Dear Parishioners,
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! How many of you homeowners find necessary maintenance surprises and or unexpected issues in the upkeep and maintenance of your homes? Growing up my parents always seemed to have some issue of great expense in the month of August. I don’t know why it was in that month, but it always seemed to be then.
IHM has an unexpected issue in the convent building. The mechanical (boiler) and electrical systems are outdated, poorly working, and or insufficient for today’s standards.
The convent was built in 1953 and the boiler was put in at that time and has run its course. It has been inspected annually by the State of Ohio Department of Commerce over the years and has been assessed as “operational” by the diocese three times during my pastorate. The last diocesan inspection was done in 2017. These inspections of all our buildings are typically done every five years by The Diocesan Temporal Good Committee. Also, at that 2017 inspection the electrical system was rated as “operational”.
Today, this is now not true, and “something” needs to be done and it will probably be quite costly!
You may be thinking, “What goes on in the convent building since there are no more women religious using it?” The convent building has many uses daily throughout the year:
- Peter’s Shadow Healing Ministry and The Encounter School administration uses several top floor rooms (former “cells” of the women religious) where walls have been taken down to open the spaces for the offices, prayer room, and break room.
- The IHM School has several other rooms on the top floor for storage of extra school chairs, desks, and supplies.
- The Knights of Columbus office and meeting room is on the second floor (utilizing the former women religious living room) and is shared by the Sunday weekly AA group, and the diocesan monthly meeting for Divorced, Separated, and Widowed Catholics’ group.
- IHM indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations are stored in some of the second floor “cells”.
- A meeting Room for “Women of Faith” occupies the former convent chapel for their weekly meetings throughout the year. Other “small” groups have scheduled this room for use as well.
- The pantry for The Ministry for The Needy is on the bottom floor along with a meeting room for their weekly meetings.
So, as you can read, this building is used well and good for ministry and all good things here at IHM. These uses call for our due diligence and upkeep. Bill Andrea our operations manager, Dennis Smith our Maintenance Supervisor, and a member of the finance council, David Pelligra, have initiated an assessment of both the electrical and mechanical systems with Epic Engineering. We have a 12-page engineering document to sift through and determine a course of action. I am very glad we have it.
It is an assessment with different options for us to consider and recommends a phased approach. I will keep you posted as to what we will do and what it will cost.
As a reminder, IHM needs the bishop’s permission to first explore the scope of work. IHM has that permission already. Once the exploration is done, IHM then needs to report back to the bishop concerning its findings and then request from him a thumbs up to gain multiple bids on the project at hand. Lastly, he must approve IHM’s recommended bid for the job and then allow us to commence work.
While this is a cumbersome policy, it offers any bishop the necessary knowledge of his parish properties and allows pastors to maintain parish property with the legal and maintenance guidance of the diocesan offices.
Here are some pictures of the former convent building.
Many Blessings,
Father Jim
