Our Lady Good Counsel

Construction of our Parish continues to be delayed by the Building Permit process. Building permits will not be ready for issue until around March and will follow with construction around May or June of this year. The Building Committee is as frustrated by the length of this process as anyone in the parish. Here is what's happened since our last report:

The City and County Department of Planning and Permitting (C&C DPP) completed a second full review of our construction documents in November. They have now required us to install a fire hydrant on our property as part of the Parish Hall project. This recommendation is a good one because it provides us an extra margin of fire safety for the Church and School. We would have been happier if they identified the requirement during the first review of the blueprints nearly a year ago, but it is what it is. The prints were revised to include the fire hydrant and were submitted to the C&C DPP at the end of December. This should be the final review and is anticipated to be completed by March. In the meantime, the Building Committee completed interviews of eight General Contractors and have selected five candidates. Once C&C DPP issues the permits to us, we will turn the prints over to the five General Contractors for estimate, development and bids. Then the Building Committee will review the bids, select the General Contractor and submit our selection to the Bishop's office for approval. Then we'll be off and running again.

STATUS OF OLGC BUILDING FUND AS OF July 5, 2007

Everyone is happy with the new sacristy and restrooms, but we're not stopping with Phase 1. The questions are coming fast and furious. When will we see Phase 2 construction begin? How are we doing on pledges? How much of the remaining project will be included in Phase 2? How can I help?

To date approximately $1.1M has been credited to the Parish Building Fund. This includes income from the sale of the Hoomalu St. house, monthly pledges, and various fund raising activities, such as sweetbread,flower sales and some substantial donations from some not registered in our parish. Your pledge payments and donations have paid for Phase 1 construction, architectural and other services, to date $815K. The Building Fund's current balance is at $250K.

Phase 2 consists of the large meeting room (social hall with a kitchen). Phase 3 will replace the old office building with a new 2-story office complex. Phase 2 alone is estimated at $3M. 50% ($1.5M) of the estimated total cost is required to be in our savings before the diocese will allow us to proceed with securing a construction loan for Phase 2. The architect is developing construction drawings for Phase 2 and will provide us a better estimate of total cost when the drawings are 35% complete. Firm estimates will be established when drawings are complete and bids are received from contractors. Construction drawings are being developed, our architects are preparing plot plans, job scope descriptions and other exhibits to present to the City & County for securing minor modification permits. We will layout a rough timeline after a more detailed assessment of finances is complete.

Phase 2 consists of the large meeting room (social hall with a kitchen). Phase 3 will replace the old office building with a new 2-story office complex. Phase 2 alone is estimated at $3M. 50% ($1.5M) of the estimated total cost is required to be in our savings before the diocese will allow us to proceed with securing a construction loan for Phase 2. The architect is developing construction drawings for Phase 2 and will provide us a better estimate of total cost when the drawings are 35% complete. Firm estimates will be established when drawings are complete and bids are received from contractors. Construction drawings are being developed, our architects are preparing plot plans, job scope descriptions and other exhibits to present to the City & County for securing minor modification permits. We will layout a rough timeline after a more detailed assessment of finances is complete.

Although 763 letters were mailed in March of this year to registered parishioners who had not participated in the pledge drive, only 109 new pledges were received. Some of these new pledgers are newcomers or visitors. Only about 25% of the parish has pledged. This is your parish. We welcome your participation. In order for us to proceed, we need to increase the Building Fund to $1.5M. There is some "rainy day" money in the parish savings account but we don't want to dig into those funds at this point. If you've pledged, GREAT. If you haven't pledged yet, please do it today. If you have an idea or know of a firm/establishment or others who wish to help us in our building projects, especially fund raising ideas, we'd be happy to hear from you. We would be elated to hear from anyone with knowledge or experience with soliciting support from corporate or large donors.

Fundraiser news, account balances, upcoming news and names of members of the Building Committee will be shared on the Building Project Bulletin Board at the main entrance stairway.

BUILDING COMMITTEE REPORT

STATUS OF OLGC BUILDING FUND AS OF October 29, 2007

After months with the City & County Building Department, we finally received approval of our Minor Modification permit. This means that we can proceed from"rough" drawings of our Parish Meeting Hall to the "Design Development" phase and do not have to go through the lengthy and costly process of "environmental studies, Community Board review and approval.

Design Development drawings can be completed by November 30 for Building Committee review and approval. After we approve the construction materials and design, including the general arrangement of equipment and facilities within the building, the architect will begin developing "Construction Documents."

Construction documents include blueprints and specifications for building the facility and are the documents that are sent to various contractors for bids. Construction documents will be completed about Jan 30, 2008. These documents are also submitted to the City & County for building permits.

When the construction documents are approximately 35% complete, the architect will provide a "ball park" estimate for demolition of existing structures and building the new parish hall. With the ball park estimate, we will solidify our financial plan. The construction phase, which includes soliciting bids from contractors and awarding contracts, can't proceed until we have 50% of the final estimated cost in hand.

If you've pledged, please continue to get your pledges in. If you haven't pledged yet, you can help move construction along. We need the whole parish behind this effort. Look how much has been done already with the new sacristy and bathrooms. The meeting hall is long over due. You can help.

To Get Your Copy Of Building Drawings, that you can make any size to see all the detail. Get the Acrobat Reader and the .pdf Files Below.

Acrobat Reader needed for pdf files

MULTI-PURP SHT 2.pdf MULTI-PURP SHT3.pdf