Phase One Almost Complete
The Parish Green, Phase One, is almost complete. The buildings were abated, and torn down. Now, slowly but surely, we will begin to take down the big trees, grade property to match our property across the street and plant some grass. Because of the damage done to the back access road during the demolition, the parking area nearest the church will not be available until we can get things temporarily fixed up with some millings. Because we are not the Federal Government, we will not spend money we don’t have. As the remaining pledges come in, we will continue with the project. Currently, approximately ? of the pledges are still outstanding. I continue to marvel at the success of the campaign and the support it has garnered both in the parish and in the community. A special Thank You to everyone who made this great project possible.

Job Well Done
A special thank you to the Manafort Brothers for their great work on our Parish Green project. They were the lowest bid, and even though there were a few unexpected problems, they have not tacked on any additional cost, but have remained faithful to their original bid. Their workers were particularly sensitive to the requests of our historical society and the parish. The Manafort Corporation is a group of great people to work with. No wonder they have such a great reputation in our community.

Mass Schedule Changes
Please see the changes to the Mass Schedule this week because of the Franciscan Chapter. There is always a local priest on duty at the local hospitals if a loved one needs to be anointed Simply ask the nurse to call the priest on duty.

As the Summer Fades
The Summer College Dinner was a great success. Sal Biase, our Youth Minister, decided on a picnic theme and everyone had a good time. While some of our new college freshmen were understandably a little nervous, the vast majority of those who attended were looking forward to getting back to school and their college relationships. We are indeed blest with young people, and as long as I am here, we will do our best to reach out to them and become involved in their lives in whatever way possible. I have to admit, I
slipped them each a couple of bucks from me and you (our parish). You know, kids can always use a little something extra. They promised me they would not buy beer with it. :)


New Website / New Media about to go live
In the next couple of weeks, our new website will go live. When you first see it, you’ll need a little time to get used to it. The biggest benefit of our new website is that it adjusts automatically to your device, be it a tablet, desktop computer or even your smart phone. It is also much easier to edit the content. Try it, I promise you’ll like it.

We have also invested in a new media package that streams our liturgies with much greater detail and much better sound. Now, people can log onto our website and watch any liturgy or talk that takes place in our Church. Last Sunday, over 100 people watched our Masses online. In the near future, with the help of a little device, you will also be able to view our Mass on your TV. We’ll keep you posted.

Another Grant for New Doors
The doors on the back of the school, dating back to the 1950’s, are so rotted that our maintenance staff had to screw on metal plates to keep them from falling apart. Thanks to the hard work of our School’s Admissions and Development Director, Ellen Bertolami, we have received another sizeable grant to be used for the upkeep of our school. Through Ellen’s hard work these last couple of years, our parish/school has received just over $200,000 in grants to enhance our school program and maintain our school building. Ellen, we are most grateful for your hard work and all that you do for our school.

This grant will fund the replacement of several outside and classroom doors in our school. There will be no cost to the Parish. The grant comes from the Hoffman Foundation. I am hesitant to give the amount of the grant, because we are in middle of the bid process to replace the doors. You don’t want to tell those bidding on the project how much money you have to spend. Suffice it to say that the grant was sizeable. Mr. Gerry Vanty, who worked for years in the Maintenance Department of Trinity College, is acting as our project manager for this project. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to drawing up specs and gathering bids. He has done this kind of work for years and had the numbers of most of the contractors in his cell phone. We are most grateful for his willingness to take supervision of this project and represent the interests of the parish.
God Bless,
Fr. Robert