Up Coming Events ~
Special Announcements
Please click HERE to access our new
calendar!
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ADDED
Concert
News:
Melanie Doane is coming to Saint
Patrick's!!
June 24,
2010 Juno-Award winner Melanie Doane will bring her fusion of
jazz,rock, pop, folk and country to Saint Patrick's Church.
Tickets are
available for $20 each and can be purchased by phone, 429-4170, or
stopping by the office, 2267 Brunswick Street.
Something
new:
The
Restoration Society is now accepting donations for the replacement of
the 5 doors at the front and side of the Church and for the stained
glass windows above those doors. We will be putting up a poster
in the Church entrances to track our success. Door fund envelopes
are available at the back of the Church by the green box. We will
be putting up a plaque in the front entrance with the names of all the
donors. If you wish to make a donation in honour or memory of a
special person, we will be happy to send a card to them or their family
acknowledging your gift.
Survey
of Church Land:
If
anyone in the Parish knows of a surveyor who would be willing to do an
official survey of our land in exchange for an "in kind" tax credit,
PLEASE CONTACT OUR RESTORATION SOCIETY OFFICE. We want to install
a fence around the property and require an official survey before this
can be done.
Furnace Update:
April 9,2010
Thank you one
and all for your generous donation, prayers and support
of our many projects during the past two months. Together we did
it.
When we counted the money put in the green box on Easter Sunday, we
reached our goal of $50,000!
This $50,000
was used to pay the architectural, mechanical and
electrical design work for the furnace and surrounding area; the down
payment on the furnace; the rewiring of the entire sub-basement area to
bring it up to code; the hazardous waste review; and the removal of the
hazardous waste in the old coal room.
We now have a
state of the art gas furnace, that with proper maintenance, should last
for at least another 25 years. We have a $100,000 five-year lease
on the furnace itself and that is being paid off by the Restoration
Society at a rate of $2,000 per month. Also we should see a
significant reduction in our fuel costs. No more $6,00 per month
oil bills!!
Special thanks are extended to: our architect, Graeme Duffus, who
directed and oversaw the entire project; to our engineering firm CBCL
for the excellent design work; to Black and McDonald for building and
installing the furnace, doing the electrical work and overseeing the
cleanup of the waste material; to Heritage Gas for providing the
hook-up and the gas; AND to Robert Oxner, our building supervisor, who
worked countless extra hours to ensure that the job was completed with
minimum problems and on time.
This was the first major project in our restoration process and using
the examples of our ancestors, we used the best possible materials and
professionals to ensure this work met the high standards set for us.
Thank you!
March
31, 2010
We
are almost there! Last weekend 60 people attended our tea.
Not only did everyone have a delicious lunch, a virtual tour of our
beautiful Church, compliments of Blair Beed, and wonderful music
provided by Frank Arab on our Grand Piano but we also raised $300.00
for the Furnace Fund.
We
received $100.00in donations in the green box at the back of the
Church and a young parishioner gave us a donation of $250.00. We
require just $314.00 to reach our goal of $50,000! Thank you one and
all for your generosity.
March
28, 2010
The Irish
Saints are with us on this one!!! The final checks (hosing down of the
coal room after the last piece of waste was removed and the
installation of the cold air duct) were all completed this week.
That is it!!! This project is finished. Pictures will be
available next week and posted at the back of the Church.
A very faithful and generous parishioner has given us an additional
cheque for $5,000.00 this week for the Furnace Fund. That leaves
us with just $964.00 left to complete our goal of $50,000. We
send sincere and very special thanks to EVERYONE who helped us with
this important project and, in particular, to our generous benefactor.
March 21, 2010
THANK
YOU one
and all for making this the best Saint Patrick's Day/Week yet!!
People
from two months old to 90+ years came out to enjoy the celebrations and
it was a glorious time! As a result of the efforts of hundreds of
people who worked during this time or who supported out events,
our Furnace Fund is now at $38,000!!!
