Parish Festival News 2017
Excitement is in the air! Our children return (or some come for the first time) to begin a new school year. We will have a special blessing for the whole school community at this Sunday’s 10:30 am Mass. I have the joy and privilege of spending time with the teachers on Monday and sharing with them some of my hopes and dreams. Maintenance Supervisor Greg Vonder Meulen assures me the school will be spic and-span ready for guests for this Sunday’s open house and meet the teacher opportunity.
Greg is going to be really challenged—along with Chris Wimmer, his associate, and the other workers—for Greg will also be serving as on-site supervisor or owner’s rep. for the mammoth church roof-replacement which will be starting imminently. I would imagine much of the scaffolding will be up when you come to church next weekend. The project is scheduled to last a minimum of three months. Of course, we are at the mercy of the weather.
Members of our Building Committee have been meeting regularly over the past months with the contractor, drawing up plans and communicating with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. I’ve attended as many of those meetings as possible. Just this past week, we met with the company who was awarded the contract to do the work, American Roofing & Metal Company out of Louisville. They were the lowest bidders. The Archdiocese reviewed our contract with them—actually it’s the archdiocese who signed the contract thus: “Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr as trustee for the members of the congregation of St. Clement.” I also sent a copy of the contract to our Franciscan Provincial Council for their required approval.
The agreed upon amount on the contract was $409,765.00. We can do this because of your generosity in our Capital Campaign which has thus far generated $805,901,18, with $130,999.71 still being paid on pledges. Of course, monies from those collected were also used for the new roofs on the school, the parish center and the former convent, and for the replacement of the boilers in church. Together we can be proud of what we’ve done as good stewards of our parish buildings—passed down to us by previous generations and now safeguarded for our children’s children. Recently, I sent out an appeal (through the company managing our Capital Campaign) to those parishioners who have not yet made a pledge. I’m happy to note that we received several new pledges as a result. If you’ve not yet pledged, won’t you please consider doing so—regardless of the size of the pledge. It would be awesome if 100% of our members (families or individuals) could say they played a part in keeping our buildings beautiful and safe. You may recall that we also allocated an amount of monies to be collected to go towards our youth and young adult ministries. We will be true to that. And you’ll note elsewhere in the bulletin a report on our pledges to the archdiocese’s One Faith, One Hope, One Love campaign.
You may also have noticed that work has begun on replacing the sign board on the edge of the friary front yard. Before too long, you ought to be able to read regularly changing messages about the parish, especially school news; for the sign will be electronic and lit! We have the necessary permits from the Village of St. Bernard who will be inspecting the installation as it proceeds. The monies for this sign are from the profits of last February’s Super Bingo and other donated funds—so no monies are coming from regular income.