The Year in Review
As you know, for the past year, the St. Catherine Facilities Committee has been meeting and discussing the need for major facilities changes to meet the future needs of the St. Catherine Community. Last June, we surveyed the community to determine how our current facilities meet our community’s needs and whether the community supported changes to our current facilities. One hundred and thirty-three people completed a survey. Generally, the community is in favor of major changes to St. Catherine’s current facilities with 93% of the respondents favoring change. Cooking and food service, accessibility, large group gathering and inside recreational areas led the list of the community’s needs. As far as prioritizing changes, a bigger gym, modern bathrooms, accessibility, and a bigger, modern kitchen led the way. More specifics of the survey can be found at Facilities Survey.
Over the past year, we have discussed and brainstormed about ways to incorporate these spaces in to the campus. Because we have people on the committee from various backgrounds, we would often have different views on how problems might be solved. Anna Veraldi, a volunteer architect on the committee, has been developing a “plaza” concept which would place a new multi-use facility to the east and north of the current church. The new facility would serve as both a parish hall and gymnasium and would include modern accessible bathrooms, a modern kitchen, a combination social hall/regulation-size basketball court, storage space, and smaller meeting spaces. In placing the facility at that location, consideration was given to traffic flow, parking, pedestrian access, and how each building relates to other buildings. The north entrance to the church would also be developed further into a gathering place for the community and would open on to the plaza.
Along with the concept of a plaza, we propose that facility change should occur in stages. This would allow for the eventual replacement of the school’s portable classrooms with more permanent structures as well as development of the space now occupied by the current gym/social hall. The school’s portable classrooms have received some cosmetic upgrades recently, but are in need of replacement within the next twenty years. A staged plan would also lessen financial strain for current parishioners. This year the committee has met and received input from the Archdiocesan Property and Construction Director as well as the Director of Parish Financial Services. We examined different buildings on the St. Catherine campus as well as looked at how other parishes have developed their facilities. We have met with experts in the field of construction and fundraising. We have spent a lot of time mulling over drawings. It has been an exciting but also daunting time. The parish itself has not engaged in any major building projects since 1959 when the rectory was moved, and the current church was built for a total cost of $425,000. A major building project of the type we are discussing requires a lot of thought, prayer, work and money. The current social/hall is dilapidated and no longer meets our community’s needs for either fellowship or athletic pursuits. Our parish currently is experiencing growth and collections are up. The school is experiencing a stable enrollment pattern. We feel that now is the right time to move forward with planning. » Continue »