JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report

To say the plan to rebuild Côte St. Charles United Church in St. Lazare has gone without a hitch would be a bit of an overstatement. But what exactly went wrong is still not clear.

According to Reverend Kent Chown, minister of the church, the plan was to replace the structure on Côte St. Charles Road, which was torn down in November. But shortly after the building was demolished all work was abruptly halted.

“There was miscommunication between ourselves and the town,” Chown said yesterday. “The town was not expecting as much of the building to be removed as was removed.”

“We’re working with the town to straighten things out,” he added. “We submitted all of our materials to the town. We’re expecting and hopeful to receive a new building permit in early March.”

Officials with the town of St. Lazare refused to comment.

The municipality’s planning advisory committee has received a new request for a building permit. It is expected to make its recommendation to St. Lazare council later this month, Chown said.

“When we get the go-ahead, we have our contract ready to go. It won’t be long after that when work will commence,” Chown added.

The new church will be built on the same site and will have the same appearance as the original building, except it will be 21 feet longer. The style of the roof of the new building will be different as well, Chown said.

The stone facade of the front entrance of the building, which was not demolished, will be incorporated into the design of the new church, as well as the stained glass windows that were removed from the old structure and stored before the church was torn down.

The church, which is also home to the congregation of the former Wyman Memorial United Church in Hudson, which was sold in the fall of 2020, opted to build a new structure after discovering a number of issues as it attempted to renovate the old building.

Chown couldn’t give a timeframe on when the new structure would be completed except to say it would take “several months.”