It was better than I feared…
When all the bids were opened and evaluated, Albert Arno Heating and Cooling Company had the low bid on the boiler project for church and school by $2,200. I signed a contract on the 29th of June and the ‘deconstruction of the boiler’ began today (Tues. July 10th). In addition to the boiler replacement, we are also replacing the hot water heater which services the entire school building with a unit that is 96% effi-cient. (I can’t quite figure out what the efficiency rat-ing of the boiler is – I have the technical specs in front of me, but don’t know all the ‘language’ they are written in. The gentleman working today said you’ll ‘pay’ for the boiler in about 15 years through the gas savings – and in 10 years if the price of natural gas continues to rise…) So the good news is that we will have heat for the coming winter. What is a shame is that we couldn’t just package the heat from these warm summer days and use that come winter…
Total cost for the project – is $103,180. The boiler comprises $96,700 of that total and the water heater $6,480.
How are we going to pay for this, you might be think-ing? As you heard our ‘seminarian for the summer’ Conor Sullivan announce two weeks ago, the Annual Catholic Appeal Parish Emergency Fund gave us the largest possible grant awarded to a parish – $25,000. (Just another example of how the Annual Catholic Appeal does so much for the good of the Archdio-cese) The Sponsor’s Dinner dance from this past year is matching that amount. I have made a three year pledge of $1,590. With those three sources, we are exactly half the way there in terms of paying off the boiler.
That leaves a balance of $51,590 to be made up through various funding sources. As you know, for the past few years we have conducted a “Pay It For-ward” appeal to Alumni and Friends of St. Ann par-ish. This year’s appeal will be the “Heat our Home”/“Buy our Boiler” version. My hope is to raise an additional $20,000 from that appeal.
Once those ‘totals’ are in, we will conduct a ‘mini’ capital campaign among the parishioners, tailoring our request to parishioners based on our balance due and their history of giving. Because of the generosity of the ACA and your past generosity to the Dinner Dance, we should be able to manage this without breaking the bank – either yours or ours…