Restoration work on the Russian Orthodox Church in Old Town Kenai has been ongoing since Monday, July 27.
Gary Hauly of Texas has worked with the volunteer group Alaska Missions out of Anchorage over the last three years.
Hauly: “We come down for the salmon frenzy every year and bring about 200 volunteers in to do service in the local city as well as do projects like this. This particular group that’s working on this is from West Virginia.”
The group is painting the outside of the church and after today will just have the tallest portions of the church near the domes left.
Hauly said the hardest part of restoring old historical buildings is working with what’s there.
Hauly: “Being the old wood you can’t just replace anything rotted and all that, you have to do a little more tender loving care in that area but on this project it’s not really difficult from the historical standpoint because all we have to do is cover it up and make it pretty.”
The group is repainting the entryway today so the inside of the Russian Orthodox Church is currently closed to visitors.
Hauly said the church could reopen to visitors this evening or tomorrow morning depending on the weather.
KSRM’s full interview with Gary is below:
