For sixty-five years, St. Paul the Apostle Parish has served the Catholic community on Joliet’s west side. Our history is rich with parishioner involvement in church ministries – including the ongoing care and maintenance of our church campus.
With the exception of the school, our parish buildings have not had a significant upgrade since they were built in the 1950s and 1960s. To continue providing a spiritual home for our dynamic parish, we are called to undertake several capital projects that will allow us to add vibrancy to our facilities, more effectively support our active community and ensure that the buildings remain a center for worship, service, learning, and fellowship for generations to come.
Projects include:
Church:
The church has not undergone any significant improvements since it was constructed in the 1950s. It requires the most work, including:
We also hope to replace the organ, if enough funds are raised.
Convent:
We received four bids to perform an extensive renovation of the entire convent. This extensive work would involve major interior and exterior improvements to the entire building including the addition of an elevator to make certain the renovated build was ADA compliant. Anytime you have extensive work done on an older building there is that unknown as to what might be uncovered and need to be resolved and the bids did not reflect any contingency funds. So without any contingency funds available, the bids ranged on the low end from $1,525,700 to the high of $1,793,000. The range of the bids exceeded our maximum budget of $900,000.
Our Buildings and Grounds Committee’s design team went back to the drawing board and came up with a number of partial renovation alternatives for the convent building. The result of the various options would be less then optimal in terms of the ability to fully utilize the building and would involve additional costs in the future to fully utilize the building. Even with the dramatic reduction of the improvements to be made the low bid was still $1,383,130 and the high bid was $1,423,103. These bids for a less than optimal result left the building with major improvements still remaining not to mention the potential for the pitfalls associated with renovating an old building. The range of these bids still exceeded our maximum budget of $900,000.
A number of additional design options that scaled back the renovation even further were investigated and cost estimates for them were evaluated. The final design of a renovation removed the HVAC system, the elevator and added a ramp to the middle floor. The lower and upper floors were left as-is and not renovated. Although its cost estimate did meet our budget of $900,000, this design would not allow us to use the top floor of the building, would limit our use of the rest of the building and made no provision for future renovation of the upper and lower floors.
After many exhaustive committee planning meetings, our Buildings and Grounds committee’s design team decided that we should look at the cost of a tearing down the current convent building and consider constructing a new building in its place. The requirements for a new building would include 5,000 square feet of usable space, offices, meeting spaces, a dedicated Youth Ministry meeting space, storage, etc. It also had to fit the aesthetic nature of our campus. Our architect created a schematic design of a new building that meets all of our requirements for a new parish center. The cost estimate for the new building is $885,000 to $891,000. This is approximately the same cost of the minimal renovation mentioned above.
Rectory:
Other than adding office space, there have been no major renovations or upgrades to the rectory since 1953. Administrative offices will be moved to the convent, allowing for a room for a retired priest to be added to the first floor of the rectory. Common areas such as the kitchen will be renovated to better utilize the space, and priests’ rooms upstairs will undergo modest but necessary updates.
Parking:
To provide for our aging parishioners, we must increase the number of parking spots that are handicap accessible and close to the church.
Thank you to our campaign leaders and volunteers!
Co-Chairs:
– Ed Dollinger
– Jim Roolf
Executive Committee:
– Fabio and Cheryl Biasella
– Tim and Lori Cora
– Ron and Ginna Jones
– Thomas and Marie Knorr
– Dave and Nancy Lagger
– Greg and Julie Newsome
– Keith and Meg Warning
– Christy and Steve Widlak
Honorary Committee:
– Helen and the late Peter Cinquegrani
– Mark and Sharon Dames
- Sue and the late Don Cordano
– Linda Deiss
– Eugene P. Egizio
– Mel and Tana Gray
– Jacqueline Hickey
– Billie Limacher
– George “Brunch” Lehman and Carol Sterr-Lehman
– Val and Roberta Rand
– Bob and Rosemary Stephen
– Dr. Richard and Jean Streitz
Volunteers:
– Bill and Anna Bayci
– Jim and Mary Jo Chignoli
– Joe and Kris Burla
– Rick and Ami Chignoli
– Jim and Judy Colwell
– Jim and Marcia Garrison
– Dave and Dawn Kaluzny
– John and Jacque Klika
– Andy and Nancy Midlock
– Peter and Susan O’Connell
To donate to the St. Paul the Apostle Capital Campaign, pick up a pledge card from the brochure rack at the back of the Church or contact the parish office at (815) 725-1527 pr parishsec@stpauljoliet.com