Roof cave-in leaves church homeless

Farrington High’s auditorium was near condemnation 18 years ago when New Hope Christian Fellowship started renting the space for services.

Over the years, the church spent about $1 million on repairs and upgrades to the auditorium, built in 1956.

Now, following Friday’s roof collapse at the auditorium, New Hope is asking its congregation for patience and support as it looks for a new home to accommodate five weekend services that attract 6,000 people.

At the same time, church officials are wracking their brains and reviewing their records to determine whether there were any signs of roof distress prior to the collapse, or whether any New Hope-funded repairs included work on the auditorium’s roof.

A 40-foot section of the auditorium’s roof came down at about 3:20 p.m. Friday during a brief but heavy rainstorm.

Officials continue to investigate the roof collapse and say the cause has not been determined.
The Department of Education emphasized that the roof was “unremarkable” and that an inspection conducted in April found no problems.

New Hope said Wednesday that the only re-roofing work it did was in 2001.

John Tilton, New Hope Oahu executive pastor, said he did not know whether the auditorium’s entire roof or just a portion was resurfaced when workers applied a pitch-and-gravel surface in 2001. He said the church hired a licensed contractor to perform the work.

Tilton said the church did all its repairs after getting approvals from Farrington High’s principal or DOE facilities personnel.

“There was no structural work done, but more getting the auditorium cleaned, getting things that needed to be repaired, repaired,” Tilton said, adding that recent work was largely aesthetic — new seats, curtains and lighting, for example.

Ray L’Heureux, Department of Education assistant superintendent for school facilities, said inspections of the auditorium are ongoing and it remains unclear whether the building can be saved.

There is no estimate of repair costs.

The state is conducting inspections of roofs at schools statewide in the wake of the collapse.

Meanwhile, L’Heureux said the DOE has hired a structural engineer to lead the investigation into how the Farrington roof came down.

As part of the review of what happened, the department will study all work conducted on the auditorium.

L’Heureux said his office has no records of New Hope conducting any major repairs to the auditorium, including the 2001 re-roofing work.

He also said that the church should not have been allowed to make any structural changes to the auditorium, including resurfacing the roof.

Under a long-standing administrative rule, any work that involves changing a facility’s structure, plumbing or electrical system cannot be conducted by an outside party and must be performed or overseen by the DOE, L’Heureux said.

But he said there has been confusion about the rule, and he is attempting to amend it to make it clearer. He also regularly reminds principals and complex area superintendents about what kind of work, such as painting or landscaping, can be done or paid for by outside organizations.

Al Car­ga­nilla, who has been principal of Farrington since 2010, said that with any improvements New Hope planned to make, “they would let us know and we would run it through (DOE) Facilities.”
He said  DOE maintenance crews handled some of the repairs.

L’Heureux said the last time the DOE resurfaced the 1,100-seat auditorium’s roof was in 1985.

The trusses are original.

He said it is a flat draining roof, which means it has drains situated just off its edge and a gentle slope to allow water to drain away.

New Hope paid Farrington about $400,000 a year to rent the auditorium and for use of other school facilities.

On Sunday, New Hope held services in Farrington’s gym, which isn’t air-conditioned. The church has an agreement to remain at the gym through the summer. Parishioners also attend services under “overflow” tents on Farrington’s lawn.

Tilton said the auditorium was in bad shape when New Hope started holding services there in 1994.

“When we went in there, it was dirty,” he said. “There were rats. There were a lot of superficial things that we had to get taken care of.”

He said the New Hope is unsure where it will move next, but is “looking at various options.”