October 16, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We met with the Archdiocese on Thursday regarding our Pastoral Plan that involves St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen.  Since February, our Parish has been working with St John Vianney in light of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning that involves St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen sharing a Pastor and an Associate with both sites being utilized for the ministerial needs of the two faith communities.  Our Parish is also planning to begin ministry for those who are Spanish speaking given the growth in Spanish-speaking parishioners in our area.  This will include having a Mass in Spanish on Sundays.

Over the year, we had some changes in staffing.  As we are working with St John Vianney to work out details of operations and the various needs of each Parish, some roles will not be filled until St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen become a Family of Parishes on July 1, 2023.  Fr Mario has graciously filled in the role of Religious Education Director.  Jake Cortright will assume the role of Religious Education Director next summer in a hybrid role that involves teaching 8th Grade in the School as well as continuing his role as Youth Director.  He will be working with Leia Vranes who is the Director of Faith Formation at St John Vianney. One role that we currently need at Mary Our Queen is a full time Receptionist.  I have asked Rita Berthelsen to assist with the transition of St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen.  If you or someone you know who might be interested in the role of Receptionist, kindly contact the Parish Office.

Our replacement of the HVAC units for our Church and Cafeteria is slowly moving along.  We replaced the concrete pad to accommodate the new units and gutted out the old units from the building.  The next step is to have the new rooftop units installed with the new ductwork connected to our existing ductwork.   Once again, it will take about a month to a month and a half to have the new units installed.  Please be patient with us as we will not have air in our Church until the new units are installed.  These new units were put out to bid earlier this year in January.  As mentioned previously, the current air handlers for the Church and the Cafeteria date back to the time when it was first built in the 1960s and the condenser units are over 20 years old.  We wanted to be proactive in replacing these units.

There are a few other items in our campus that we need to address. This includes the replacement of the upper levels of our school’s old steam piping, the heating in the gym which is connected to the old steam piping in the school (with the possibility of adding air conditioning in the process), the replacement of the roof in the Kenny Center and the resurfacing of the parking lot.  We secured a loan from the Archdiocese to be paid over a 10-year period for the HVAC for the Church and the Cafeteria for the amount of $346,600.  We hope that we can address these needs and other needs of our Parish in a Capital Campaign next year.

The chairs and the kneelers in the Tabernacle Chapel have been sent to be re-finished/re-upholstered.  We were initially going to replace the furniture however after taking a second look at the furniture, we changed our minds as the wood of the furniture is still in good
condition.  Instead, we had the chairs to be reglued together and stained with the seat and kneelers reupholstered.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc