I would like to thank you, once again, for
your generosity to the maintenance collection. The costs of maintaining our
aging building have become astronomical in the past year. General up-keep to
the church and rectory and salaries and parish programs are on-going, but the
unexpected occurrences of flooding have created many problems. The work to
control ground water leaks in the hall, the custodian’s room and the handicap
washroom is finally coming to an end but at a huge cost to install additional
drains, new sump pumps and re-routing of pipes and weeping tiles
to collect all this water. There are also three areas of work needed
immediately outside: The flashings on the rectory and church roofs need to be
replaced since the water is seeping in behind the bricks and causing them to
disintegrate. You will notice that the bricks have already crumbled at
the eastern parking lot entrance to the church. The Atwater side of the
church and rectory also has brick issues as they are starting to come down as
well. The water damage has already come inside in the rectory and is causing
the wall in my room to cave in too! As you will note, all of this work is
expensive and has set us back many thousands of dollars already. The sump pump
which handled the basement area of the rectory, (RCIA room, etc.), died
and, as a result, the basement flooded again with approx 4 in of water in a
12hr span. The water lifted the new carpet in RCIA room as well as all the
tiles in the hallway and connecting rooms. After cleanup theses tiles and
carpet had to be replaced. Unfortunately, some of these tiles were asbestos and
now created a health hazard and a team had to be called to remove the tiles. It
was also pointed out that all the wrapping on our pipes at ceiling level in
the basement had been wrapped in an asbestos material and now have breaks and
cracks which is now a health hazard and will have to be removed and replaced.
We are awaiting a government official to visit to tell us exactly how much we
need to remove and the cost. The electric de-icer and sensors that sit on the
roof line at the parking lot side of the church and runs along the down spout
which empties into the back garden has also died. You will have noticed
big icicles hanging from the eaves during the winter. This is the reason behind
it. The down spout also will have to be modified so that it does not touch the
ground as it does presently. Have to fix this one before the snow flies next
winter. All these issues will give you an insight into what is happening around
the building and just some of the issues I deal with on a week to week basis.
Your generous contributions to the maintenance fund help me tremendously to try
to keep up with some of these expenditures.
I hope you enjoy your week and finally, the
good weather.
Fr. Phil
