Mission group, church replacing sidewalk panel

--Fred Tribble photo

A mission group with members from Garden Grove, Calif., and Dallas, Texas, along with the Endicott Bible Church, has been working with the Town of Endicott to re-do this 91-foot section of sidewalk. The volunteer project started this week and will soon conclude.

A mission group of 15 people from Garden Grove, Calif., and Dallas, Texas, have been in Endicott this week to help with Endicott Bible Church's Vacation Bible School and have also been helping to replace a 91-foot section of sidewalk near the school bus lot.

“People don't like to walk on it because it's all torn up,” said Pastor Fred Tribble. “We've gotten the old concrete up and are in the process now of grading it and compacting it so we can pour on Thursday.”

Pastor Tribble said this idea came around about a year ago when the mayor and others were chatting over coffee at the Endicott Food Center about the sidewalks in town. The group had said that it might be effective to chip away at sidewalk projects one at a time, rather than looking at the whole of the work that needs to be completed in Endicott.

“One sidewalk panel at a time, if we just keep chipping away at it, we'll be able to get all the sidewalks in the city done in time to do it again,” Pastor Tribble said. “We thought, 'let's go ahead and kick off this initiative.' And then we can go to work on the rest of it.”

Pastor Tribble said he is hoping others in town will see this project as positive and be able to follow suit in helping to replace other portions of sidewalk in town.

“We're excited, and I know the city is going to be happy with this new section of sidewalk,” he said.

He added that the mission group and the town have been working together to complete the project this week, and all of the supplies, material, concrete and labor were funded by the church.