Editor:

I was quite alarmed when I saw the article in the Kennebunk Post about the new “Preservation Foundation” formed at First Parish Church in Kennebunk [“One of Maine’s finest, First Parish church showing its age,” Nov. 21]. As a former long time member of that church, I feel the public needs to know the truth about that foundation and what its plans really are. Other New England churches have formed such foundations to preserve their historic buildings and to raise money. These foundation allow businesses and organization that cannot donate to religious organization to be able to donate monies so that preservation work can be done. This is not what First Parish has done. I resigned from the church over this foundation and the way it was going to be operated and I know exactly what the church is doing. The basic principal behind these foundations is to “freeze” the church building at the time the foundation is created. This prevents any work from being done that would alter or destroy the architectural and historical integrity of the building. These foundations follow the Secretary of Interior Standards for Preservation, which can be found online. Not so with First Parish. When a few members realized that this foundation would prevent them from making damaging alterations to the church the group creating the foundation, which included myself, were told to stop. At that point we were told to alter the by-laws so that funds raised by the foundation could actually be used in any manner the church saw fit, including capital projects, which would in fact alter and destroy historic elements of First Parish. Instead of being a foundation for preserving the church, it become an organization to only raise funds, which people would give under the belief that their money would be used to preserve the church. But in fact could be used to destroy or alter the building. 

In addition, as originally conceived, the foundation board would have been made up of members from the community and participation by church members would have been severely limited, to ensure that funds were not misused. The foundation board would have had sole responsibility and oversight on what projects could or could not be done. The idea was to remove maintenance issues to a separate board so that the board of directors could focus on the congregation and church programs and not be constantly bogged down by maintenance issues. However, certain members balked at this proposal and the foundation committee was told to change it. It was at this point, when I realized that by creating this foundation, the public would be misled and that the historic church building would not be protected from further damaging projects, I resigned from the church, and the board of directors. 

In 1999, when the church raised funds for “restoration” of the building, church members were told by myself and others that $500,000 would not be enough to cover the work that needed to be done. The church was told they needed a minimum of $1 million. They were expressly told that they needed to create a maintenance fund to ensure that building did not fall into disrepair again. Nobody listened and as a result much of the needed work was never completed and the historic church clock and bell was never restarted or repaired, as one example. Also, you can see by looking at the building today, that it has once again fallen into disrepair. Two years ago when the board of directors began exploring a new capital campaign they were told they needed at minimum a million and half dollars to complete much needed work in the church, to establish a maintenance fund, and to augment their nearly depleted endowment, board members balked, stating that  they would only raise $600,000.

 One particular church member of this church has taken over every construction committee at the church and has bullied committee members and anyone who disagrees with him leaving them the only option of resigning. He has led projects like the recent alteration of the historic church sanctuary, and continues to push for a third egress in that sanctuary even though 20 years of studies have shown that any new egress from the sanctuary would result in significant damage to the sanctuary including permanent destruction to the historic trompe-l’oeil paintings on the sanctuary walls. In fact, three years ago when a part of the ceiling collapsed this person led a group to oversee repairs to the damaged ceiling and that group favored painting over the trompe-l’oeil with white paint rather then restoring them. That idea was scraped only because a nationally known artist heard about the damage and wanted to restore the work because it was so magnificent. 

 In the past, while trying to save money, and again ignoring suggestion from outside sources, church members took the stripped shutters from the outside of the building and sanded and repainted them in the church basement which resulted in the church being contaminated with arsenic and other chemicals which required an expansive hazardous waste clean up and abatement. Besides that, the shutters, now removed, were not repaired properly and fell apart after being re-hung. 

 First Parish has a history of starting projects and not finishing them, or trying to do things on the cheap, then having to spend more money fixing the cheap work. They do not have the knowledge or understanding of basic historic preservation practices, nor do they have anyone leading this foundation who does. They consistently refused to hire outside consultants to help them and from my experience they cannot be trusted to use monies raised for this so called “Preservation Foundation” in a way that will preserve this landmark. I don’t want to stop people from donating to the church, but I would strongly suggest people ask questions before donating. Ask exactly where and how your money will be used. Read the foundations by-laws, and lastly, and most important, stipulate in writing that your gift cannot be used for any capital project that would alter or compromise the architectural and historical integrity of this historic church. Especially protect your donation from being used in anyway to further destroy the historic church sanctuary. 

Steven Burr

Kennebunk