Fr. Todd 10/26/25

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,

            This weekend I want to give some updates on various projects at both parishes.  The first word is Thank You for your generosity that makes all of these things possible!

            At St. Mary on the Lake the redone landscaping and electrical work finished so nicely – our grounds are beautiful.  We are well along in the process of purchasing a small parcel of land that part of our Stations of the Cross are on.  In the rectory we working on installing a walk-in shower instead of the tub in the main bathroom to make it more handicapped-accessible for the priest who will be retiring this coming July and then moving in.

At Sacred Heart two project updates:

Sacred Heart School Window project:  All the final pieces are coming together with Krieghoff and that work should commence as soon as this current school year ends.  Hopefully it will be entirely completed by the beginning of next school year.  This is a generational type project that will be a blessing for our school and students for decades to come.  Our hundredth anniversary is in 2029 and the school will be looking beautiful for that.  There have still been gifts coming in for that project and any gift received offsets what we would otherwise need to use from our savings.  Again, thank you!

I have been asked many times – what would it take to Air-condition Sacred Heart?  We have all been at Sunday Masses, Weddings, Funerals, and School Masses that were prohibitively hot.  As you all well remember, this past summer was brutally hot.  So, over the summer I wanted to get both a plan and an estimate for what that project would even look like.  (I apologize for how long it has taken to bring this back to you.  I was supposed to have first talked to the Diocese about this project before jumping in.  I recently had a meeting that included asking for both forgiveness and permission!  Thankfully the Bishop gave both graciously.)

            There are two ways to air-condition Sacred Heart – one would be a forced air system.  But that was a non-starter for us because of how prohibitively expensive it would be, not to mention the architectural difficulties of installing the required ductwork without destroying the beauty of our Church.

            The other plan is mini-splits which are ductless, cheaper, and relatively unobtrusive.  (Like what we have at St. Mary on the Lake.)  The plan is 6 mini-split units: 2 in the back of the Church over the two side doors, 2 in the empty niches above St. Theresa and St. Anthony, and 2 in the sanctuary below each of the round windows.  The estimate is roughly $120,000.  That is only a single bid.  If we were to move forward, we would get several bids for competitive pricing.

I have permission to present it to you if it is something you'd like to support – emphasizing that it wouldn't conflict with our offertory, DSA, or our S3 pledges.  We have never had a plan or estimate before, so I am glad to have something concrete we can at least wrap our heads around.  Having struggled myself at Masses and seen others struggle, I, keeping all my regular commitments, would gladly put down the first $1,000!  Again, I am deeply grateful for everyone’s support.  If this is something you’d like to support, let me know.

God Bless,

Fr.  Todd