Rev. Rick Stoffel sent a miserable message to parishioners at St. Peter Church letting the congregation in on the news that the much-anticipated Christmas opening of the newly remodeled church would not be happening.
Notes below explain some of the problems contractors ran into.
The soil for footings beneath the new south addition was rock solid, but the new north addition the solid was poor; we poured 20 loads of cement, assuring a firm foundation.
We had problems getting the amount of cream city brick we needed to have our new wings blend in with the original church. After using up bricks from our own inner walls and bricks donated from a local demolition, our original brick supplier proved less than reliable; we fired them.
A new firm with a great reputation was quickly vetted, hired, and all the brick we will need was delivered in one week. Of excellent quality it came from the demolition of Annex No. 3 building on Washington County grounds near Samaritan Home in West Bend and originally made in Slinger’s historic brickworks; coincidence or providence?
What will delay our final occupancy is totally another matter of material procurement involving windows. In order for church to have thermal pane windows, providing greater comfort in heating and cooling season as well as protection for placement of our old/new stained glass as being planned by our Stained Glass Committee, a system of sophisticated, specialized extruded frames is needed. These frames have many productions steps to meet installation needs; the company making them suddenly changed their lead time from two to four months.
Window delivery will now be mid-November, not mid-October; they must be installed before we finish the drywall, put case-work around the windows, prepare the floors (new surfaces on both levels), and install the pews.
So, Christmas Masses will be in the St. Peter School gym and St. Lawrence Church for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.