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Building And Maintenance Committee Uses Talents To Keep Our Faith Home In Great Shape
When we all use our talents to serve the parish, all of the work gets done and, ultimately, we are participating in bringing God’s kingdom to earth. The members of the newly organized Building and Maintenance Committee have been using their talents to preserve the parish assets and plan upgrades and expansion by overseeing the entire church property including the residential facilities in both communities of Waimea and Puako. They keep up with maintenance, various repairs, new projects, construction, and services that happen in and on the property to make sure our buildings and grounds are in the best shape possible, beginning with a survey of maintenance needs and prioritizing projects.
Recently, the most extensive project we had in the parish was the restoration of the house in Puako, supervised by Building & Maintenance Committee chairman Herb Antone with the help of committee members Bob McBride and Mike Hoover. Over the course of about six months, beginning last April, the committee members, along with some additional workers, remodeled the home. The house is used to accommodate visiting priests as well as church meetings. The yard, which is also being upgraded, is used for overflow at Sunday Mass where Mass is live-streamed on big screen TV; and for past and future parish hospitality gatherings.
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“It’s nice to have that as an overflow area, especially for holidays and with the current social distancing,” Herb says.
Herb moved to this area from San Francisco about 15 years ago. He spent his career working as a contractor, but now, he’s mostly retired. He started leading this committee about one year ago. Herb is thankful for the rest of the team because they are willing to work hard and lend their experience.
Herb knows how important it is to be involved and to use his talents to serve the Lord. His wife, Debbie, also shares her time and talents, helping out at the parish food pantry. “We want to do what we can to help,” Herb says. “We want to make the parish a place that people want to come to and be a part of. It’s a special place and deserves to be well maintained.”
In addition to the remodeling in Puako, the committee works on other miscellaneous projects for all parish buildings. More people are brought in to help, as needed. Some of the most recent needs, such as restoration of the old church, which is used for Religious Education offices and classrooms; a new septic tank behind the parish hall and fencing of the property in Waimea have been completed.
In addition, with the help of David Bahr who installed and supervised, and Toni McPeek who organized the Saturday work volunteers, a fence was installed at the Puako house in the spirit of volunteerism for a minimal cost. The rectory and parish hall in Waimea, as well as the Church roofing in Puako are next in line for repairs and maintenance.
Work was done on the Puako Cottage in spring 2020.
