Page 20 • January 22, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT GUIDE

Rebuilding of Church Lost in 9/11 Attacks to ResumeBy Karen MatthewsAssociated Press

NEW YORK (AP) Twoyears after a lack of funds haltedconstruction of a marble-cladGreek Orthodox church at NewYork’s World Trade Center site,Gov. Andrew Cuomo and GreekOrthodox officials announcedplans to resume constructionwith the goal of finishing therebuilding by the 20th anniver-sary of the terrorist attacks ofSept. 11, 2001.The completed St. Nicholas

Greek Orthodox Church andNational Shrine at the WorldTrade Center, designed bySpanish architect SantiagoCalatrava, will welcome visi-tors from all faiths while alsoreplacing an Orthodox church that wasburied in the rubble of the trade center’ssouth tower.“This house of worship will serve as a

reminder that our collective faith is some-thing we can always count on to move pastour painful memories and build a bettertomorrow,” Cuomo said in a statement.

Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of theGreek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,pledged that the rebuilt church will be “opento all women and men of goodwill who wishto honor the memory of all who perished onSept. 11.”The cost estimate of the church just south

of the rebuilt trade center's memorial pools

has ballooned from $20 millionwhen the design was announcedin 2013 to $80 million, of which$40 million remains to beraised, said the Rev. AlexKarloutsos, vicar general of thearchdiocese.Construction company

Skanska U.S.A. halted work onthe church in December 2017when the archdiocese ran out ofmoney to complete the project.The half-finished church hasbeen covered in white tarp sincethen.Karloutsos said archdiocesan

officials expect construction toresume by early March.“We have a full understand-

ing of the cost and we have aconstruction manager named,”he said. “We’re going to be very

transparent and accountable.”The design for the church by Calatrava,

also the architect responsible for the tradecenter’s bird-shaped Oculus train hall, fea-tures a central dome flanked by towers likethe two Byzantine shrines that inspired it, theHagia Sophia and the Church of the HolySavior in Chora. The concrete structure will

be sheathed in marble, and its dome will belighted from the inside at night.Officials with the archdiocese have

acknowledged financial mismanagementduring the tenure of the previous archbishop,Demetrios, who recently retired last year atage 91.The new archbishop, Elpidophoros, said

last June when he was installed as the firstnew leader in 20 years for the 1.5-millionGreek Orthodox worshipers in the UnitedStates that completing the St. Nicholasshrine at the World Trade Center was his toppriority.Elpidophoros and Cuomo said an inde-

pendent 13-member board called Friends ofSt. Nicholas will lead the fundraising effortto complete construction. The board will bechaired by Greek-American businessmanDennis Mehiel, former chairman of NewYork’s Battery Park City Authority.Elpidophoros led a ceremony at the shut-

tered construction site on Dec. 6, St.Nicholas’ feast day, calling the rebuildingof the church “the single most importantpublic affirmation of our Orthodox faith inour American nation” since the lateArchbishop Iakovos marched with the Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabamain 1965.

Construction company Skanska U.S.A. halted work on thechurch in December 2017 when the archdiocese ran out ofmoney to complete the project. The half-finished church hasbeen covered in white tarp since then.

Messick’s Christmas Light Show Exceeds $250K in DonationsMessick’s Christmas

Light Show inElizabethtown, Pa., raised atotal of $42,704.56 from4,352 cars that attended theevent. The light show dis-play ran each evening fromDec. 1 through 30 with thehelp of volunteers who runthe show and collect dona-tions for local charities. Thismarks the seventh year forMessick’s Christmas LightShow in Elizabethtown andmore than $254,000 in totaldonations collected since itslaunch. One hundred percent of

the proceeds collected go toMennonite Disaster Service,ECHOS (ElizabethtownCommunity Housing andOutreach Services), PaxtonMinistries and the WaterStreet Rescue Mission. For more information,

visit www.messicks.com. The light show display ran each evening from Dec. 1 through 30 with the help of volunteers who run the show and collect donations forlocal charities.