MAYETTA ? When 83-year-old Eldon Ray agreed to oversee construction of a sanctuary for the Mayetta Christian Church, he felt he was doing something good.

Eldon Ray, right, talks with the Rev. Gerald Haney on Tuesday about Ray's troubles with the Kansas Board of Technical Professions after he served as the head of the building committee for the Mayetta Christian Church. The dispute started when the state board determined Ray was serving as an unlicensed architect for the church's new sanctuary.

Building committee chairman Eldon Ray looks over plans for a sanctuary at the Mayetta Christian Church. Ray ran afoul of regulators after the Kansas Board of Technical Professions determined he was serving as an unlicensed architect.

But a state regulating board saw it differently and accused him of acting as an architect and engineer without a license – igniting one of Kansas’ strangest bureaucratic disputes in recent years.

Ray’s plight, which included a $500 fine from the Board of Technical Professions, began last fall as the two-year project was nearing its end in this eastern Kansas town of about 360 people. It didn’t end until early May, when state lawmakers stepped in on Ray’s behalf.

Short but sturdy, Ray isn’t the typical 83-year-old. He helped paint the sanctuary and helped put up its walls and wood trim for the windows. He said he took on the project to ease the loneliness created after his wife of 63 years, Leane, moved into a nursing home. His face lights up when he talks about their lives together – hunting, fishing and camping, their two daughters, and how Leane went along when he played guitar in area bands.

News reports

The sanctuary is a source of pride for Ray and the nondenominational church’s 80 members. News reports praised his efforts, including the one that helped land Ray in trouble when it characterized him as an “architect.”

“We were all happy and joyous and then we had the rug pulled out from us,” said the Rev. Gerald Haney, the church’s pastor. “We felt like we were nailed to a cross of bureaucratic confusion.”

The board, which licenses and regulates architects, engineers, land surveyors, geologists and landscape architects, feels it was doing its job – safeguarding public safety and preventing unlicensed people from practicing technical professions.

Its action was spurred by a complaint in September from the Kansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects, whose executive director attached a copy of a news story and said she believed the project required a professional architect and engineer.

Agency gets involved

“The board doesn’t do things without reasons,” said the board’s attorney, Mark Bennett Jr., of Topeka. He referred questions to Chairman Joe Johnson, a Wichita architect, who didn’t return four messages left on his office answering machine.

In October, the board wrote Haney that it had received a complaint and asked for the name of the architect and engineer for the project. Church attorney Dennis White, of Holton, wrote back saying the church didn’t believe any members had performed technical services and that the project followed local building codes, using local contractors.

“No one held themselves out as a professional and the drawings were certainly not of professional quality and did not include specifications,” White wrote.

Included with that letter was a statement from Ray and his apology for not knowing an architect was needed when the church got the building permit from the city, which is 15 miles north of Topeka. Ray also invited the board members to attend the church.

Ray fined $500

“When a person apologizes, don’t you give them a little bit of leeway?” Ray said. “Having an architect and engineer doing a public building is a good thing, but it’s got to be handled with common sense.” In a January letter, Bennett said the board’s complaint committee believed Ray had served as an engineer and architect “without the benefit of licensure.” It informed Ray he was being fined $500 and directed him to sign an agreement saying he had engaged in architecture and/or engineering.

Ray refused.

“I wasn’t being an architect or engineer,” he said. “I couldn’t design if my life depended on it.”

Ray said he drew a floor plan of a sanctuary of nearly 3,000 square feet, for 150 people, with a cathedral ceiling and a large arched glass window behind the altar framing a large shade tree swaying in the breeze. But the drawing was only a starting point, and changes were made as the plan evolved.

The sanctuary replaced the original church in use since 1896. Atop the new structure is the large bell that was in the old church steeple.

Ray’s attorney, Theresa Barr, of Lawrence, wrote Bennett in March, saying the case took “a great toll” on Ray. She urged leniency – and no fine.

“He certainly has paid his dues for the situation,” she wrote.

Legislature intervenes

Bennett replied that the board’s complaint committee would agree to say Ray “is alleged” to have served as an architect and engineer but wouldn’t waive the fine.

Last month, the church paid the fine for Ray. Haney said the church has passed inspections by both an architect and engineer.

“Eldon was just trying to do something good, something to occupy his time since his wife was in the nursing home,” Haney said. “The building filled his time and was a tremendous catharsis for him.”

Then the Legislature intervened, adding language to a spending bill ordering the board not to spend any money through June 30, 2008, “to conduct any proceedings or enforce any orders relating to services performed” by Ray. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed the bill Monday and didn’t veto the provision.

“It freezes everything. It tells the agency they can’t do anything until we have had a look at it,” said Rep. Joe Patton, R-Topeka.

Haney said he was told the church and Ray were exempt from the board’s regulation. But Patton, an attorney, said the law may not be that clear, and he intends to address it next year with a bill to exempt volunteers and nonprofit organizations, like churches, from the board’s regulation.