It’s hard to believe that summer is coming to an end; I hope you’ve enjoyed some time for rest and relaxation! As we do every year, we have undertaken a number of projects throughout our parish facilities over the summer months. After addressing the ongoing leaks that have occurred in the parish center for more than a decade by patching the flat roof, we finally replaced it this summer. It was 26 years old and well beyond its life expectancy. This was one of the projects we had planned to finance through the parish’s annual Stewardship Collection and the school’s Annual Fund. The total cost of $57,000 was shared between the parish and school. The Siena and Drexel rooms were also painted. Although we had hoped to repaint the main meeting room and corridor around it and replace the rug in the three meeting rooms this summer, we have postponed that until next summer to make sure that the new flat roof has resulted in stopping all of the leaks.
Another source of leaks in the parish center has been the four under-the-window air conditioning units. They are also original equipment of our 26-year-old parish center and have been failing over the past several years; three of them failed completely this spring. The $47,000 cost of the new units will be shared between the parish and the school.
The concrete work at the back entrance of the school and on the walkway between the main entrance to our parish center and Midland Avenue has been completed. This is the second half of a project we began last summer. As it did last year, the school’s Annual Fund covered the $45,000 cost for the school’s back entrance and the parish and school shared the $5,000 cost to repair the walkway between the parish center and Midland Avenue.
Just a few weeks ago, two of the four compressors for the air conditioning units in our church failed; they will be replaced in the next few weeks at a cost of $23,000. This is an unexpected expense but I’m sure you agree the work needs to be done.
In school, all of the hard surface floors were stripped and waxed and all of the rooms received a deep cleaning. This work is done every summer to prepare for another busy school year. Additionally, Quinn Murdocca, one of our parishioners, coordinated the repainting of the first floor corridor for his Eagle Scout badge. The cafeteria was also repainted to completely refresh the first floor; it all looks great!
Quinn’s twin brother, Reece, was also looking for an Eagle Scout project so, at our suggestion, he oversaw the replacement of the Stations of the Cross in our grotto. With the help of a dozen fellow scouts, he built new stands to house the Stations and installed them in place of the old ones that had become quite weathered.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support for your parish. We are, indeed, blessed to have such beautiful and well-used facilities and grounds but, as you can well imagine, they require constant attention. As Labor Day fast approaches, I hope you can enjoy the rest of the summer; September is just around the corner!