Parish Building & Maintenance Committee

This new committee is a subcommittee of the Finance Council and is responsible to advise and assist the Pastor and Parish Manager in the care and stewardship of our facilities. In the immediate future the principle task will be the implementation of the Caring For Our Future 5-year plan. The next items on the agenda are the church aisles, lighting and making our facilities more accessible.

2011 Updates

June 12 Update

The roof in the Parish Centre is now complete. Despite all the rain in June, the contractors were able to keep fairly close to the projected completion date. Work will now focus on the following projects.
Parish Centre
Last week the renovations to the men’s and women's washrooms and the building of an accessible washroom outside the Francis Room began. During this phase of construction, we cannot use the Parish Centre washrooms. Groups that are meeting in the Parish Centre will need to use the washrooms in the Ministry Centre. Access to water will be affected; at this time it appears that we will not be able to host Sunday Coffee after the 10 am mass for at least the next two weeks.
Church
The installation of an automatic door opener on the north doors and the refinishing of the doors will begin on Monday. For the next few weeks, we will need to enter and leave the church by the south doors.
We are making good progress. Thank you for your patience.

May 29 Construction Update

The work on the new roof for the Parish Centre is progressing slowly due to the rain and we are behind schedule by a week. The section above the Main Hall is complete except for the metal trim and the lower section is still in progress. Weather permitting; June 8 is the projected completion.

We have tendered the rest of the Parish Centre and Church projects and have met and interviewed the short listed contractors. The Building Committee will make its final selection this coming week. We anticipate that the work will start the week of June 6th.  Visit our website for details on the upcoming projects.

During the construction, there will be some disruptions and we thank you for your patience. We will keep everyone informed about any changes or cancellations for activities or meetings. 

May 14 Construction Update

The Parish Centre roof is to be finished by the end of May. It took some time to set up the Building Committee, select the architect and consult with our experts and now the work is underway. Once the roof is completed, work on the following projects can begin.

Parish Centre

• HVAC system including new duct work with heating & cooling
• accessible doors with automatic opener
• accessible washroom outside the Francis Room
• renovate men’s & women's washrooms

Church

• new accessible washroom in the south confessional location
• replace old ceiling tiles with drywall
• install new lighting
• refinish doors & install a door opener on the north front door for accessibility

Over the next few weeks we should have a definitive schedule outlining which projects will be completed first. All the above projects should be substantially completed by the end of thissummer with minimal disruption.

The HVAC system for the Parish Centre, originally scheduled for 2012, is being installed this year as it is more cost efficient to do the work on the roof and the heating and cooling systems at the same time. As a result, the kitchen renovation in the Parish Centre has been deferred to 2012. We all look forward to the changes that we have created…Caring for Our Future.

May 5 Construction Begins

The much needed work has begun on the Parish Centre roof. While the roof is under construction the air conditioning and most of the ventilation will be disconnected. We can open the windows and use some freestanding fans to improve air circulation. There may be some noise during the day; this won’t be an issue in the evening as the construction crew will not be working. We anticipate that the roof will be completed by the end of May. In the meantime, every effort is being made not to disrupt any of the parish group meetings. Safety and comfort issues are a priority and if meetings must be moved or cancelled for these reasons, parishioners will be given as much advance notice as possible. Following completion of the roof at the end of May, work on the bathrooms and accessible doors will begin. During this phase of construction, we may have to put up with a little inconvenience however, it will be worth it as we will all benefit from these much needed improvements to our Parish Centre.

March 13 Building & Maintenance Committee Meeting

The group met with the architects from Montgomery Sisam to review the current plans for the first phase of work. Drawings and finishes were provided for the accessible bathrooms. We will forward these to Sam Savona our parish's accessibility expert. The first of these projects will be the roof of the Parish Centre. The project will go to tender next week and once a roofer has been selected it will probably be a five week project.

February 27 Construction to Begin Soon

The Architects will soon be presenting concrete plans to the Building & Maintenance Committee regarding the first phase of the Caring for Our Future Campaign projects. Their recommendation is to begin with the parish centre roof, which will then allow us to replace the air conditioning of the centre, which is in terrible condition and wasting energy and money. The accessible doors and bathrooms will also be part of this work.For this reason we are unable to accept any bookings for the Parish Centre between May and August.

December 19 Building & Maintenance Committee Meeting

The group met on Dec 19th to review the recommendations of the architects regarding plans for initiating the Caring for Our Future Program. A delegation of the Committee met again with the architects on Jan 11th. The direction agreed upon was for the Architects to initiate the process of preparing detailed drawings, permits and tenders for the work to begin in April. The first phase of work will include:

• Accessible doors in the Church & Parish Centre

• Bathrooms in the Parish Centre

• Accessible Bathroom in the Church

• South Aisle ceiling of the Church

• Crying Room Ceiling

• North Side Aisle ceiling of the Church

The committee appreciates the patience of our parishioners who clearly understand that our first priority is to be prudent and responsible with the money that has been pledged and to make the most effective use of our resources. Thank you for your generosity.

