Neighbors sought to have closed mission home condemned
By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN Six residents who sought to have the Bethany Gospel Mission Home on Stockton Street condemned were told this week that borough inspections prompted by their complaint have found no serious safety problems.
”The house does not present a danger at this point,” Borough Administrator Herb Massa said Wednesday. “There are some exterior appearance items that have to be addressed and Pastor Turton has been advised of that.”
According to property records, the house at 144-146 Stockton St. is owned by the Gospel Mission Corps, an evangelical church and missionary ministry. The building has been unoccupied since a fire damaged an interior portion of the first floor eight years ago, according to the Rev. Robert Turton, the chairman of the nonprofit charity’s board of trustees.
The six residents who made the complaint alleged the house posed a “grave hazard.” The group sought to have it condemned under a section of the borough code that allows five or more residents to petition the borough to have a building declared unfit for human habitation.
”The property at 144-146 Stockton Street presents a continuing and constant threat of fire to its neighbors,” the neighbors wrote. “The property is equipped with electricity which makes the present danger all the more serious.”
Mr. Massa said the findings of borough inspections of the property did not support the residents’ allegations.
”The electric is fine,” Mr. Massa said. “Is it a fire trap? No, it is not.”
Mr. Massa said the borough had sent the Rev. Turton a letter advising him of the required exterior repairs that need to be made, such as repainting the windowsills and replacing a piece of roof trim called a fascia board.
The Rev. Turton said Thursday the Gospel Mission Corps had not yet received its copy of the inspection report from the borough, but said he was relieved to hear the house would not be condemned.
”People who sign petitions should know the facts before they put their name to something,” the Rev. Turton said.
”Someone once said that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but none of us have the right to be wrong about the facts,” he added.
Mr. Massa said the six people who signed the letter that prompted the borough inspections were notified of the borough’s findings.
”We have an obligation to investigate when we receive a complaint,” Mr. Massa said. “The appropriate inspections were conducted and we responded to each resident who signed the letter.”
The letter of complaint was signed by Stockton Street residents Chris Moraitis, Marcia Satterthwaite, Geoff Wertime and Don Gallo, as well as North Main Street resident Peter Klapsogeorge and Park Avenue resident Cristi Palmer.
Mr. Wertime, who lives next door to Bethany Gospel Mission Home, said he and his family were glad the borough inspection found no serious fire hazard, but he says he is frustrated by the house’s overall condition. He said there are broken windows in the back of the building, which he can see from his backyard, and the rain gutters have come loose in the past and fallen on the sidewalk.
”I have nothing personal against these people,” Mr. Wertime said Thursday. “But I still think the property needs to be fixed and they need to pick up the pace of the repair work because it has been over eight years now.”
Phone messages seeking comment from the other residents who signed the petition were not immediately returned Wednesday and Thursday.
The Rev. Turton has said he and the other unsalaried members of the Gospel Mission Corps are trying to get the building repaired so that it once again can hold services in its chapel and have people live in the second-floor bedrooms. Raising funds has been difficult, he has said, because the borough began taxing the property after the fire since it was no longer being used for religious services.
A spaghetti dinner fundraiser to help pay for repair work at Bethany Gospel Mission Home is being held Oct. 15 at the First Baptist Church of Hightstown, where the Rev. Turton is the part-time interim pastor.
The Rev. Turton, 73, who brought his ongoing problems with the neighbors to the public comment portion of last week’s Borough Council meeting, says the situation has been very stressful and he feels he is being harassed.
”We don’t want to be confrontational,” the Rev. Turton said in an interview after the council meeting. “We just want to go about quietly and do our work.”
Earlier this summer, the borough zoning officer, responding to complaints, issued Bethany Gospel Mission Corps a notice of violation because signs on the front of the 144-146 Stockton St. were a violation of an ordinance prohibiting signs on an abandoned building. The Rev. Turton contended the house was only unoccupied, not abandoned, and came to a July council meeting to plead his case.
A compromise was later reached in which the borough required that the sign saying “Bethany Mission House and Chapel, Gospel Mission Corps, Non-Denominational” be covered with cloth, not removed. A second church-bulletin-board-style sign with interchangeable black letters still used to post religious sayings and announcements was allowed to remain.
A few weeks later, the Rev. Turton said he voluntarily turned the light off inside the 3-foot-by-4-foot bulletin board sign because neighbors complained.
The sign, no longer illuminated, now quotes John 3:19: “This is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”
Tickets are now on sale for the Bethany Gospel Mission Home spaghetti fundraiser being held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 15, at the First Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall, 125 S. Main St. The cost is $25 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. Call 448-0103 for tickets or more information.