Church Holds Last Service, Uprooted by New Interchange
By: Rebecca Jeffrey
Updated: December 30, 2012
"A very bittersweet day, it was tough, it was tough."
Sunday is Pastor Billy Coffman's last day preaching in their building off I-540 to his Victory Church congregation.
"We have a lot of great memories, tremendous memories from that building," Coffman said.
The construction of the 540 Interchange to Don Tyson in Springdale is displacing a 20 year old building.
Something the church knew was a possibility for several years.
"It was actually about 2 years ago when they finally came up with an idea of what the interchange was going to be and that it meant that our facilitates, our church was going to be gone," he said.
But to relocate, comes at a price.
"We're incurring expenses that are astronomical."
The city offered Victory what the congregation believes is not fair value, especially when they have to build a new church from the ground up in Tontitown.
"In today's market, we can't get halfway there. By the time we finish it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 and a half million dollars."
The church has sued the city and is now undergoing litigation.
"Victory is not a gold digger, we're not asking for something more than we should receive."
So for now they'll go from 540 and temporary move to Ozark CenterPoint Place about 2 miles north of their original location.
"Stress is probably a small way of putting it."
Though Coffman says they're excited about the highway expansion, They don't want Springdale's blessing to be Victory's demise.
"The only thing that we've asked form our city is please don't forget about us."
The court date between the city and Victory Church has not been set. How much the church is asking for has not been disclosed. Victory will have their first service Monday evening.
The Interchange is expected to be complete Fall of 2014.
Sunday is Pastor Billy Coffman's last day preaching in their building off I-540 to his Victory Church congregation.
"We have a lot of great memories, tremendous memories from that building," Coffman said.
The construction of the 540 Interchange to Don Tyson in Springdale is displacing a 20 year old building.
Something the church knew was a possibility for several years.
"It was actually about 2 years ago when they finally came up with an idea of what the interchange was going to be and that it meant that our facilitates, our church was going to be gone," he said.
But to relocate, comes at a price.
"We're incurring expenses that are astronomical."
The city offered Victory what the congregation believes is not fair value, especially when they have to build a new church from the ground up in Tontitown.
"In today's market, we can't get halfway there. By the time we finish it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 and a half million dollars."
The church has sued the city and is now undergoing litigation.
"Victory is not a gold digger, we're not asking for something more than we should receive."
So for now they'll go from 540 and temporary move to Ozark CenterPoint Place about 2 miles north of their original location.
"Stress is probably a small way of putting it."
Though Coffman says they're excited about the highway expansion, They don't want Springdale's blessing to be Victory's demise.
"The only thing that we've asked form our city is please don't forget about us."
The court date between the city and Victory Church has not been set. How much the church is asking for has not been disclosed. Victory will have their first service Monday evening.
The Interchange is expected to be complete Fall of 2014.
