Omaha Gives

Wednesday, May 25 
Midnight to Midnight

Please support St. Columbkille Parish

All donations received through Omaha Gives! are eligible for matching funds and prizes.

All money received today will go towards
 our Pave the Way parking project.

Click here for the St. Columbkille Page

 on the Omaha Gives! website.

The Rain Garden is Planted

Once of the biggest tasks was

 arranging all of the plants.

 All the rain which falls on the parking lot is designed to flow into this area. Here the plants will capture and filter run-off before it enters the storm sewer system.

One in place, the real work of planting began.

 It will be fun to watch them grow!

Railings for our Steps

The railings are up for the steps

 in our new parking lot. 

Enjoy!

Finishing Some Striping

Sixth Street was closed for a few hours yesterday to do some work striping the street.

One of the things they did was paint a yellow triangular are to help encourage west bound traffic to move to the right. When they had worked on the street a few weeks back, we got an unscheduled rain-shower. So they were able to take care of some striping they had intended to do earlier.

As a gesture of good will, the folks at Miktom were kind enough to restripe some areas of our existing parking lot as well as paint a cross walk for our new crossing spot.

With all of the new portions of the parking lot, it's nice for some of our current parking lot to get some attention.

Thank you Miktom!

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.

Adding a Turning Lane

Sixth Street, was closed yesterday to stripe the wider street. The first portion was to grind out the old yellow lines.

Stripes were put down so there can now be a turning lane. This should make it easier to get into the church and a help overall traffic flow along 6th street. Unfortunately we got some unforecast rain. As a result the workers will need to come back for a few finishing touches.

All of this is part of the St. Columbkille's Pave the Way project. While the city approved the project, we are paying for it to make the street better for our parishioners and our neighbors.

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.

Working on the Sidewalk

Today the sidewalk in front of

 the parish office was poured.

One of the most important tools

 for the task was a level.

Between the front sidewalk and the Parish Office, the slope could not exceed 5% in order to make it accessible for those in a wheelchair. As a result the approach winds a bit for a smooth journey to the office.

Pouring Concrete

During Phase Two of our Pave the Way project, there are four large concrete pours. The first of those was scheduled for yesterday, but they were prepared and did it Thursday instead.

 The sensor above ...

 ... is on this machine ...

 ... and reads a signal from this stationary laser signal ...

... so this computer can make certain the level of concrete is at the exact right height in all of the parking lot.

About 35 trucks were used, arriving 

every 12 minutes full of concrete.

Despite the GPS and computer equipment, a lot of getting the concrete in place remains a work of art.

We Have Power

Above is a picture before the electricity was turned off in our Parish Office. Below you can see the difference as there are no longer overhead lines going to the office and the poles have been removed.

Here's a picture from just before the work began. You can see the sleeve which the new lines would travel through underground to replace the overhead lines.

With the posts out of the way, the hill has been cleaned up so work can begin to build a retaining wall. The workers are anxious to start pouring concrete.