Behind the Scenes: Caring for Saint Patrick Parish

Message from Dan Bell – Buildings and Grounds

A few weeks ago, Fr. John gave the financial report of the parish and included several of the Buildings and Grounds Committee items.   The Buildings and Grounds Committee has been meeting regularly since March 2025 as a sub committee of the Finance Council.   There are 8 members of the committee: Dan Schwab, Dave Blanchard, Duane Fier, Mark James – Head of Maintenance, and other staff: Scott Jacobi, Emily Todd, Dan Bell, and Fr. John.   Together we have created an extensive list of our buildings and grounds which consists of our church and school, two townhomes (our priest rectories), and a 15-acre cemetery.    We have gathered as much information as possible on this list ranging from the 2020 capital campaign projects and also including such things as the number of tables and chairs we have in the social hall, when the last repairs were made around our properties, and what projects we need to start looking at.  

This summer we did several projects, the largest being the lighting project.   For years we have been using bulbs that had been stockpiled  – which was coming to an end.   The total cost of this project was $53,239.97.    The church had rebates of $1,942.50 and a payback rate of 2.51 years, with an annual maintenance savings of $852.96 and energy savings of $4,432.21.   The school had rebates of $4,506.00, and a payback rate of 2.10 years, with an annual maintenance savings of $3,641.18 and energy savings of $15,353.67.  

The school parking lot and playground blacktop was sealed and crack-filled this summer. Did you know this is a total of 46,667 sq. ft. of black top!   The church parking lot is 210,484 sq. ft. of black top!   We try to stay on top of this with a rotation of every other year.   So, next summer the church parking lot is up for being sealed and crack-filled again.  

The Social Hall window trim was repaired and the upper right-side windows in the church at the roof line were completely rebuilt as part of the roof replacement from back in October 2025 due to hail damage.   John Gernes and crew have been repainting the metal interior doors here at church.   Did you know that we have 55 interior metal doors at the church!   Mr. James has also been replacing the original ceiling tiles in the basement with new 24x24 tiles.  

We have many future projects we are working on.   Two of the biggest are repairing the stucco on the exterior of the church – it is not dirty.   The stucco has worn away.   Additionally, the church exterior had many wood beams as part of the visual architecture that have rotted away and have been taken down over the years and the remaining wood beams need to be either replaced or repaired.    

Over the winter we will be working on the maintenance projects for next summer!   As Fr. John said, if you are interested in learning more about the project list in hopes of potentially sponsoring or donating to a specific project, please reach out to him.  

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