Next weekend at all the Masses we
will celebrate the success of the “Faithful To Our Mission” capital campaign. We
appreciate all the campaign volunteers, all the donors, and all who prayed for
our parish to be successful. THANK YOU!
Now we need to get on with the
project. Currently the parish property committee is refining the conceptual
drawings and pricing of materials. There is still much work to be done before a
final design is nailed down.
Because of the bad experience
with discovering unforeseen conditions on the garage construction project
(finding all sorts of buried tanks that cost a great deal to remove and
environmentally remediate), we have been trying to proceed cautiously and find
out exactly what the conditions are that we will be dealing with.
Our testing (you can see some of
the holes in the walls from the testing) has actually produced some surprise
good news. First of all we discovered that the limestone façade is glued
directly onto the supporting wall. There is not an airspace - for insulation
and to allow moisture to drip down – between the façade and the main support
wall. That would be usual construction practice, and what we expected, but it
is not what we have. We then tested the mastic (the glue) that holds the stones
onto the support wall fearing there would be asbestos in the mastic. If you
have been part of the parish for a long time you may remember that asbestos was
discovered in the ceiling of the church and it was all removed. So we suspected
it in the wall as well. Because of environmental and health concerns, removal
of asbestos is complicated and costly. Fortunately, we found NO asbestos behind
the stone façade. So that was good news.
We also discovered that while the
metal clips on the east side of the church and rectory are very badly degraded,
some of them entirely rusted through, the clips on the west and south sides are
almost like brand new. They will be good for another century. Because the
removal of the stone is costly, we have decided that on the sides where the façade
is still in very good shape (i.e., south and west), rather than bust off the
stone and replace it with all new material, we will power-wash the stone, tuck
point the walls, and then seal them. This is a much more cost effective way to
deal with the walls and allow us to make sure we will be able to do the other
parts of the program such as ADA compliant bathrooms, debt reduction and
enhanced ministry space in the old parish offices on the first floor of the
rectory. It does present a challenge to the architects to make sure the new
material and the old blend well. They seem up to the challenge.
Fortunately, the places where the
façade is in good shape are exactly the places that are less visible,
especially on the south and west sides.
We will remove the stone from the
east (Guadalupe facing) side of the church and rectory, the tower (which is in
bad shape) and at least a portion of the north side of the rectory. How much
depends on how much we can afford. We are trying to proceed cautiously, in part
to be responsible, in part due to the unhappy experience of great cost overruns
on the garage construction project.
Please continue to keep our parish, and especially
the parish property committee, in your prayers!
God bless,
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