Church of St. Joseph

The process of assessing needs, imagining solutions, exploring options, gathering data, seeking bids, making plans, wondering about money and asking for advice has been a long one. One thing we recognize - we need a foundation of prayer for this complete project. We ask all our parishioners to lift up this endeavor to God in prayer.

With God’s guidance, we are coming nearer and nearer to a plan that will meet the needs of our parish, the approval of the Archdiocese, and be achievable for our parishioners. Our goal is to firm up a workable plan by this spring, so we can begin raising the money we need by next fall. Thanks again for your prayerful support.

“Society is continually changing. And in order to serve the needs of its people, the Church must not only be willing to change, but actively pursuing it” (Karen Butler, ‘Deconstructing the 2008 Church,’ Church Solutions, January 2008). The sub-committee of Mark Vetter (architect), Bill Johnson, Paul O’Gorman and Chuck Romportl are still “actively pursuing” an alternate plan for comparison. We are not changing the plans at this point… only creating new ideas for consideration. If you have any questions about the progress, please feel free to call me or any of your Facility Team members:

Scottie Bahr
Bill Johnson
Karen Totall
Paul O’Gorman
Joan Vesovich
Richard Stein
Chuck Romportl
John Jelinek

The Facilities Committee proposal presented at the All Parish Meeting on November 27 was merely preliminary — Following that meeting, we created a smaller sub- committee to delve deeper in order to develop an alternate plan for comparison. Members of the sub-committee are: Mark Vetter (architect), Bill Johnson, Paul O’Gorman and Chuck Romportl. Like freelance writer Lee A. Dean stated in a recent magazine article, “a church must balance economics, aesthetics and utility… and be keenly aware of their community and what its people need in new facilities (Your Church, Strategic Space, Jan/Feb 2008, pg. 14). We appreciate your continued prayers as we strive for this balance.

Last night’s all parish meeting was a success! The Facilities Committee presented their findings and answered lots of questions from parishioners. If you would like to know:

• What facilities needs do we have?
• What could we do to meet those needs?
• How much would it cost?

please download the Facilities Committee presentation (pdf) - and give us your feedback: Are there other needs you see? Other solutions? Different priorities? Let us know!

St. Joseph’s has always put people ahead of buildings. We invested time and money to keep our school and daycare going while letting many building improvements slip by in the process. The irony of that approach has unfortunately come back to bite us. John Ireland School considered remaining at St. Joseph’s, but left because our building needed more updating than those of our neighboring parishes. More recently, our aging convent building caused another departure and our daycare was forced to find a new location with better facilities. We now have to play “catch up” with our buildings so that we can continue to support our current ministries and eventually update and improve. Like our people, our buildings are our “treasures.” We hope to share some estimated costs and potential plans for improvements sometime next month.

Creating the “Master Plan” for our campus is a real “juggling act.” Dealing with a major project like the convent renovation plus several other important concerns such as lighting, sound system, new confessionals and possibly a main floor gathering space in the church - it’s like juggling a bowling ball, a volleyball, a tennis ball and a golf ball. As other maintenance issues exist and arise (plumbing problems, a leaky roof, noisy water fountain, loose floor tiles) a baseball gets tossed at us, too. It has become clear that a capital campaign will be necessary to support that “master plan”… but what can we afford? The scope of our master plan will depend largely on the amount of financial support we all can commit to the cause. We are a faithful and generous parish… and for that we are blessed and grateful.

A NEW PARISH CENTER: STEP BY STEP

Getting a price estimate for New Construction is easy — it costs so much per square foot of finished space. A quote for the Old Convent/New Parish Center renovation is more complicated and involves a step by step approach:

• Step 1 - Architectural concepts are drawn;
• Step 2 - Assessments for structural, electrical and mechanical components;
• Step 3 - Proposal from a general contractor.

So what’s next?

Step 4 is creating a Master Facilities Plan that includes getting estimates on all the improvements needed for our entire campus. What do we need for the Church — lighting, sound, floors, Adoration Chapel? And how will we raise the money? It’s been quite a task so far — hang in there… we’re getting closer!

NEW HOME FOR ST. JOSEPH’S DAYCARE

Former St. Joseph’s Daycare Director Jo Ellen Begalke is now serving as the new Director of Little Crusaders Child Care Center which opened September 10 at The Church of St. Therese of Deephaven. Here’s some info from JoEllen shared on September 7, 2007.

“Great news! The move and new day care is official… The new space is great… We have a total of 25 children pre-enrolled who will start over the next few weeks… The staff at St. Therese has been very welcoming and helpful. St. Joe’s has also been very accommodating to me calling with many last-minute needs and questions. Everyone worked together to make this happen… “Again, thank you to all who had a part in helping make this
happen.”

As part of the transition to help St. Therese make this a reality, St. Joseph’s agreed to donate many daycare materials and equipment. The estimated retail replacement value of these products exceeded $30,000.
Any remaining items not used by St. Therese will be made available to St. Joseph’s annual rummage sale this October.

The MSSPA (Mainstreet School of Performing Arts) just this month announced that St. Joseph’s would be able to use Room 151 (adjacent to the Faith Formation Office) for the next two years. The Faith Formation office (Room 149) and Room 150 (old Room 12) will also be available to St. Joe’s for the next two years.

Impact: Renovation of the school basement (the old band room) can be delayed until we can formulate a campus-wide plan that also addresses the convent building and any potential church updates. We are blessed to have more time to plan; however, meeting space will still be limited the next couple of years. We ask for your continued patience and cooperation as we coordinate schedules for our many activities.

Q: What steps were taken this summer to determine the feasibility of a future church/convent remodel?

A: One important step was to consult with a representative of Catholic Finance Corporation (CFC). This consultation service was provided to St. Joseph’s, free of charge, thanks to funding from the Archdiocesan Growing in Faith campaign.

After consulting our existing financials, projected budgets and current operational expenses, CFC guided us to some reasonable financial forecasts through 2014. Based on our parish patterns of tithing, CFC has also
provided us an estimate of what we could hope to raise in a large-scale Capital Campaign. Creating a realistic financial benchmark is necessary and will allow us to measure each step of the process as well provide us with a workable facilities plan. Your facilities team is working hard to develop this plan… a plan to maintain and improve our facilities for today and into the future. With the help of you the parishioners we will achieve our goal.