The parish is about to launch a campaign to raise an additional $700,000 to complete the balance of the outside work.
Designed by local architect Charles Cregar, the building with its 184-foot larger tower has risen impressively from one of the city’s most prominent outcroppings since the church was finished in 1898, 49 years after St. Ray’s, as many call it, was founded at the same location.
The project’s financial burden falls at an inopportune time, just after a campaign raised $6.3 million to build a renovated and expanded Catholic Central school complex.
It also comes a decade after parishes merged and St. Mary parish closed in the face of a decline in community population and church membership.
But Millennium President Rick Freitag said that in terms of its physical and structural and condition, “they’re really catching this building at the right time.”
Even “in the interest of trying to save money, it’s better to grab it now,” said Freitag, who also was involved in the restoration of Blair Hall on the Wittenberg University campus.
The church “is in no imminent risk of failure or collapse,” Freitag said, but the roof, its sheeting, flashing, and downspouts need to be repaired and the weakened bricks, disintegrate nails and an eroding supporting structure must be shored up.
Freitag said water leaking into the building not only erodes and weakens the masonry, but water and moisture trapped in brick and wood “freezes like it would in a pipe” and causes further damage.
The process “is really starting to accelerate here.”
Brianna Beedy, business manager of the parish that has served five generations of her family, said Freitag has detailed problems in a 97-page report compiled after MRG employees scooted along the roof lines, examined the downspouts and gutters and gave the building a thorough inspection.
“Our most urgent situations are both of the towers,” Beedy said.
“We have the money to do the two chimneys and the short tower and the primary tower,” she added. “We will soon begin a capital campaign to put a slate roof back on the church and all new copper gutters and downspouts. The stone will be faced and cleaned and tuck pointing (done) to the main building.”
The timing of the work will depend on the weather and fundraising. She said Phase I may be done by the time winter sets in and Phase II launched in the spring.
“We then have to address issues on the interior.”
Although he hasn’t examined the interior work in detail, Freitag said it “could be as big or bigger,” because of its labor-intensive nature.
Said Beedy, “It’s a good possibility that the scaffolding alone will cost $500,000 to do, if we paint the entire church.”
St. Joseph/St. Raphael Parish Council President Jeff Ankrom is urging parishioners faced with such expenses to look at it as a long step-by-step process.
"What we've found is there's some original stuff — I mean original original stuff," that is failing and needs to be replaced, he said.
“We could do a series of small fixes, but it would never end,” he said.
Despite the exterior expense, he said, “You can’t do anything inside until you properly fix the roof.”
“I think there are a lot of people who have a deep history” with the church and “an emotional attachment” who will be willing to dig down to address the current needs, Ankrom added.
“We’re just going to have to live with the inside problems” until the exterior is finished, then address them.
“I think you have to look at it as a long-term project,” Ankrom said. “The church has been there for a long time, and it will be there for a long time.”
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