2010 Updates

December Message from Friar Rick

A young parishioner, perhaps around 10 years old, stopped me in church the other day and pointing to the ceiling in the side aisles said: "When are you going to fix that?"  Hummm... Good question! I'm sure he’s not the only one wondering about this. It's almost a year since we concluded the active phase of the Caring for Our Future Campaign and it feels a little bit frustrating because we have not done as much as we would have liked to. On second thought that’s not entirely true.

The active phase of the campaign has ended and we have begun the process of gathering in the pledges that were made by so many parishioners. We are happy to report that 99% of the pledges have been honoured. Thanks to all of you for keeping your word and thanks to our confidential financial volunteer team who continue to process the pledges.

Our parish has also created its first official Parish Building and Maintenance Committee to oversee the projects identified by the campaign as well as future needs as they arise. It took a while to assemble this committee made up of engineers, architects, business people and staff. The committee identified its tasks and then set out to hire an architect to help guide us through the various projects and priorities. The architect has been through the property a couple of times along with consultants regarding "code" issues and costing.

I know it feels like a very slow process, however the committee and I are committed to make sure we have as many things nailed down as possible (pardon the pun!) before we proceed so we do not get surprised halfway through the job. We expect the committee to meet and review the concept drawings before Christmas. Your continued prayers and patience are much appreciated.

October

The Parish Building Committee met on September 26 after much email consultation and discussion. At the meeting:

-The proposed contract with the architectural firm selected, Montgomery Sisam, was reviewed. This process has taken much longer than expected. The members of the committee wanted to make sure that we were clear about the scope of work and costs associated with the architects. A decision was made to proceed. The architects will now prepare initial drawings for the most important work to come; the accessible washrooms in the church and hall, the church aisles and the bathrooms and kitchen of the Parish Centre.

-The committee discussed how current building code regulations may impact us as we begin renovations. This will be especially true for the Parish Centre.

-LED lighting does not seem to be a prudent choice for us as a parish. New T8 fluorescent lights make more sense. However, since this lighting conversion is not on the parish priority list, we will defer until we hear back from the architects.

-There has been much discussion about grants available for solar panels. This was considered by the committee, but this decision was also deferred since it is not clearly part of the projects that were presented to the parish in the campaign. We will reconsider once we have a better sense of the costs for the projects to which we are already committed.

August

We are very pleased to announce that Bell Mobility has made a $10,000 donation to our capital campaign in support of the ecological initiatives such as the EnergyStar cool roof on the church. Bell Mobility leases land from the friars for their "stealth" mobility tower that also acts as a flagpole. Bell provides and maintains the parish flag as well as paying rent for the land. Thank you to Bell Canada for this thoughtful assistance to our efforts at being more "green".

The Parish Building and Maintenance Committee has not met since the selection of Montgomery Sisam as our architects for the campaign projects. However, it is expected that a contract will be negotiated with this firm over the next few weeks.  

July

The Building and Maintenance Committee has completed the process of selecting an architect to lead the projects that are part of our "Caring for Our Future" campaign over the next few years. Seven firms expressed interest in this project and three were invited to make a presentation to the committee. These presentations took place on the evening of Wednesday, July 14 at which time the committee selected the firm of Montgomery Sisam. The committee will now proceed to develop an agreement with this firm. Then the work begins to develop the "master plan" for our property and in particular the projects proposed in our campaign.

May

April

Current Total: $2,142,614.00 In long-term pledges and one-time gifts.

The Parish Building & Maintenance Committee met on March 15th to review its mandate and decided to have a review of Life-Expectancy of all of our facilities before we begin any work on repairs and renovations. The next meeting of the committee will be April 19.

January

Our parish campaign to care for our parish’s future is going quite well with over $2,137,634 in pledges and donations so far, which God willing, will be honoured over the next 5 years.

There is still time for everyone to be a part of our community success; 557 parishioners have made a pledge. If you have not done so already, consider making a pledge to the campaign. Brochures and pledge cards are also available at the doors of the church and on our website.

As we go forward, we will proceed with prudence and restraint. We have to stay the course and watch the dollars, because with a 5 year plan there can be unexpected costs. Our case to parishioners was to focus on common-sense necessities and parish priorities. This is what we will do!

• The plan for 2009 was to replace the ceiling tiles in the church aisles and replace the lighting with more energy-efficient products. This project has been delayed to 2010 because of the impact that our choice of location for the accessible bathroom will have on the ceiling. It makes more sense to proceed on these two projects at the same time.

• Toronto Hydro has informed us that due to the volume of kilowatt hours we consume, they have begun billing us at a higher rate. It is therefore in our best interest to look at energy saving strategies sooner than later, even if it is not exactly according to our 5 year plan. For example: there are 170 fluorescent lights in the church and 146 in the parish centre! We are presently testing LED Tube replacements for the fluorescent bulbs.

• Friar Rick has invited parishioners to form a “Building Committee” which will be tasked with the implementation of our 5 year plan.  In 2010 the focus is on making the church more wheelchair accessible, renovating the parish centre kitchen and bathrooms and continuing to support our Youth Ministry. This will also be the time to continue our research and prepare for the 2011 projects.

Thank you to our many volunteers who have worked so hard on this campaign and to all who have made a pledge or are supporting the campaign with their prayers.