In the News: Our Groundbreaking

Mayor David Black and the City of Papillion included a segment on our groundbreaking ceremony in their "City Happenings."

The story is here, starting at about 1:32.

Our Groundbreaking Ceremony for Pave the Way

This morning we held a ground breaking ceremony for Pave the Way. We're in our second phase now, but this was our first chance to do it. Above Fr. Dave meets Papillion Fire Chief Bill Bowes who oversaw the burning of three houses to make way for our project. Police Chief Scott A. Lyons was also on hand for the ceremony.

Sarpy County Chamber of Commerce President Karen Gibler briefed our parishioners Dick Van Haute and RME President Rick Egermier on the ceremony.

Troy Meyersick represented Lund Ross Construction which is handling this project. A significant portion of the street is widening the street. St. Columbkille is donating the land to widen it as well as paying for the construction. We think it will improve the traffic flow for the whole neighborhood.

We were also delighted to hear from Doug Dreesen, President of TD2, who grew up in Papillion and is delighted to contribute to the city's growth.

Fr. Dave was a little nervous about the actual groundbreaking saying that his hands "were made for chalices not calluses."

It was a great event. We thank the Sarpy County Chamber of Commerce for coordinating it all.

A Fun Ride - A Parking Challenge

The City of Papillion is hosting Slide the City on Saturday as people will get to slide down the hill on Washington Street (84th) starting between 5th & 6th street. The tickets to slide are sold out and have been for awhile.

Those parking are being encouraged to park at Home Depot or Tara Plaza and walk over. But the closest parking is on the west side of our church. If that fills with "sliders" it would be a challenge to those attending a wedding Saturday afternoon or our Saturday Masses to park.

Fortunately our Knights of Columbus are coming to the rescue. They will be monitoring our church parking lot to limit the lot to wedding guests and, later, Mass attendees. At the same time, they are going to charge people to park in the lots the parish owns south of Cornhusker. (As will First Lutheran Church and a number of other places.)

Because the folks for Slide the City are setting up very, very early on Saturday morning, the Knights will be blocking off all of our lots on Friday night and start to monitor those lots on Saturday morning.

We do want to warn everyone that despite the best work of our Knights to be proactive on this as well as cooperation from the city of Papillion and the Papillion Police, parking will still be a mess on Saturday.

Fr Dave suggested that perhaps we should expand our parking.

Our Inventors were Busy!

Camp Invention was this week. Mr Nardini (above) and Miss Wisniewski (below) gave the parents and family an overview of what the students were doing all week.

Then it was time for the students

 to show off their creations.

The week was amazing!

Tree City

As part of Papillion's Arbor Day celebration one week ago today, two of our parishioners were honored. The Papillion Junior Woman's Club held a poster contest. Abigail Walnut Creek Elementary School and Olivia from St. Columbkille Catholic School were honored.

This is the 26th year Papillion has been named a Tree City USA. Jeff Perkins from the Papillion Tree Board welcomed everyone to the event.

As part of the event the 4th grade students plants a tree...

... as well as taking them home.

Congratulations!

Burning Down the House

Last year we were able to purchase the four houses east of the church. As mentioned yesterday, the first house is being remodeled into the new Parish Office. The other three houses will need to be moved, demolished or, in the case of the fourth house today, burned.This will allow us to expand our parking.

The Papillion Fire Department was able to do some training as they did a controlled burn today. Even a SWAT team used the site for practice the other day.

 The street was closed during the drills today ...

 ... and the water was ready before the first fire was lit.

 Above are air tanks for those venturing in the smoke.

There were a series of training exercises in the house with some initial test fires.

After all, this was a chance for them to learn. One fireman said that it's just in cases like this where they can do things like saw into an actual roof or work with a different floor plan.

 News stations, and neighbors were out in earnest for the event.

 After the exercises were finished, they

 went ahead with the complete burn.

As the Fire Department finished, we were able to start knocking over what was left.

There's just some rubble left now.

In the midst of everything, some Papillion Fire Fighters even found the time to deputize some future fire fighters.