Rural church could be saved: Contractors, after inspection

CTV Edmonton: Saving aging church is possible A rural Catholic Church at risk of being burned down could be saved – after two companies who offered to help rebuild it toured the building

In a follow up to a story CTV News first reported in late February, two Edmonton-area contractors believe an aging Catholic Church near Mundare could be saved – and both are hoping to donate their efforts to rebuild the foundation.

Up until recently, the future of Spaca Moskalyk, an 89-year-old abandoned Ukrainian Catholic Church, was for demolition by burning.

According to church officials, the aging structure is in good shape, but the crumbling foundation made the building unsafe – and in 2011, faced with the massive cost of repairing the historic foundation, parishioners voted overwhelmingly to demolish it.

The cost to repair the foundation neared $750,000, due to the church’s historic designation.

However, two contractors in the capital region saw the initial report, and were moved to help; Tom Bradka with Helical Pier Systems (HPS) and Kevin Braddell of Abarent Construction both pledged to try and repair the foundation at no cost, before even seeing inside.

On Thursday, the pair had a first-hand look at the inside of the building – and both believe it could be saved.

“The floor system itself has good capability for us to put beams under and be successful supporting it,” Braddell said.

“Kevin and I talked about it, and it’s something we think we can do, we’ve just got to get in there and get intricate with it,” Bradka said

The only issue standing in the way now is whether the church has enough money to fix and maintain the rest of the building, once the foundation is repaired.

“If you fix that, you have to do work on the rest of it, you can’t leave it the way it is,” Parish V.P. of Spaca Moskalyk Dennis Fedoruk said.

If not, there’s a chance the church could still end up in ashes.

With files from David Ewasuk