OLQH'S HVAC SYSTEM

As many of you heard at the Masses last weekend, the church air conditioners went on the fritz when we started them up this year—so the Mass you were at might have been warm or cold! We had to replace a condenser fan and a capacitor in one of the units. This replacement was not a major issue; what is the bigger concern is the control system that controls the HVAC in the church, offices, school, and rectory. You may remember that I wrote about this in my November 6, 2022 bulletin column. We are now at a point to address the HVAC control system.
 
The proposal to replace the entire control system for the boilers, air conditioners, and everything in between is a large project: in fact, a $90,000 project. Of that $90k, $50,000 of it is for the units in OLQH School. This project needs to be done and will hopefully give the parish much more control over the whole HVAC system in the offices, church, school, and rectory. The parish currently has the money to be able to accomplish this from the Inspired by the Spirit campaign, a recent bequest to the parish, and from our savings. Assumption Catholic Schools has agreed to pay their share of the school cost, as well. This will be finalized at the next parish finance council meeting, pending diocesan approval.
 
In addition, we are finalizing proposals to fully air condition the rectory. For some reason, only half of the rectory is air conditioned. Three of the bedrooms have no AC (including my own). We are looking at the most cost-effective way of getting AC into those bedrooms without cutting too many holes (if any) in the flat roof of the rectory. This project will hopefully be accomplished in the near future.
 
After Mass last weekend, one of the parishioners mentioned to me that I must feel like a homeowner as pastor. I certainly do, at times; although not many homes have 2 boilers, 4 furnaces, and 19 air conditioners! Nonetheless, like any home, we have to take care of our infrastructure. Thanks to your continued generosity, the parish is at a place where we can not only keep up with the maintenance but improve on what we already have. As always, please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions or concerns.