St. Patrick Church and School

What an emotional ride the parishioners of St Patrick’s have had these past two weeks.  The good Lord blessed us with a beautiful day for the demolition of our old church.  There was a great crowd and I’m sure those that came were happy they didn’t miss the once in a life time event.  In just four hours the church went from a large structure to rubble on the ground.  By the 3^rd of April all the brick, wood, concrete, and other debris was hauled away, and this past Monday and Tuesday the exterior clay block walls of the basement were removed and by Wednesday our large dirt pile that was on the west side of the old church was transferred to the big hole.  Now for news on the new church --  the metal decking has been put in place in the sanctuary and the four inches of concrete have been poured on top.  The concrete steps leading up to the sanctuary floor, from the nave, have also been poured and scored (to minimize the cracking).  The ramp from the north side of the nave to the sanctuary has also been poured.  This ramp goes along the north wall (east end) and east wall (north side) up to the sanctuary, allowing access for the handicap to the sanctuary area.  Since the sanctuary floor has been poured, work on the metal framing in that area has begun.  The arch way that separates the nave and sanctuary has been metal framed now from the ceiling all the way down to the floor.  The metal framing has also been put up for the adoration chapel, bathroom, and mechanical room in the south east corner of the building.  The basement mechanical rooms and around the basement staircase have also been metal framed in, and some of the insulation and sheet rock have been applied to those walls.  The first floor storage room (old gym entrance) has been framed and sheet rocked.  Craig and helpers have been busy applying the joint compound to many of the walls.  The upper half of the narthex walls, the cry room, and parts of the sacristy, and the upstairs mechanical rooms, have the five coats of joint compound applied and are ready to be painted.  The second floor, south side mechanical room has been completely mudded and painted.   On the north side of the nave the lower ceiling has three layers of sheet rock, and the alcoves by the windows and the curved part of the lower ceiling has one layer of sheet rock.   The north and south transept areas have all three layers of sheet rock on the walls.  The second floor south side mechanical room is about three quarters done as far as the placement of the air exchangers and large venting runs, and the piping that goes with the system.  Kent and Joe have placed the large iron piping (carrying the hot and cold water) from the second floor west side mechanical room through the gym building hallway ceiling and into the boiler room.  They have also placed piping in the south side mechanical room, and the PVC piping in the basement for the sump pumps. Eric and his fellow electricians have been keeping up with the framers, as soon as the walls get put up they are there putting in the conduit, gang boxes, and running the wires.  This past week they connected the fire alarm system for the new building to the school, finalized the light fixture wiring in the basement, ran conduit etc in the bell tower, and many more systems.  Jim and Leon finished bricking the east end upper wall above the sanctuary roof – notice the nice basket weave in the peak area of that wall.  The brick on the north transept north wall is just about complete.  Some of the precast is on and the medallion has been put in place – be sure and take a look at this wall.  It would seem like the precast concrete should go on rather quickly, but in reality it takes much time and patience.  Please take notice, our clerestory windows are all in, on the north and south sides.  The brick on the east end of the building and all of the brick on the upper level has been washed.  Al and Joe have continued putting in a lot of wood blocking – in the choir loft railing, and in every new wall that goes up.  They do many fixes and a lot of behind the scenes work – we appreciate them very much and am thankful for their good work.  Let us also thank our wonderful Kingery supervisor Bill – he is the BEST!!!  

Hats off to all those that helped gather all the scrap metal in the old church, and to George R, Jerry F, Stan F, and Clarence L. for taking in much of the metal in their pickups.  Through all your efforts of salvaging material from the old church we have gotten over $2,000 for our New Spiritual Home.

On the entrance table to the gym, there has been placed a sample of what our memorial bricks will look like.  From Your Construction Sidewalk Supervisor