‘City needs to take charge ...’ Inaction on damage has Hughson church take case to council
Churches are tax-exempt, but churchgoers are not.
About 20 Hughson community members attended a special City Council meeting Tuesday night to ask their local government to take financial accountability for months-old construction damage at Hughson Church of Christ, its connected school and its pastor’s home.
“Many of our guests are taxpaying citizens in the city of Hughson,” Rod Hawkins, vice president of the Hughson Christian School Board said. “The city needs to take the charge of this financial burden, relieve the church of this burden, and then you can address it between the contractor and the insurance.”
Hawkins noted that he has served as a consultant city engineer for a number of years.
The damages brought up at the meeting occurred in early December and include the filling of part of pastor Nathan House’s residence with cement slurry and pushing sewage into the home, church and school, Hughson Christian School Principal Sheila Parnell said.
On Feb. 7, after calling the city manager, Parnell told The Bee the city would not make time in the Feb. 14 special meeting to address the damages.
The meeting agenda for Tuesday was to commend the Hughson High School football team with a certificate of appreciation from the city for winning the school’s first California Division 5-AA title and hear the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency Annual Report.
Church members were asked to speak to the council after these presentations. They once again brought the damages to the city’s attention.
United Pavement Maintenance (UPM) was contracted by the City of Hughson in June 2022 to make “sewer and water improvements on Tully Road,” according to meeting records.
UPM was meant to connect sewer customers to a newer, nearby line before filling in the old one, which had been there for decades, but workers missed the connection for the Church of Christ and the minister’s home before pumping the slurry, City Manager Merry Mayhew previously told The Bee.
“It is the city attorney’s position that all facts in this case to date point to the fact that this was not the city’s doing, this was the contractor’s responsibility,” Eric Nims of the City Attorney’s Office said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Sierra Torres, a member of the church and Bible class teacher, said, “I would just like to speak on activity of progress, which I feel like nothing has been done. It’s been arguments between the city and the contractor. We’re not here to place blame on the city or the contractor. That’s for y’all. And that’s not for innocent parties to have to figure out.”
Torres also said the city attorney did not contact UPM’s insurance until after the church and the pastor’s family brought in their own legal representation.
On the efforts over more than two months by the church community to get the city to take action, “unfortunately, I feel as though it fell on deaf ears,” said Nathan Crain, father of a Hughson Christian School student. “And it’s a shame. I know no other word than to say it’s shameful. The city’s response, the construction company’s response, it’s shameful.”
Kaylee, Crain’s daughter and a fifth-grader at Hughson Christian School, said she was absent the day the school was damaged, but her classes have been different since.
“Now my teacher is absent a lot in the mornings,” she said. Parnell said Kaylee’s teacher devotes class time to arrange housing for the pastor and his wife and make phone calls to the city and insurance companies.
Hughson Mayor George Carr said that he “wishes it was all over” and that he sympathizes with the church members and especially the House family. In the end, he said his decision is to refer to staff to enlighten the council.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 1:18 PM.
