St. Clement of Rome Parish One of the 100 Great Catholic Parishes of the United States

4317 Richland Avenue, Metairie, Louisiana 70002  |  Phone (504) 887-7821  |  Fax (504) 454-3906  |  stclement@archdiocese-no.org

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Update on SCR reconstruction Published in the parish bulletin, July 30, 2006 Dear Fellow Parishioners, As we approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I thought that it would be appropriate to bring everyone up to date on the reconstruction efforts in our Parish. Many things have been underway over the past 11 months to rebuild our facilities that were damaged. I know that each of us can not wait for the day that we can worship in the comfort of our beautiful Church or for our children to be housed in separate classrooms. I also know that we as staff are anxiously waiting for our office facilities and meeting rooms to be as they were. Well, we are rapidly getting there! The Church building has wall covering on most walls and the carpet is about 85 percent complete. It is great to see carpet and not concrete. Pews will arrive on Monday July 24th and the installation will take approximately one week. Hopefully, within two to three weeks we will be back in the church building. Presentation Hall is 95 percent complete and will be turned over to us this week following the final inspections by the State Fire Marshall's Office and the Parish of Jefferson. The building is beautiful and should provide a great environment for learning. Classroom furniture was moved in over the weekend and the teachers will begin setting up their rooms this week. The Gymnasium, Parish Center, Rectory and rental houses are a few weeks away from completion. As is usual in any renovation program, we have had a few setbacks. Termites were found in the Parish Center building which resulted in additional work and we are still waiting for the final roof panels for the Gym. The Rectory and houses are moving along nicely and our priests should be in their home in a few weeks. Cost wise, we seem to be on target with our original estimates except for the unexpected additions of termites, asbestos removal and a few other items. This leads me to discuss the finances. We had estimated that the total rebuilding program would be approximately $2,000,000.00 and that we would have to borrow that much from the Archdiocese. Well, the Archdiocese has made available to us at the present time in the form of insurance proceeds, grants and gifts approximately $960,000.00. Additionally, we have received about $285,000.00 in donations from other churches, dioceses and parishioners. This means that the financial burden will still be huge but certainly not nearly as bad as we had originally envisioned. We are continuing to seek additional funds from various sources including a $200,000 grant from the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. We are almost there. Thanks for your patience and understanding and I look forward with great expectation to the day when things will be back to normal. Yours in Christ, Deacon Frank Minor

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