Habitat Home Goes Up

The Habitat home on Kendall Drive in Putnam Lake resembles a beehive with volunteers scurrying about completing their assigned tasks. Eric Gross Two dozen volunteers toiled in oppressive heat last Saturday but the contractors, teachers, students, businessmen and women and trades people didn’t mind at all since they were building a home on Kendall Drive in Putnam Lake that will allow a family to own their own dwelling.

Habitat for Humanity is constructing the single-story home on a twolot parcel thanks to Putnam County government. In March 2010, the Putnam Legislature approved the sale of the property to the non-for-profit organization for $10. Habitat volunteers dismantled the former building and are in the process of completing a new structure.

John Parish, president of the Putnam Habitat Board of Directors, explained that his group was an “ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness by building and rehabilitating houses with the use of volunteer labor and tax deductible donations of supplies, materials and cash.”

Joe Covais, president of the Putnam County Electrical Contractors Association and his son Joseph (left) put the finishing touches on an electrical outlet inside the Habitat home. Eric Gross Parish stressed that families were “not being given a home free of charge. After qualifying for the program by being able to pay property taxes as well as an interest-free mortgage, the new owner agrees to volunteer his or her time for another Habitat project.”

Parish said income is used by the group to roll over into its next project.

Board member Peter Menken praised the volunteers who come out every week to work on the house: “Habitat cannot succeed without its volunteers.”

Steve Biolsi is the project manager. He was asked about the time frame for completion: “The more people who spend a day or two with us the quicker the job will be completed. Habitat wants to get a family in their new home ASAP.”

Joining the efforts last Saturday were members of the Putnam County Electrical Contractors Association. The group’s president, Joe Covais, led a group of electricians who wired the building from top to bottom. Covais described Habitat as a “great humanitarian organization. We are thrilled to be a part of it. While our members are volunteering, supply houses are even involved, since materials have been donated as well.”

Putnam Legislature Chairman Vincent Tamagna praised the local chapter: “They go a long way towards pulling our community together but more importantly Habitat represents the spirit of what Putnam residents are all about—people helping people, resiliency and doing the right thing.”