Penta students return to rectory they helped build
May 16—Toby Dwyer used to spend two hours a day, five days a week, helping to build a rectory for a Rossford church until the pandemic disrupted the work in March of 2020.
One of about three dozen participating Penta Career Center students, he said he was happy to have been able to recently return to the site and help finish the basement of a two-story brick masonry at All Saints Catholic Church on Lime City Road, most of which was built in the 2019-2020 school year.
"It felt pretty good to be over here building a house," Mr. Dwyer, 19, said. "I've got my experience now."
The carpentry major who graduated in May was one of several Penta students who toured the rectory Sunday during a media preview event hosted by the Penta Career Center at the masonry. The house is 4,400 square feet, which includes 1,200 square feet of the basement, according to event organizers.
At least 30 of them helped build the house as part of their senior class project, Mr. Dwyer said.
That experience "came in handy" during his summer jobs building decks and helping his father build a garage, he said.
He particularly appreciated having been able to return to the site to finish the job he had started, he said.
Kayden Widman, an 18-year old Woodmore High School senior who is finishing a construction carpentry program at Penta, agreed with Mr. Dwyer — but with a reservation.
Mr. Widman, who plans to go work for a construction company, was disappointed he didn't get the chance to work on the upper floors.
"...However, I felt confident that I learned enough from my instructors to be able to graduate," he said.
The students did most of the work. They did "all of the framing," installed the roofing trusses, put up the interior walls, installed the roofing shingles, the doors, some of the electric wiring, Rob Ryan, All Saints' construction project manager, said.
Wright Custom Homes, of Maumee, then did masonry and plumbing while Penta's hands-on sessions were shut down until recently for the pandemic, before the students returned and finished the basement, he said.
Penta students in construction carpentry, electricity, remodeling, and heating and air-conditioning technology programs have built multiple area houses — including those for Habitat for Humanity — and were always able to do their projects uninterrupted, according to Penta spokesman Monica Dansack.
Phil Stockwell, supervisor of the construction and manufacturing programs at Penta, said its students construct a house as part of their senior-class project "most years," and do so uninterrupted.
"The past two years were quite different due to the pandemic," Mr. Stockwell said. "... We were happy that our students were able to return to All Saints to finish the basement of the house."
The Rev. Anthony Recker of All Saints Catholic Church said he had moved in last August, and was expecting two soon-to-be retired priests and a seminarian on a summer break to join him shortly.
"The students have done a great job," Father Recker said. "It's a great place to live."
First Published May 16, 2021, 4:07pm
