Complications Emerge with Renovating Melrose's St. Mary's Church

MELROSE -- The town of Melrose has been weighing out it's options for either rebuilding or renovating its historic St. Mary's Church.

The church was set on fire nearly six months ago and investigators believe the cause of the blaze was arson. Over the past few weeks the community has been gathering to figure out how to move forward with fixing the church.

St. Mary's Steering Committee along with church officials hosted a series of three meetings during September to gain a better understanding of what the community would like to see happen to the church.

After all three meetings the community would like to see the church restored. Committee chair, Rick Klaphake says they have hit some road blocks regarding the structure of the church that is delaying any projects from forward.

"We're having this test done through Brown Institute and Murray Mac to make sure the structure is good. We can't get a certificate from the previous people in writing to say it's good. So now we have to back up a little bit and have it tested and find out before we can make any decisions."

Klaphake says although people would like to see the church restored, it will not be possible to get it back to the original state from before the fire.