June 30, 2010

Windsor parish breaks ground on $4.6 million church construction project

By Julie Filby

On June 20, approximately 300 people gathered at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Windsor to break ground on a new $4.6 million, 19,000-square-foot church.

Despite hurdles from Mother Nature and Wall Street, the parish’s capital campaign raised $2.5 million in the last two years, to meet the archdiocese’s 50 percent cash-in-hand construction start rule.

“We pulled together and made this happen in midst of the tornado that really decimated our town and parishioners’ lives,” said Father James Spahn, pastor since 2002. “And in the midst of an economic downturn.”

In May 2008, a mile-wide tornado devastated the town of 20,000 people; causing an estimated $194 million in damage.

“I think that speaks doubly for what we’ve done,” said Father Spahn. “There’s a real sense of ownership that we made this happen in spite of hardships.”

The groundbreaking ceremony followed 10 a.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M, Cap. Concelebrants were Father Spahn and his brother visiting from Washington, D.C., Jesuit Father Steven Spahn. Assisting were Deacon Harold Kimble of the parish; and Deacon James Devlin, representing the archdiocese’s Office of Construction.

Ministers from other Windsor churches attended the ceremony, as well as Mayor John Vazquez who gave a speech and led the group in prayer.

“It was a moving experience,” said Father Spahn. “It’s the next step in our journey.”

The new church will be built at the current location, 1250 Seventh St., and will supplement the current worship space, built in 2000, that was intended to serve as a multi-purpose room.

“It wasn’t really what we’d call a ‘church church,’ it was more like a parish hall,” said Tom Jones, building committee chair and parishioner for nearly 40 years. “We realized at the time it would just be temporary until we could afford to build a regular church—but essentially we’ve been there for 10 years.”

Parishioners are constantly reconfiguring the room from a worship space, to a banquet hall, to a classroom, and back again.

“It’s our one building so it’s used for everything: Mass, dinners, classes, meetings,” said Father Spahn. “We wanted to add on to that with a church—a place designated solely for the sacraments.”

Construction is scheduled to start by the end of July and is expected to take nine to 12 months. Capacity will be 750, nearly double the current capacity of 400. It will serve the more than 900 households that comprise the parish, making it the largest faith community in Windsor.

The church was designed with the future in mind: it can be easily expanded to hold 1,000 to meet future growth needs.

“We think we’re getting into a place we can call home for a while, after all the moves through the years,” Jones said.

Since forming in the late 1960s, the parish has operated out of a number of locations. They started by celebrating Masses at parishioners’ homes, then rented a room from St. Alban’s Episcopal Church.

A parishioner donated vacant space above his dry cleaning business where the community worshipped for two years before outgrowing the space and moving back to the Episcopal church. In 1975, they purchased and remodeled a store front on Main Street. Then in 1979, the growing parish bought the old Zion Church on Walnut Street where they remained for 20 years. By the late 1990s the parish had grown to 350 families.

In 2000 they constructed the current building on 10 acres of land purchased by the archdiocese in 1969.

“They were thinking ahead when they bought that land,” said Jones. “But they probably didn’t think it would take 40 years.”

BCDM Architects of Omaha is the architect for the project. McCauley Constructors of Windsor will provide general contractor and construction management services.