Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
At times, you may occasionally hear me joke around by saying such things as, “that’s why they pay me the big bucks” or “this is the kind of thing they DON’T teach in seminary.” Let me assure you, they are said in jest; my salary as a diocesan priest is not substantial and there are plenty of things that seminary did not cover in my general education for the priesthood. However, there are many things that I have learned as a priest over the years and as a pastor, I’ve come to know and accept the tremendous amount of responsibilities entrusted to me, big bucks or not. And the area where both of these things play out the most, is in the upkeep of the facilities of parish. And so, let me share some of what’s going on in those regards in my letter this week.
There are a number of projects that we are in the midst of, even though some of them won’t be completed until the summer. Some things we’re still working on and planning through, like the new building from the Capital Campaign and the potential upgrade/fix to the light systems given our recent issues. But there are others that are further along and I can speak about more concretely.
One of the projects is an upgrade to the air conditioning system in the school’s library and technology lab. The current system is approximately 25 years old and owes us very little. The work for this should begin shortly with limited interruptions to the day to day running of the parish and school.
In terms of the church proper, we are in the process of scheduling two projects to occur over the summer. The first is the continuation of the floor polishing that we did earlier this year; this time it will be for the flooring in the Gathering Space and will be in August sometime. The other project is for the kneelers in the church. We are having them be “repadded” and that should take place sometime beginning late June, early July. It’ll be done in sections and won’t affect the weekend Masses in any way.
The final project I’d like to share is with the parking lot. It’s got some normal cracking that has occurred due to wear and tear and the weather conditions of this past winter. After getting those sealed, the plan is to also repaint the lines for parking. Obviously, that won’t happen until after Carnival and we’re still looking into what is needed, so the overall project may change slightly, depending on what’s needed. But as you can see, there are plenty of improvements and maintenance projects going on at the moment. I hope you know how seriously I take the physical wellbeing of the parish facilities and while it sometimes takes a while to get things lined up and taken care of, it is important work for me as pastor.
Peace and Goodness,
Fr. Dan
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