Ed Angel and his wife, Mary, who was serving as Thorsby’s librarian, used a work day scheduled by the Thorsby Historical Preservation Committee to begin a renovation project on the broken windows at the lunchroom building adjacent to the old Thorsby school.

The plans were to restore the building for public use as a potential meeting place for parties, reunions and receptions.

A dilemma was the windows: Every pane was broken, many of the frames were damaged and they were coated with layers of paint.

Angel, who at one time owned and operated his own home repair business in Miami, volunteered to take on the task of repairing all the windows. 475 hours later, all the windows are finished.

Angel took each window and sanded it down to the original wood, repaired and rebuilt frames and muttons, replaced glass and glazing bits, replaced handles, thumb lifts and window weights and pulleys and has each window looking like new.

When asked if he thought it would take so long to finish the task, Angel said, “No, I knew it would be a lot of time, but I couldn’t tell just how bad many of the windows were until I got into the project. But I’m a determined person, and I feel it’s important to complete a commitment.”

Angel said he charged $40 an hour for this type of work when he was operating his business in 1996, and the going rate for this type of job is $70 per hour.

The Historical Preservation Committee is doing some repair work at Helen Jenkins Chapel, which Angel is also helping with.