Patrimony 201 Main Street

Click HERE to read a Brief summary of Pastoral Planning steps January 2019 – January 2020.

April 24, 2023 Update

As I conclude my time as Pastor, I would like to summarize briefly where we are in the process of the 201 Main Street Property. By policy the Archdiocese expects us to follow a step by step methodical process which starts as a broad based dialogue with public information gathering and ultimately over a long time and a slow discussion process with third party professional support, becomes a final decision which creates a general Plan for the property. At that time the Parish and Archdiocese start formal conversations to assist us in implementing “the Plan.”

At present we have held multiple public meetings with additional emailed suggestions.  The Parish Pastoral Council has met for two years to discuss all the suggestions and made some recommendations to an Advisory Committee. The Committee has worked with an Architect to do a feasibility study for what we need for ourselves (a purpose build building and parking). We are now completing “due diligence” of title search, easement issues and also the barn. At present “the Plan” is “a Plan” to continue to plan as each step becomes obvious when the present step is completed. Clearly there is no exact “the Plan” except to continue to plan until we reach a reality. Our value is that we are seeking to use the property in ways that support the long-term Mission of our Parish.

March 27, 2023 Update

Update on 201 Main Street: The letter I wrote last week which I published in Weekly Bulletin, the Weekly Constant Contact to Parishioners and the Parish’s Facebook Page announced that I am planning to retire in early June 2023, three months from now. At this point in time some due diligence, mostly behind the scenes is taking place for 201 Main Street so that I am going allow all the known due diligence to finish, but suspend going forward with the Project. This will allow the new Pastor to act upon this Project when he has established himself here. The Historic Commission’s decision to put a one year delay on demolition of “the barn’ will not be problematic. This will possibly allow someone to come forward with a practical solution for the barn. It will all fit within the newer time frame. This will fit within the new time frame.

April 1, 2022 Update

Although the Pandemic has changed the pace and style of many activities of our Parish, our Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) has continued to meet many times by ZOOM and last week by its first in-person meeting in about two years. As you know from praying together the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, our PPC has been deliberating for over two years on how our patrimony (201 Main Street…the old school building and the grounds) could support the Mission of our Parish in the long term in sustaining our faith community. (FYI: there is a much more detailed step by step description of the long process on our website found on its own page called “The Patrimony”), but I am writing a brief summary of the process.

You may recall that the PPC started the process with three public meetings to solicit any and every suggestion a parishioner or neighbor wished to make. Dr. Bernard Swain, an outside consultant for Parish Life was retained to help direct and facilitate this process and all the many discussions to take place. Over 120 ideas, suggestions or recommendations were offered. Over time the PPC discussed all these issues and sorted them out according to similarity or distinct differences to make the discussion process easier. The PPC then found there were four ways forward and ultimately after many discussions reached the consensus that we needed to develop 201 Main Street to help support the Mission. The PPC also asked that an expert in real estate and Town of Franklin Building Zoning issues be involved so that the PPC would ultimately be offering suggestions that had possibilities of becoming real. Matthew Kelley was asked to take on this role as a volunteer councilor to the PPC. Last Tuesday night, March 21 the PPC recommended to me that we develop 201 Main Street by reserving some of the land for building our own purposes, a building for Faith Formation, Meeting Space and Parish Office Area along with parking roughly the same as at present and some other various needs of possibility with the rest of the land to be leased or sold to support as much as possible this new Faith Center. With the unanimous recommendation of the PPC I now turn to the Parish Finance Council (PFC) to help me with the next steps. We will also have to meet the requirements of the Archdiocese in taking this vision of the PPC to the practical level. There are financial rules, both canonical and civil that must be followed. The PFC will recommend to me the next practical steps to keep this all moving along. I will be contacting the Archdiocesan Real Estate Department for its direct assistance in all the next many steps. I am grateful for the long and hard work of the PPC in hearing all the suggestions, praying over all of our concerns and suggestions and dreaming and thinking about what would be best for the Mission of the Parish over all. There were many meetings and much discussion to get to the very best recommendation. There still will be many more hours of hard work and discussion with planning etc. to happen. At various points I will continue to keep you up to date on where the process is at that time.