City officials meet with owners of demolished New London church
Feb. 8—NEW LONDON — City officials met this week with the owners of a demolished downtown church to discuss the next steps for the rubble-strewn site, including the prospect of placing a lien on the property.
The Wednesday meeting was attended by James Levesque, founder of the Engaging Heaven Ministries group, which still owns the 66 Union St. property, where the First Congregational Church once stood, Mayor Michael Passero said.
"We wanted everyone to be on the same page," Passero said Thursday. "There were a lot of questions from (Engaging Heaven) that we tried to help answer about what needs to happen with the property going forward."
The steeple of the 174-year-old church collapsed through the building's roof on Jan. 25 displacing Engaging Heaven worshippers and those from the First Congregational Church.
No cause of the collapse has yet been released.
Passero said a lawyer for Engaging Heaven, as well as several city department heads and a representative from the E2 structural engineering firm, were present at the hour-long meeting that touched on the state inspection process for the site.
Before any of the tons of granite can be removed from the site, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection must certify the debris is free of contamination.
The city hired the Manafort Brothers construction firm to raze the remnants of the damaged church and install a security fence around the property.
The cost of that work has not yet been calculated, city Law Director Jeffrey Londregan said Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information request by The Day seeking copies of all bills related to the collapse and demolition.
Londregan in an email said the cost figures, which Passero has estimated to be in the "six-figure" range, are expected to be compiled by late next week.
Passero said ministry representatives were informed of their cost obligations and the city's right to place a lien on the church property early next month if they do not reimburse the city for the costs it incurred.
In a GoFundMe page, ministry officials who oversee three other congregations in West Haven, Montana and Florida, stated they were seeking funding to cover the cost of the collapse and cleaning up the rubble.
"... and of course, we need the finances to construct another Church building," they wrote, adding the property had insurance coverage, though it was not adequate for "what we needed for the structure."
Levesque previously said the ministry was prepared to reimburse the city for all costs it incurred after the collapse.