And shortly, we will receive a $6,000 furnace rebate, so we are closing
in on our goal of $50,000. We just have $6,000 to go!
Please leave your donations in the green box at the back of the
Church.
Special thanks are sent to all who worked so hard to make the week such
a success. It would be impossible to name everyone but the Chair
of the Parade Committee, Bob Reiniger, must be singled out for the
outstanding leadership he provided in ensuring our Third Annual Parade
was such a success!
March
7,2010
We are in the
final stages of this journey.The boilers are all installed and working
well. The heat was turned on this week int he sacristy and the
electrical inspection was completed and approved. Minor tune-ups
on the system were made. Next week the clean-up will be finished,
the tanks removed and then we can relax for 20 years on this project!!!
Thank you for your continued generosity in our Furnace Fund
drive. Last Sunday we received $547.65 in our green box at the
back of the Church. We also received a cheque this week for
$200.00 and another for $1,000 for our Furnace Fund. We have
surpassed the $32,000 mark. THANK YOU ALL!!
Feb. 28, 2010
Tuesday Feb 23 was a very exciting
day at our beautiful Saint Patrick's Church. The team from Black
and MacDonald started work at 6 a.m. and finished at 2 a.m. on
Wednesday. Boiler 1 was installed and brought on stream.
The
electrical panel was activated and the old one was removed. The
final work on the exhaust system was put in place and the new furnace
pipes were welded in place. The outside work was completed by
Heritage Gas and the meter was put in place. A fence will be
installed around the meter and outside pipes after the parking lot is
paved.
The old
boiler was drained and removed and then the switch for our new
furnace was turned on. It was carefully monitored for 10
hours and then all the unwanted air was out of the system and the heat
was flowing!! For the first time in years, the radiators in the choir
loft work! And yes, we have lots of heat!!
The second
and third boilers were installed this week. The system
itself is truly amazing and, of course, is all controlled by computers
in the boilers. When you life up the top lid of the first boiler,
there is the computer working away and sending out messages to the
second and third boilers. It is quite remarkable to be standing
in a room that was hand dug around 1883, with an arched and fully
bricked ceiling and then seeing 21st Century technology building on the
work of our ancestors to keep our Church warm.
Work will
take another week to finish cleaning out the coal room and
tidying off the furnace area itself.
THANK YOU
ALL for your prayers and generous contribution that have
allowed us to have the furnace installed and thus keep our Church
open. Because the old furnace had virtually collapsed, we would
have had to drain the pipes and close the Church for the winter if the
new furnace had not been installed. We have $20,000 more to raise
to reach our $50,000 Furnace Fund goal. The 5-year lease of
$100,000 is being paid on a monthly basis of $2,000 per month, starting
on March 1, 2010. Once we reach our $50,000 goal, we will put up
a poster and mark off the payments for the lease as the funds are
received.
Feb.
21, 2010
This week
the furnace crew completed the custom-made boiler pieces, pipes and
fittings for the furnace. Most of this work was done at Black and
MacDonald's shop in Burnside. On Thursday and Friday, the crew
worked to install all the pipes and the boilers.
During the
week, an underground scan was done in the South parking lot to document
and locate what other services (underground sewer lines, electrical
lines, etc) were in this area. This is completed and our
architect has a copy.
A decision
was made by Black and MacDonald and Heritage Gas to move the meter
location from the area under the first stained glass window to the
existing oil tank site. The piping previously installed by
Heritage Gas will be removed and a new line will run down the center of
the parking lot so that it doesn't interfere with the future ramp that
will run from the South side door to the Church Hall. Weather
permitting, this will be done on Monday and then a complete inspection
of the entire job will be done. On Tuesday, the furnace will be
fired up. Technicians will be on site for a full 24 hours to
monitor the changeover.
The clean up
will then take place and with the help of God and all the Irish Saints,
we will have a new furnace that should last for the next 25 years!!
