Thursday, May 06, 1999

Warren church rift behind sabotage?

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Construction site mishap could have proved fatal

BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Workers building walls at St. Philips Church were endangered by sabotage. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        HAMILTON TOWNSHIP — Some think a rift over a church's $1 million expansion is behind the suspected sabotage of a construction site at St. Philips Church.

        But a former parish council member who has led the opposition to the building project said he doubts anyone in the church was responsible for the near-accident that could have killed construction workers Tuesday.

        Employees of R.J. Beischel Building Co. in Winton Place were pouring 16-foot interior walls at the church on U.S. 22/Ohio 3 on Tuesday when the concrete forms started to give way because 15 wedgebolts had been removed from the forms.

        Quick action by workers averted a blowout that would have ripped the metal forms apart, buried at least two workers in wet concrete and knocked others off a scaffold, Beischel foreman Joe Cramer said Wednesday.

        “If it would have collapsed, it would have sent four or five or six people to the hospital or the graveyard,” he said.

        The incident followed:

        • Months of contention among the church's 2,000 members over the decision to expand.

        • The dismissal or resignation of four parish council members in October.

        • Recent anonymous phone calls to police falsely reporting building and environmental violations at the site.

        Township Police Chief Gene Duvelius, who attends St. Philips, doubts church members were involved in the sabotage. News of the parish squabble is posted on the Internet, and that makes him think the sabotage may be the work of an outsider.

        “Some people might take it up for the religious cause,” he said.

        His response to the incident is beefed-up patrol and the threat of prosecution — possibly on charges as severe as attempted murder — if police find the offender.

        Mr. Cramer said he is sure the forms were sabotaged because his workers had checked the bolts before leaving work Monday and had not worked with the forms until the concrete trucks arrived at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

        Pastor Joseph Allison said he suspects the sabotage had something to do with the expansion.

        He said about 50 of the conservative parish's 500 families have publicly opposed the expansion. The project includes a lowered altar in the center of the sanctuary, a side chapel for the tabernacle, upholstered chairs with kneelers to replace the pews, and offices on the lower level.

        The expansion project will nearly double the size of the 34-year-old church. The parish has grown from 360 families eight years ago to about 500 families today in one of the heaviest growth areas of Warren County.

        Father Allison said the opposition group has petitioned the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and continues to bolster support for the resistance through letters to the congregation. “I don't know whether they are involved, but it certainly puts them on the firing line,” he said.

        Marion Ackman, who has led the anti-expansion effort, said no one in “the resistance” was involved. He was pushed off the council in October because of his opposition to the plan.

        “I don't know of anybody within our group that would do something like this. It could have hurt somebody. Even though we don't agree with what they are doing, why would we do something that would cost more money?” Mr. Ackman said.

        He said about half the congregation opposes the project.

       

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