Approved

Minutes

Parish Pastoral Council Meeting

April 2, 2008

Chairperson Linda Deptola called the Parish Pastoral Council meeting to order at 7:01 P.M. on March 5, 2008 in the Church Social Hall.  Arnold Nye led the group in prayer.

 In Attendance:

 Council Members:    Hilarie Hicks, Jim Lee, Joe Shabbott, Beverly Sabourin-Moore Vicky Shabbott, Linda Deptola, Jim Novotny, Mary Ann Cronin, Bill Strasburg and Al Vela

 Ex-Officio Members:  Father Jim Cowles and Arnold Nye

 Absent:  None

 Guest:  Mr. William Henry Harris, Finance Council, Planning Committee, and Administrative Staff

 Approval of Minutes:

Vicky Shabbott made a motion to approve the March 5, 2008 minutes as presented.  Hilarie Hicks seconded the motion.  The motion was unanimously approved.

 Committee Reports:  Committee reports were not submitted for this meeting

 New business:  Planning Committee Jim Lee

            A joint meeting of the Parish Pastoral Council, the Finance Council, the Planning Committee and the office staff was held on April 2, 2008 to allow Mr. Wm. Henry Harris, architect and planner, an opportunity to present the proposed Master Plan.  Mr. Harris began by explaining that the term Master Plan does not mean building project or a maintenance project.  He defined it as being a roadmap or vision of the future, of what we would like to have.  Mr. Harris used a power point presentation to explain phases one and two of the Master Plan.  As shown phase one included expanding the worship area, commons, administrative offices, and parking areas and resolving the drainage and safety issues.  Adding a day chapel, reconciliation room, vesting area, sacristy, and cry room were also part of phase one.  Phase two consisted of building a new education building and reconfiguring the existing classroom areas and adding storage space.

            In answer to the question of cost, Mr. Harris indicated that the cost of phase one would be about $3.3 million and phase two $1.5 million.  New church construction today averages about $200.00/square foot.  He suggested that we subdivide each phase into affordable segments rather than try to finance them all at once.  He stated that it would take some time to draw detailed drawings and about 6 months to get them approved by the county.  The parish should decide how much we could fund using the plans as drawn after which detailed drawings would be done.  The plans need to go to the diocesan Renovation Commission for approval before construction can begin.

            Mr. Harris was complimented for the plan, and it was well received in general…but most agreed that the cost was prohibitive.  There was considerable discussion about: the need for additional parking (county requires 1 spot/4 seats in worship and 1 spot/60 sq. ft. of Commons space), the need for additional worship space at this time (current seating 345, expanded = 500), attendance at Sunday liturgy (less than 300 at 10:30 except on major Holy Days), the cost of the project, how much is in parish savings ($74,000 stocks, $50,000 money market, about $30,000 in growth fund), the parish’s need to establish a Coordinator of Volunteer Ministries position as proposed in phase one of the June 2007 Vision Statement prior to proceeding with any construction (Father indicated that this position would be included in the parish’s new 5 year comprehensive plan), and whether or not the Belroi Rd. rectory should be sold or at least rented out again to help defray the cost of the new rectory.

            Other concerns were: the 2008/2009 parish budget does not balance because collections are not keeping pace with increased costs, the details of the diocese’s plan to cluster parishes have not been published yet, and the diocese is about to begin a fund drive to increase donations (the increased amount being split half and half between the parish and the diocese) to raise money for Catholic schools in the diocese.  With all those unknowns the concept of beginning a construction fund drive was not palatable to most in attendance.

            Fr. Jim thought that it would realistically take 5 years to complete phase one and that we need to divide phase one into 4 or 5 sub-phases and work on one sub-phase at a time.  The Preliminary Master Plan Focus Group Report January 29, 2008 (a prioritized list of parishioner needs which came out of the focus group meetings) was passed out to all present.  It was agreed that the drainage and safety issues in the worship area are the top priorities and need to be addressed in the first work that is done.  Everyone was asked to take the lists home and indicate their top 5 priorities for attention and return them to Jim Lee by April 9th, 2008.

Other Business:  Debbie Kelly from the Finance Council gave a report to the Parish Council members indicating that the proposed budget had a deficit of $45,000.00 and that the Parish Council needed to correct the deficiencies.  The Parish Council agreed to a work session on April 23, 2008 to propose a correction to the budget and discuss how we can promote a program to increase the weekly offertory.

Parish Council Election update:  Jim Novotny stated that there are 2 nominees for the Parish Council election, Tom Bernard and Jim Wezensky.  We have 3 positions that need to be filled for next year and they are secretary, vice-chair, and chair.  Elections will be held on April 27^th with Jim Lee conducting the election for the 10:30 a.m. mass, Jim Novotny for the 8:00 a.m. mass and Arnold Nye conducting the election during the 5:00 p.m. mass.

Beverly Sabourin-Moore briefed the parish council on the great success of the Soup with Love ministry this year. She stated that the proceeds will be given to Little Sisters of the Poor and Saint Vincent's. 

Jim Lee stated that there will be a planning committee meeting Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6:30 p

Announcements:  The next Parish Council meeting will be on May 7, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Social Hall.

Closing Prayer: 

The meeting closed with a prayer given by Beverly Sabourin-Moore.

 Respectfully submitted:

 Vicky Shabbott, Secretary