By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Eagle

BAY RIDGE – The destruction of the clock tower of the doomed Bay Ridge United Methodist Church building has begun.

Wednesday, the demolition company brought in by the congregation, led by Pastor Robert Emerick, began demolishing the historic clock tower – the clock itself stopped ticking long ago – to make way for a new, smaller church to fulfill the congregation’s wishes.

For local preservationists, the sledgehammers chipping away at the church’s green stone tower signal an end to the fight to save the building, which has stood on the corner of Fourth and Ovington avenues for 109 years.

“We are proceeding with our plans,� Pastor Emerick has previously said of the church’s plans to tear down the 1899 building with its high cost of maintenance and repairs. The clock tower, itself, was the subject of a fundraising repair campaign by the church in the 1990s until escalating repair costs halted the drive.

The congregation has plans for a new church of smaller size to accommodate its diminished membership which they want to equip with an eco-friendly energy system, making it a truly “green church.� Getting rid of the 1899 church, whose repair costs became “an albatross hanging around the neck� of the church, said Pastor Emerick, would permit the congregation to fulfill its humanitarian and spiritual missions.

The new Bay Ridge United Methodist Church building’s completion date has been targeted for early 2010. Meanwhile, the congregation has set up temporary headquarters in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church a few blocks to the north, holding joint services with the Lutherans.

Developer Abe Betesh has been planning condos, among other possibilities, at the church site, but their construction may be greatly affected by the worsening economic crisis.

Preservationists, lamenting the loss of another large visible site of Bay Ridge’s history, are focusing their attention on saving an 1899 time capsule believed to be set behind the church’s cornerstone. That copper box has many contemporary items, according to a Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from that time, said Ron Gross of the Senator Street Historic District recently. There are church photos, a members’ list, a Bible and hymnal, and a church history.