Anyone wishing
to donate can contact the parish office at 817-441-8484, email us at
parishoffice@holyredeemerepc.org, or mail directly to PO Box 550,
Aledo, TX 76008.
We are all so
excited about having the dozers on the property. Construction is well
under way. The piers were poured last week. So it has been a lot more
than dozers.
“Just how much did
we have to cut?” many have asked me. Here is the whole picture.
As I have written
before, our parishioners pledged 1.1 million dollars. That is $400,000
more than the national average for a parish our size. Two interested
people from outside the parish have pledged 1.5 million dollars between
the two of them. We had $332,500 in savings from our seven years of
existence as a parish. The diocese has granted us a 1.9 million dollar
loan.
All of that was
still not enough. The original project estimate eighteen months ago was
4 million dollars. We had hired a contractor after interviewing five.
Their firm attempted to help us keep costs down. Nevertheless, after
all the subcontractor bids came back, the cost was $5,127,432.00. Yes!
More than 25 percent over the original estimate. So we had to go to
work.
Working with the
subcontractors we came up with more than $120,000 in value engineering.
These are things that you will never notice. We used a different kind
of door locks. We used a different brand for air conditioning and
heating. Etc., etc.
Originally we had
cut the porte cochere, the indoor dividing walls in the parish hall and
between two classrooms, and the totally concrete parking lot (part was
to have been gravel). Then one of the generous outside donors mentioned
above came forward and pledged the $157,836.00 to keep these three
items, in addition to the huge amount he had already pledged.
So what do we
have? A complete church, a complete parish hall with full kitchen, all
the classrooms and youth center we had planned with nothing shelled out,
and the complete administration center.
What do we not
have? We never planned to have all the fine art. We will have the main
altar, a large crucifix on the wall behind it, necessary sanctuary
furniture, a complete baptistery, the reservation chapel with the
tabernacle, the reconciliation chapel and the ambry (shrine) for the
holy oils. We will only have the four stained glass rose windows in the
four gables of the church. We have received dedication gifts for them.
The eight stained glass windows in the reservation chapel, and the six
each in the reconciliation chapel and the two devotional chapels will
have to come later. Also, all statuary except the main crucifix
mentioned above.
In addition we took
the landscaping, the playground and the sign on the street out of the
contract. Parishioners have volunteered to put in the landscaping and
irrigation. We will probably have to come up with some dollars for
supplies, and we will need lots of volunteer help from all of you.
Also, we are thinking of putting in the meditation trail down to the
creek on the north end of the property, with fourteen crosses, perhaps
of the rugged kind. At any rate, at very minimal expense. We will need
your help on all of that.
But the bottom line
is that we will be moving into a complete complex. I am grateful to the
Lord and to all of you. The contractor has given us March 19, 2009 as a
completion date. We hope to have the dedication soon after that. Let
us offer thanks to God!
Father Bob
