Riggers from Cole NYC work on steeple of historic Dutch Reformed Church — now
La Senda Antigua — in Belleville. (inset: Cross at top of steeple had been teetering
precariously before workers safely removed it.)
BELLEVILLE –
The dangling cross at the top of the steeple at the historic former Dutch Reformed Church is safely down and in storage for now and a contractor is repairing the steeple.
The Rev. Miguel Ortiz, pastor of La Senda Antigua Pentecostal, which occupies the church — built in 1853 but whose antecedent structures date from the late 17th century and whose graveyard contains the remains of 66 Revolutionary War soldiers – credited Cole NYC Master Riggers & Steeplejacks with coming to the rescue.
“They heard about us on the news and they were looking for us,” said Ortiz, whose congregation — some four years ago – acquired the building, which was battered by Super-storm Sandy in October 2012 and damaged, anew, by a ferocious windstorm earlier this year.
After contact was finally made, “we got together to see if they could help us out,” Ortiz said.
Chatting with the company’s boss Kenny Cole and learning about the projects the family-owned firm has done over its 40-year existence, the pastor had no doubt that it could help.
Among Cole NYC’s clients have been 40 Wall St., a 70-story skyscraper in Manhattan; 70 Pine St., a 67-story office building also in the Financial Center; the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Coney Island Parachute Jump, the Ashgabat Theme Park in Turkmenistan and the World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan.
Kenny Cole and his rigging crew have been diligently working at the church, at Rutgers and Main Sts., for the past couple of weeks.
“We took down the cross about three weeks ago,” Cole told The Observer last week. That was the 8-foot-long, 120-pound cross at the top of the steeple – 150 feet above the ground. At the same time, the crew also removed a companion piece – a finial, a hefty acorn-shaped cement ornament. Between the two objects, “we’re probably talking around 300 pounds,” Cole said.
Much of the cross’s gold leafing is stripped away – a casualty of old age. “It takes about 200 years for gold leaf to wear off,” Cole said. “We’re going to restore it.”
For now, though, the contractor’s primary focus is – and will continue to be – the ravaged steeple. A report by state experts noted that Sandy’s “high winds and driving rain ripped the steeple and bell tower apart, literally,” displacing the metal cross, tearing and peeling back the steeple’s copper cladding and blowing out the windows in the masonry tower.”
“We want to get it structurally sound on top,” Cole said. “If we don’t secure the outside area, the wind gets in and blows everything around like popcorn. We want to get the surface strong so it’s air-tight and water-tight.”
Kenny Cole with salvaged cross and finial in church basement.
Water infiltration in recent and past years has worn away much of the exterior and interior infrastructure of the building, Ortiz has said previously.
Last week, the Cole NYC riggers – secured by industrial ropes – were perched against the side of the steeple – between 120 and 130 feet high – removing rotting timbers and debris from inside and lowering it in large bags to be deposited in a large dumpster below.
“They’re all certified SPRAT (Society of Professional Rope Access Technician) climbers,” Cole said.
As part of the renovations planned, Cole said that his crew will be replacing the slate tiles covering the surface of the steeple “with something more modern.”
But he hastened to add that the new materials would approximate as closely as possible the historic look of the property which has been designated as a state and federal landmark structure.
“We’re trying to get as much done as we can within our budget of about $250,000,” Cole said. (That’s the amount of funding committed by the state’s Sandy Disaster Relief Grant for Historic Properties to reimburse the church owners for construction expenses.)
Since the financially-strapped congregation is small and is already saddled with repaying the township a $40,000 “loan” used for emergency repairs, La Senda Antigua could not move as quickly as it would have liked to initiate the restoration work needed.
But now, Ortiz told The Observer, Cole NYC “got a provider to help us out” to provide a bridge loan to cover upfront costs for the renovations.
Additional work required, the state report said, will involve “more exhaustive restoration of the steeple and tower including masonry repointing, structural heavy timber repair, new copper cladding and roofing, exterior wood repair around windows and exterior painting.”
Cole is hoping to finish enough work “by Christmas” to at least ensure sufficient protection against further infiltration.
“We still have to raise a lot of money to do work inside the church, all the way down to the basement.” Ortiz said. “So we’re not finished but then again, we’re not where we started. We’re a big step closer to where we want to be.”
After using another space to hold worship services due to unsafe conditions, the congregation was finally able to return to its home a month ago, thanks to the work performed by Cole NYC. “They are good people,” Ortiz said. “I’d also like to thank Jennifer Star from the state Historic Register for helping make our grant funding possible.”
