Dear Church,
As we continue to schedule the much needed repairs to our parish facilities, I want to assure you expenses are being carefully managed with our Finance Council and Parish Council providing diligent oversight. When you think about it, together, in only five years we have accomplished amazing goals; slashed the parish budget by over $200,000 paid off the crushing parish debt of 1.2 million dollars, we now operate in the black, modernized our parish school, installed LED lights both outside and inside the parish and replaced the rotting porches on the front and back of the Rectory as well as other necessary repairs to name just a few!
Recently, because of leaks and faulty roof tiles/workmanship (and no legal recourse), we have replaced the roof on the new school, the rectory and soon will begin replacing the entire church-parish center roof, gutter seams, ridge caps and repairing the fascia boards all without taking on an debt or any special collections or fundraising drives. We are trying to accomplish the parish roof before winter sets in and we have another delightful imitation of Niagara Falls in the church. Further on September 17, 2018 because there is none or limited insulation in the Rectory walls, we have teamed up with a company who has agreed to pay 75% of the cost to insulate the Rectory. Hopefully that will translate into savings on the utilities for the Rectory.
However, the next major project which needs immediate attention is the replacement of the wooden casements surrounding all the stained glass windows in the main church. If you take a delightful stroll around the outside of the parish someday, please look at the main stained glass window from a Pomeworth Street view. You will notice that the wooden window casement is almost completely rotted…and if you stroll around a little bit farther, you will notice that most of the window casements are rotted. Ahhh, yes the sheer joy of it all! As I mentioned in one of our last updates, by cutting costs and by increasing savings, we were able to incur the costs of the much needed repairs, only a few of which are listed above, thanks to you! As we look forward to the replacements of the casings (with a composite that will not rot) please understand that I may have to take up a few special second collections to help defray the cost. I detest having to do that Church, however, I am trying to accomplish as much as I can for you while I am still here as pastor. I will continue to keep everyone informed as repairs continue.
Thank you once again for all that you do for our great Parish of Saint Patrick! Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!!!!
~ Fr. Mario