The Pastor's Challenge

From Fr. Dave:

Last week I introduced my "Pastor’s Challenge". I would be delighted if we could turn “Pave the Way” into “Paid the Way”. The sooner we pay off the loan, the more interest money we will save and the sooner we can move on to Phase III.

This "challenge" is twofold. First - I would like to encourage members of our parish to join me in making little sacrifices to save money and contribute each month by putting your savings in the “Pave the Way” envelopes provided in your monthly packet.

Fr. Damian suggested that we each contribute what we might spend each month for parking at sporting events or concerts at the CenturyLink Center. This is a great idea. In essence, if many of our 3,000+ families each made a contribution, we would go a long way toward paying off Phase II.

Secondly, I will personally match the largest donation to “Pave the Way” that is made (before December 31st) up to $10,000.00. I want to be a part of the success of this project and thank all of you in advance for your tremendously generous support.

Pax,
Fr Dave

Planting 115 Trees

As part of Phase 2 of the Pave the Way project we're adding trees.

We are planting a total of 86 evergreen trees as well as 29 deciduous trees. While some folks seemed to think we were going to just flatten the property and pour blacktop on it, we really want to be good stewards and have something we can all be proud of.

Halloween Prank?

Did someone steal our stairs as a Halloween Prank?

It did happen on Halloween, but it wasn't a prank. If you walked this set of stairs, you may have noticed that the angle of the steps were off on the top two and they weren't even. So the contractors pulled it out and will re-pour the steps. They want everything to be perfect.

It's Not Done But...

The new parking will be washed off with a fire hose on Friday, there's more landscaping to do, we're waiting for the permanent hand rails as well as a few other things. So it's not done yet, but they're letting us park on it now. Not Friday (while the fire hose is here), but we can today.

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.

Phase Two of Pave the Way

Phase Two of our Pave the Way parking project has begun in earnest. As part of this the north parking lot is being redone. When finished, there will no longer be steps between the church and this parking lot because it will be the same level.

The first plan would have kept these trees. That was before realizing that three of them were dead and the rest are not in good shape. We'll be planting plenty of more trees before this project is finished.

It will be very nice when it's done.

Tearing Down the Parish Office

Yesterday the parish office was torn down. The original plan was to tear down the building before out current church was built. But because we didn't have the money to build a new rectory, it was moved a turned north of the church. It first housed priests like Fr. Steinhausen and Fr Pat Henry. Now, over 30 years later, it is time to transition the space into parking.

It was great to have Papillion Sanitation on hand hauling the debris away as it was loaded.

Bob Roth has been overseeing this event. Bob said that one of the first projects he was a part of was tearing down houses in Omaha so I-480 could be built. He said he got so he could tear down five houses in one day -- though they were smaller than this one.

Burning Two Houses

The new parish office will be in the building to the left in the picture above. The two houses to the east were burned by the Papillion Fire Department today.. They will make way for our Pave the Way project to add more parking in four phases. Removing these buildings is among the last items of "phase one."

A number of drills were done in the morning before the true burn began. For example, this dummy was placed in the house, and a firefighter had to locate it and carry it outside. a number of drills were done in the western house where they would start fires and observe how long it took to fill the room with smoke.

On both houses, one of the things firefighters had practiced  was cutting holes in the roof. Unfortunately some water got through in the eastern house and parts of the drywall ceiling collapsed. They were then unable to do some of their drills in the eastern house as any fire would get right to the attic and burn everything right away.

Fire hoses are difficult to maneuver.  It would take a lot of cooperation to take it in this house, take an immediate right up steps and then to the left to put out a fire.

After the drills were complete, the Fire Department asked Bob Roth to knock down  part of the west side of the west house. That prevented it from getting as hot and harming our new parish office.

Then it was time to burn them

down, starting with the east house.

Fr. Damian complained that when he was in grade school he never got to go outside and watch a house burn.

Eventually it died down enough to roast marshmallows.