Last fall, the rope for ringing the bell at St. Philip's Episcopal Church got much closer to the floor than it normally hangs. And the bell was getting hard to ring.

It turned out that the bell's stanchion, the wooden base for the bell’s yokes, had rotted, said Jon Young, senior warden at the church on Wiscasset's Hodge Street. The church replaced it and the bell's wheel, and did some work on the stairs to the belfry, all for about $6,000, Young said.

But other problems have come to light: The shingles on the spire that tops the steeple need replacement, for about $13,000; and the belfry needs a new roof, for an estimated $9,000. Painting the steeple to preserve the wood would take about another $8,000, for a total of about $30,000, Young said.

Raising that much money will take the help of the whole community, and multiple fundraisers by the church, said Young, of Newcastle.

A recent concert and a church member’s donation have already brought in about $2,600, he said. Plans are under way for a baked bean and casserole supper on June 7, time to be announced.

Young said he and fellow members would like to have as much of the work done as possible before next winter, to prevent further damage.

While $30,000 is no small order for the church, the repairs are far cheaper than the cost would be to replace the steeple, Young said. That would run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Young said he wouldn't want to be in a leadership role if and when the steeple has to be removed because it wasn't saved when it still could have been.

“It's part of our history,” Young said. “A church that loses its steeple loses a lot of its identity.”

The loss would also change the look of downtown Wiscasset as viewed from the north, he said. “To have the town lose a major piece of the (church's) structure has an impact on anybody who takes a picture of the skyline,” he said.

Donations may be made payable to St. Philip's Church Steeple Fund, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, 12 Hodge St., Wiscasset, ME 04578.