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Church rescues warming shelter First United Methodist Church on Main Street in downtown Medford is paying for a new waterline in order to reopen the Kelly Shelter for homeless people during freezing weather. [Mail Tribune / Andy Atkinson] Monday Dec 18, 2017 at 4:55 PM Dec 19, 2017 at 6:44 AM Damian Mann Mail Tribune @reporterdm Homeless advocates are breathing more easily after First United Methodist Church in Medford decided to invest up to $50,000 to help reopen a warming shelter downtown. The church, at 607 W. Main St., needed to beef up its water line for a fire sprinkler system in the church, otherwise the Kelly Shelter wouldn't have been able to open Jan. 1. But church officials searched for a way to raise the money. "When we say no, we hurt ourselves," Pastor Linda Tucker said. "We do a kindness to ourselves when we’re kind to others." Tucker said the church received $12,000 toward the project from the church's district office and from a national conference. The rest of the money was raised by the church. A larger water line was necessary to feed a fire sprinkler system being installed in the church, a move that will help preserve the building, particularly its prized stained-glass windows, as well as help make it a safer place. The church installed a sprinkler system in the basement last winter. This year it will install sprinklers in the rest of the building. "To do good, it leverages us to do more good in the future," Tucker said. Despite the big expense, Tucker said the average person won't even notice anything different about the church after the work is completed. "It’s going to go in the ground, and we’ll never really see it," she said. Because the church is empty most of the time, Tucker would like to get more community activities inside the building after the sprinkler system is installed. "We have an upstairs as large as a school," she said. The Kelly Shelter, which opened for the first time last winter and can accommodate 50 homeless people, has had a difficult time staying open, running into various problems as well as dealing with code issues. The basement location has been the biggest obstacle for the shelter, requiring the sprinklers as well as a person hired as a fire monitor during the night to patrol the upper stories. After the sprinkler system was installed last year at a cost of about $15,000, it was discovered that the water main from the street needed to be upgraded, as well. Because the cost to improve the water line was so high, supporters started to look for other locations for the shelter. Last year, the shelter faced other challenges, including some guests who didn’t abide by the rules. As a result, the shelter will have more supervision this year. It will be open from 6 p.m. to noon, Jan. 1 to March 31. Based on city rules, the shelter can be open only three months in a given year. In the long term, the shelter may have to be located elsewhere, because the basement isn't accessible to the disabled. This year five volunteers will be on site during the time the shelter is open, Tucker said. The volunteers include a manager and a fire watchman, who will monitor the upstairs where the rooms don't have fire sprinklers. A shelter manager will organize meals, volunteers and other activities from 4 p.m. to midnight. An assistant manager will be available from midnight to 8 a.m., and a case manager will be on hand from 8 a.m. to noon. Chad McComas of Rogue Retreat, an organization supporting the Kelly Shelter, applauded the church for stepping in with its magnanimous offer to help open the shelter. "We're just so grateful to the church," McComas said. "They really want to be of service to the community." He said the bigger water line will help the church fulfill its goal of opening its doors to more community activities. Greg Kleinberg, Medford Fire-Rescue Fire Marshal, said he thinks Rogue Retreat and the church are in the process of completing all the steps necessary to open the doors for the homeless. Even though most city services are operating on a limited basis over the holidays, Kleinberg said he didn't think it would be difficult to get the final approvals. "We'll make it work somehow," he said. — Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on www.twitter.com/reporterdm.