks – must be tracked, numbered, and restored to its original place by the end of the job. Anything replaced must be custom-made to match the historic character of the building.
It also meant special steps for the scaffolding, Johnson said. “Damaging the building is not an option in any way,” he said, so they couldn’t drill into the brick to anchor everything as they usually would. Instead, they’ve buttressed the scaffolding against the church itself for support. The top of the scaffold will also be hooked to guy-wires at each corner anchored to 1,000-pound concrete blocks.
Crews plan to re-paint and re-caulk the church windows, Ferguson said, re-shingle part of the roof, and remove and replace some of the bricks. They’ll likely have to do some additional work to the roof and belfry, but won’t know what until they inspect both later this month.
This is a high-profile project that’s drawn a lot of community attention, Johnson said. “Every day, there are a lot of people taking pictures.”
Father Ignacy Warias, who runs the church, thanked all the local residents who made the renovation possible, and asked them to pray for good weather and the health and safety of the workers involved.
The church will remain open during construction, he continued, with services held as normal. “People will be happy to see that this icon is being preserved.”
The renovations should be complete by August, Ferguson said.
Questions should go to Warias at 780-939-4412.
