Habitat build planned in fall

1st Andalusia house set for October

By Justin Schuver (Contact) | Andalusia Star-News

Published Saturday, August 22, 2009

File photo

Volunteers work on a Habitat house in April. The organization expects to build its first home in Andalusia this October.

Habitat for Humanity of Covington County (HFHCC) president Dale “Flip” Pancake said Thursday that construction on the organization’s first house in Andalusia is “tentatively” scheduled for the last two weekends in October.

Pancake said the house would be built on a property donated by the O’Neal estate and located along Mock and Bagley streets in Andalusia, near Northside Baptist Church. It will probably be a four-bedroom house, the largest the national Habitat for Humanity organization is capable of building.

“There’s still some site development that needs to be done on the site, but we’re getting it surveyed and cleaned up and hopefully ready for construction in the fall,” he said. “We’ve already got the partner family in place for this house. It’s a grandmother, her daughter, and then the daughter’s three children — two 8-year-olds and a 16-year-old. They’re real nice folks.”

Pancake said there is another family lined up for the third HFHCC build, which will probably be sometime in 2010. However, the organization is currently in the process of holding informational meetings and taking applications for future “partner families.”

One meeting was held Thursday night at the First Presbyterian Church in Andalusia. Future meetings will be Tues., Aug. 25, at 6 p.m. at Florala City Middle School’s auditorium, and Sat., Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. at First United Methodist Church of Opp.

Habitat for Humanity is a Christian building ministry in which volunteers help construct a home for a “partner family,” who then pays a no-interest low mortgage to live there. Partner families are also asked to contribute “sweat equity” by participating in other construction projects.

Pancake explained the meetings are being held now, in order to give the future partner families a chance to contribute on the fall 2009 and 2010 builds.

“We’re kind of compressing it a little bit, because we’d like to make a selection for our future families in time that they could help work on the Andalusia build,” he said.

At the meeting, HFHCC’s family selection committee will give a PowerPoint presentation explaining the program and what is expected of partner families. After answering any additional questions, the families will then have the opportunity to fill out an application form.

Pancake explained these meetings are the only times families can apply for the program.

“It’s a long process, so we can’t accept them throughout the year,” he said. “You have to come to one of these meetings. Then, our family selection committee will make sure the family has all the proper documentation. Once the family is determined to be eligible and they’ve turned in all the paperwork, then they will be one of the families that are considered and visited by the committee members.

“Because we only have these three meetings for applications, we’ve tried to spread them out to different locations in the county. We truly want this to be a county-wide program.”

HFHCC completed its first build earlier this year, when more than 150 volunteers worked over a span of two and a half months to construct a home for the Hanlin family of Opp. Most of the work was completed during a three-day “building blitz” from Fri., April 24, through Sat., April 26.

“We hope we get as good a turnout in Andalusia,” Pancake said. “As always, we thank the community for their support throughout the entire process.”

HFHCC is a 501(c)(3) organization, so all donations are tax-deductible. Donation checks should be made out to “Habitat for Humanity of Covington County” and sent to Habitat for Humanity of Covington County, P.O. Box 1034, Andalusia, AL 36420.