In March 2013, a St Thomas Building Committee was formed and has had six meetings since then. The committee was formed primarily because a number of people feel that, since the trailer was removed, we are in critical need of additional space for our church school. We also need extra space for parish gatherings such as the pancake supper and fundraisers Because of St. Thomas’ recent past experiences with expansion, the committee is trying to make every effort to be open and transparent in communicating our thinking. This page represents our first effort to make good on our promise to share our thoughts with the whole St. Thomas community so that we can make a prayerful decision about if, how, and when to move forward.

The drawing below is the current floor plan we’ve been working with. It shows a 40’ x 50’ building connected to the existing parish hall by an enclosed corridor. That size would more than double the current space in the parish hall and could seat approximately 100 people. Below are a few design considerations:

  • A separate building with corridor is more cost effective than building directly onto the existing hall.

  • The building is angled to conform to our property.

  • There would be no basement. The building would be built on a slab or over a crawlspace.

  • A kitchen and powder room could be added but at additional expense.

  • There are many ways to save money on construction, including pole construction (Morton, Kistler); we want any new building to complement the existing church and hall.

  • We may be able to offset some costs with labor donated from parishioners.

  • We may be able to further offset some costs with grants and an internet fund-raising appeal directed at the general public.

  • Yet another way to offset some costs would be to design to the space so it would be suitable to rent to local civic groups or for wedding receptions etc. We are projecting the lowest possible cost of such space to be $250,000. There are many design considerations that will impact the cost however – exterior finish, roof, flooring, windows, heating, A/C, etc. In addition, there may be engineering requirements, such as expanding our well and septic systems. Before we plan further, however, we want to get input from as much of the St. Thomas Community as possible. We are planning a brief information session during the announcements after the 9:00 am service on June 30 with additional Q & A sessions to follow on later dates. We are also making plans for an anonymous survey, available online and hardcopy. In the meantime, please be open and candid about expressing your views to one of the building committee members, listed to the right, or to Rev. Carol. We would like to make a decision on whether and how to proceed by the end of September 2013.

Yours in faith, Greg Shutske, Sr. Warden

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Building Committee Finalizing New Roof Specifications

— Greg Shutske
The building committee is currently focusing on finalizing specifications for the new roof and scheduling a contractor. If you have any questions, please see me, Pete Cichonski or Kevin Kapples. At the same time, the building committee is trying to arrive at a reasonably accurate estimate for the cost of new space. This will enable us to set a realistic goal for our crowd-funding effort. As always, if you have questions or comments, please see Rev. Carol, myself or one of the members of the building committee below:

Tracey Bergstrand, Fran Brunelle, Elisabeth Chiminec, Pete Cichonski, Dan Dusylovitch, Alan Grieme, Kevin Kapples, Lynn Logg, Brian O’Rourke, or Linda Ubry.