Fire leaves church in need of major repairs

The Fredonia Baptist Church is now in desperate need of repair following a devastating fire on Friday, May 4th. 

"It is the cornerstone of Fredonia" church pastor of Family Church Fredonia Michael Lokietek said. 

Recently, $1.2 million was spent in renovating the 150 year-old church. Most of those renovations were destroyed in the fire. The church has set up this Go Fund Me page asking the community to help with the rebuild as a lot of the church is in need of repair. 

"The steeple, the roof, this whole ceiling has to come down," Lokietek said, "All of the flooring has to be ripped off."

To help with the cleanup, SRM Recovery Management was brought in to help. The company does natural disaster and large scale work as well as smaller jobs like the Fredonia church. 

"You have to go a little slower (when working on a church), and you have to be a little bit patient. You have to keep the history in it (the church)."

The crew will be cleaning up the site for about four weeks before official restoration can begin. That process is anticipated to last over a year. 

For anyone looking to help the church, the Go Fund Me page is linked here.