John Oehlert is finding out just what a difference a couple years can make when it comes to financing a major construction project.

As chairman of trustees for Free Methodist Church, Oehlert is working to help choose a contractor to handle the church’s first major expansion project: a 30,000-square-foot youth wing, spread out among three levels that will be added to the western end of the church, plus an expanded foyer and a remodeled classroom.

It’s a project he expects to cost $1.8 million, even after making cost-cutting and expense-delaying changes on a project that had been anticipated to cost much less not so long ago.

“We were thinking in the $1.2 million range two years ago,” Oehlert said this week, as he and other church officials prepare for a ceremonial groundbreaking Sunday at the church, 3001 Lawrence Ave. “Everything has gone up, but we’re committed to it.”

To help make ends meet, Oehlert and others will be counting on volunteer labor and calling in favors from church members and others to make ends meet.

“We’ve got guys who want to do the shingling, potentially,” he said. “We’ve got guys who want to do the painting. : Certainly, those things can offset some costs, but we’re anticipating having increasing costs.”

Church leaders are still deciding among several contractors who are willing to handle the construction project, which will be expected to last up to 18 months.

The church isn’t the only one facing rising costs.

This architectural rendering depicts a planned two-story addition to the west end of Free Methodist Church, 3001 Lawrence Ave. The church plans to spend up to .8 million on the project, expected to start construction within a month and be finished within 18 months.

Gale Lantis, an owner of Mar Lan Construction LLC, is busy working on construction of Bella Sera, a major condominium project near the intersection of Bob Billings Parkway and Inverness Drive. The company is recycling rock that normally might be removed from such a job site, a move that is cutting back on rising fuel costs.

Asphalt prices have doubled during the past 18 months, Lantis said, as petroleum costs have been on the rise. Copper prices have spiked at least 50 percent during the past six months.

Suppliers are placing surcharges on almost every delivery, he said, as the price of diesel fuel continues to climb.

“If you have a job that has a long completion time – 12 to 18 months – some of these costs can catch up with you before the job’s done,” Lantis said. “You have to build in.”

Either way, Carolyn Heacock is looking forward to the beginning of the church project. Existing spaces barely are big enough to handle the average of 170 children and youths that take part in the “Kids Alive” programs each Sunday.

With the expansion, there will be room for up to 350 or 400 children at a time. The church could handle even more if it started a second session.

“We’re excited,” she said. “Right now, with the sixth-graders, we put half of them in a hallway and half in a tiny room – it’s not a closet, but it is tiny.”