LEWISTON – An 80-year-old Catholic parish, Holy Family Church hopes to begin a $1 million renovation this summer.

Repairs or replacements are planned throughout the church’s Sabattus Street complex – from the stonework in the bell tower to the boiler its basement.

Not all of the money has been raised, though.

For months, the parish has been collecting donations quietly, raising $525,000 from 65 families. A week ago, the drive began its public phase.

In the next few months, leaders of the renovation campaign hope to talk with each of the 2,000 families who attend the church.

The aim of all the work is a renewal of the parish home, the Rev. Andrew Dubois said.

“It’s where we worship,” Dubois said. “It’s where we educate. It’s where we all gather to celebrate our faith in Christ as a family.”

But the buildings, the church and the other parish buildings need help.

Among the planned projects are $69,000 for rewiring the parish center, which has just one electrical outlet in each room, and $115,000 for repaving and improving drainage in all the parking lots, which gather water and can turn dangerous during ice months.

Safety fixes will come first, Dubois said.

They include removal of asbestos, repairs to fire escapes and the installation of panic bars on church and parish center doors.

Church leaders have decided that the work will move forward only as far as on-hand money will take them. They will not borrow to make the changes.

But they are hopeful that they can reach their goal. The campaign committee hired a fund-raising firm, Demont and Associates, to aid the work.

The firm told the leaders that they were hopeful that the money could be found, despite a number of high-profile campaigns in the area. The Greater Androscoggin Humane Society, the Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s and the Auburn Public Library are all in the midst of multimillion-dollar fund-raising campaigns.

But the members of the church understand its needs, Dubois said. For instance, anyone who looks at the bell tower can see the crumbling masonry.

Shortly after his arrival in 2000 as the church’s pastor, leaders among the congregation came to him with concerns about the parish buildings.

“They have a real ownership of the parish and this was on their minds,” he said.

The parish was begun in October 1923. The basement of the current church was opened in 1949. The upper church was begun 10 years later.

There has been no large-scale renovation of the buildings since.

So the church hopes to tackle its list of renovations in one swoop, gathering the problems under the single, $1 million drive.

“No one wants to keep going back to parishioners and asking for money,” Dubois said.


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