Minutes of January 29, 2003

The meeting was called to order by Gary Loertscher at 7:04 p.m. Members present were: Gary Loertscher, Jerry Jansen, Carla Wolf, Teri Nolden, Doug Waelti, Tim Stadelman, Carol Eberhardy, Tim Blair, John Buscemi, Joe Stadelman, Joe Donlin, Bob Hoffman, Yogi Brown, Jerry Remy, Jerry Richardson, Kay Parish, Jerry Rabas, Ray and Ann Legris, Ken Klink.

Minutes of the December 1, 2002 meeting were reviewed and accepted.

The parish meeting of January 26, 2003 was discussed.

- an estimated 130-150 people were in attendance

- very good, thoughtful questions were asked by participants

- general feeling that questions of doubters were answered

- audience ended meeting by clapping, a sign that the process we are going through is well received

- most under-represented group seemed to be “young families”

- primary post-meeting concern is future placement/utilization of priests in the clustering plan and how that will relate to our plans for building - responses to this include:

1. Belleville is likely to grow faster than Verona or Oregon in the future because we are sitting on a “development bubble”.

2. If we do not build, we will be in a weak position to have Masses at St. Mary/St James on a regular basis.

3. Our vibrant, growing faith community coupled with a new facility will put us in a strong position for “pastoral coverage” in the future.

4. We will be moving toward a model of parish administration by highly qualified lay people (individuals with advanced degrees in theology/administration).

5. Change in the church is organic, starts with parish members and gains strength through pastoral leadership; change is possible and can happen surprisingly quickly.

- recommended that the parish councils within the “cluster” meet occasionally

- the fact that the “issue of money” was not raised until the end of the meeting was seen as positive

kk presented a financial report indicating total monetary assets of $535,328.35. This includes $290,575.57 in the building fund. Related items discussed included:

- having the Finance Subcommittee administer the building fund

- if we liquidate property, the assets will remain with us rather than going to the diocese

- question of whether 100% of funding must be pledged before construction starts

- need to do a total asset inventory of St. Mary/St. James

- investigate cost of purchasing 2 additional acres of land from the Fahey family

John Buscemi made a presentation that is summarized as follows:

- one of his primary roles is to present us with an overview of what is happening in the state and around the nation

- we need to develop a vision of what we want

- every “generation or so” completes a major building project; need to view that as energizing and build to meet “future needs”

- parish meeting had good representation, featured good questions, revealed no “suppressed anger/frustration”, and indicated the parish is “on board” with the leadership of our parish family

- presented a historical overview of “church building”

- presented a number of possible floor plans/designs

Preliminary plans were made to set up two teams to visit other parishes on Saturday, February 8, 2003.

Joe Stadelman gathered input from the committee to help him start to prepare a preliminary site plan.

The next Planning Advisory Committee meeting will be on Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 7:00 p.m. in the Parish hall.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.