Parish Center Reconstruction Near Completion

Hello Everyone

We are coming to the close of the reconstruction period of the collapsed roof of St Francis de Sales Church. The outside of the building is complete; shingles, EFIS repair, new LED lighting over the entrance doors, sprinkler system that was damaged with equipment, sod and ground and security cameras installed to monitor the outside activity after hours. The security system was begun prior to the roof collapse.

The structural integrity of the building; new truss rafters and bracing of other rafters, insulation of attic spaces above sacristy, gathering space, office, parish center, education wing all have R-52 insulation rating. The three furnaces and air conditioners behind the altar (begun prior to the roof collapse) have been replaced and completed. We had committed to a three-year process to replace all eight furnaces in the building prior to the roof collapse. The three furnaces and air conditioners in the parish center mechanical room have also been replaced, tested and replaced. The gas line feeding the kitchen, the south mechanical room and the parish center mechanical room came down and had to be replaced; it runs through the west attic of the parish center. The sheetrock and painting of the parish center is complete, the flooring in both kitchens, the parish center and storage room has been replaced. The kitchens have a seamless sheet goods vinyl flooring rather than the VCT floor tile which was on the floor before. The parish center has luxury vinyl tile plank and a contrasting color luxury vinyl squares around the perimeter of the main parish center. You can see on the pictures of the parish center how it looks. We can now clean the floor easily with cotton mops, we can now permit red or grape drinks and not worry about staining the carpet. The coil doors over the serving window and dishwasher window are installed and complete. The counter tops in the serving window, dishwasher pass through window and over all cabinets in both kitchens are installed. All light fixtures are installed, parish center ceiling, emergency lighting and exit lighting as well as lighting in the kitchens and classrooms. Everything was replaced with LED lighting and the total lighting system utilizes the WIFI internet network of the parish as its backbone to operate the dimming feature as well as proximity sensors in the ceilings which activate upon your entry so no one is ever walking blind through the dark to find the light switches or the exit door. Because of an electrical code change, the ceiling was raised 8 inches higher. The T-grid and ceiling tile are all installed and rather than replace the huge speaker boxes that were lost, we have installed a sound system utilizing our original amplifier and three rows of five speakers mounted in the ceiling tile. There are four speakers in each wing. We can now accommodate four microphones; one in each wing as well, one by the piano and one by the electronics cabinet in the alcove. The crucifix will be repaired and placed back in the alcove when completed. As you can see in the pictures, Jim Baltes has mounted the Fr. Ketter Parish Center sign over the serving window which now just looks right. The painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be hung next week, the photos of the former priests of St Francis will be hung on the east beam over the wing rather than in the alcove under the crucifix. The frame of the picture of the Last Supper has to be repaired before we can hang it. We have the pieces of the frame but I have yet to determine if all the pieces were found. An improvement, the flooring supplier provided LVT square tiles for free if I would pay the installer labor to put it into the store room. I said yes! It looks great. We have yet to install new window blinds in the windows of the parish center wings; the old ones were all bent and were thrown. The outside entry door to the south kitchen hall entrance was replaced on Thursday and the south double doors of the main entrance doors were replaced on Friday. The north set of double doors (handicap activated doors) will be replaced on Monday. They will now have panic bars on the doors rather than turn locks and now meet building codes.

Comstock Construction and I will be conducting our final walk-thru inspection this coming Wednesday. At that time, anything that needs attention will make it to the check list and the sub-contractors will have to come back to repair, do-over or touch up anything that is not satisfactory to the building owner. On September 23, the cleaning company will arrive to shampoo all carpeting; gathering space, classrooms, stairs and halls to clean up after all the sheetrock dust, insulation and construction dirt that came onto the carpet. They will also do a thorough cleaning of the parish center and classroom cabinets. They will not be doing the kitchens because we have already had a thorough cleaning of the cupboards, everything inside the cabinets, all dishes, cups, saucers, salt & pepper shakers, plastic anything and all silverware. Beginning on Monday this week through Thursday, we had as many as 14 people involved in a thorough cleaning of everything that was in the kitchens or that had to be moved back into the kitchens or parish center from the classrooms where it has been stored since March 10. My thoughts were this; I could hire a commercial cleaning company however if they so much as miss one item and it has construction dirt on it, the perception would be they did an unsatisfactory job. Therefore, I recruited Sharon Menge to chair the cleaning job and hire parishioners to do the cleaning detail; people that are actually stakeholders in the results; a clean kitchen and all within. I predicted it would take all week, they were finished by 1:00PM on Thursday, not only with the kitchen but also with the contents of the classrooms, the trophy cases and its contents and the storage benches beneath the stained-glass windows. They did an excellent job and I thank them for that and also Thank You Sharon for undertaking this massive task.

This will be my last blog on the progress of recovery of our church building. Lest any of you think this was a disaster; stop and think about how God let this play out. For 23 years, we occupied a building that was not constructed properly and its’ structural integrity, unknown to all, was deficient. The heavy wet snow of March 10 came and Fr. Raul was mis-understood when he said he could not make it to Georgetown and canceled Mass. The Mass and all activities at St Francis de Sales was also announced as being canceled. On that Sunday morning at 9:43 AM (according to the stopped clock) the roof collapsed over the parish center. The Scout Troop was to hold a french-toast fund-raising breakfast that morning which they did not have. There were no scouts, leaders, parents or eaters in the parish center. Remember this was the first morning of daylight savings time so the real time was 10:43 AM and we should have had a worship space full of people preparing to receive the Eucharist. Catholics DO NOT CANCEL MASS! A mis-understanding allowed mass to be canceled. There was no one in the building! There were NO injuries or deaths! The parish center could have had dozens of people inside. Everything that was damaged has been fixed! Fortunately, we retained Comstock Construction and the sub-contractors that were awarded contracts have done an extraordinary and timely job. We are insured by the Catholic Mutual Group and thanks to our insurance company we have had a relatively painless venture. My last report to you, our parishioners will be a financial statement of this project which I will prepare upon total completion. Thanks to everyone for all your support, spiritual, monetary and psychologically. Thank you to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Good Shepherd Lutheran, its’ Youth and its’ Men’s Ministry, Pastors Mary Suomala Folkerds & Taylor Wilson, Our Saviors Lutheran for all your offers of support. To our Parishioners, to those of you we have never met and members of our community, and finally, our staff . . . . Thank You! Whenever we put out a call for help, you responded. Fr. Raul Perez-Cobo and I appreciate you more than you can imagine.

God Bless

Swede Stelzer