Minutes
St. Williams/ St. John Pastoral Council
June 28, 2017
The regular monthly meeting of the St. Williams/ St. John Parish Pastoral Council meeting was held on June 28th, 2017 at St. William Church, Donnelly Hall, Williamstown, KY, at 6:30 pm. Paul Merz called the meeting to order.
Members present were: Father Hils, Deacon Lyman, Suzi Noel, Pat McDonough, Roger Frisch, Ken Henke, Katie Clemons, Paul Merz, Kathy McDonough, Cory Haar, Pam Saylor, and Ted Keiser.
Father Hils opened with prayer.
The minutes were reviewed and corrected then approved by Ken Henke and seconded by Kathy McDonough.
Cody Haar was welcomed to the St. William/St. John meetings. He is replacing Paul Merz’s place.
Old Business
1. Pastoral Council: Nothing new. The next meeting has not been scheduled.
2. Vacation Bible School: There are several volunteers, the program is coming together. Pam Saylor will put the information on Facebook to invite community. Others can repost to share the information.
3. Chicken Dinner: There are 4 Fridays in September scheduled, the 8, 15, 22, and the 29th. Paul will talk Sue about changing it to Saturday night or Sunday after church.
4. Statue of Risen Christ: Father looked at the church’s blue prints. There are aluminum studs that hold up the walls. This is not strong enough to hold this statue. Pat will look at other options to hold up the statue.
5. Cemetery, Mower acquisition: Mike talked with Danny. Danny told Mike he was fine with what he was using at this time.
6. Garden Subsurface: This project has been cancelled at this time. The person who agreed to help is unable assist Father Hils.
7. St. Johns additional parking: Ted got an estimate of $9,000 dollars for crushed gravel. Father requested this be put on hold. Father expressed concern with all the areas of the church that needs to be updated and fixed and it needs to be decided how much the parish wants to put into a church that is not showing growth but a decline due to no children or young families. It is currently predominantly older people. He wanted to see what happens with numbers for a funeral that will be occurring there on July 5th.
8. St. Johns fence: The fence needs to be sand blasted. He is waiting on an estimate from Stewart ironworks. Pam Saylor mentioned looking into Elsmere iron works. The owner is a perisher of St. Williams. Fatboy welding was mentioned by Ken Henke.
9. St. John’s Porta Potty and Bathroom: Ken mentioned that there is no septic system in place, he was told that there was just a pipe over the hill from the earlier days. The porta potty had not been cleaned in months. A call was made and then it was changed. Father will call 5 stars to look into getting a new porta potty and look at decreasing the cost. He will also look into locking it during the week and unlocking it for Thursday nights rosary and adoration and Sunday mornings.
New Business
1. Air Conditioning: Father is looking into getting an air conditioning unit for the church. He received an estimate of 3, 850 form Grant County mechanical. Ken discussed having it put on a platform to help prevent it from being stolen.
2. Parish Picnic: Katie asked about the Parish picnic. It was discussed if this would be still a good idea since it is the same people who do the work and currently with the four chicken dinners, it was felt this could be too much. It was suggested that maybe it could be combined with the last chicken dinner. Paul will ask Sue what she thinks about this idea.
3. Grant County tax: Attorneys ruled that the church will be paying the taxes. It was thought to be 18.95 a year, but it may be per quarter instead. They will also be adding a 2 percent tax on the employees of St. William.
4. Maintenance committee asked if they could paint the legs of the church sign. It was approved.
5. New President of the St. William/ St. John’s parish council will be Katie Clemons.
6. St. Johns Parish door: The front door split all the way down. It will be fixed soon.
Adjournment: The motion to adjourn was called by Pat McDonough and seconded by Ted Henke.
Father Hils provided the closing prayer.
The next meeting will be July 26th.