St. Lawrence Catholic Church Addition and Remodeling

Recorded on May 5, 2010.

Construction is expected to start in September on a major addition-and-remodeling project at St. Lawrence Catholic Church that is financed by a spectacularly successful campaign with one local family providing a signature gift in the form of a donation of 80 acres of Carroll County farmland.

Parish pastor Father Timothy Schott Wednesday completed some of the final paperwork on the donation from Richard and Mary Jane Collison and the Richard and Maxine Collison Family Trust.

Dr. Collisons gift was the kickstart, said Schott. It was the thing as a parish that helped us believe we really could do this.

The Collison gift — estimated at $500,000 — was one of 675 to the Our Second Century Campaign. The parish has about 1,100 households. Total giving is about $3.3 million for the project, and the Church already has collected about $1.3 million of the pledges. The cost estimate for the project is about $3 million with any additional funds going toward long-term maintenance and related work.

There comes a time when we all need to do things, Richard Collison, 83, said. This seemed to fit what we had been talking about for some time. We need to do something before were in the box.

The classic church, built in 1951, will undergo an interior remodel with paint and new finish on the pews. But the outside of the structure will be preserved. The main feature of the project is a 4,250-square-foot parish hall with a capacity to hold more than 200 people. That hall will be named after the Collison family but the exact title remains under consideration, Schott said.

There is also a dividable meeting room that can hold 60 people and a full-service kitchen. The plan, developed by BCDM of Omaha, Neb., the same architect Carroll County State Bank is using for its new facility, has included a prayer garden, social courtyard, a covered arched walkway that connects the rectory to the church, new restrooms and a narthex, an indoor gathering area leading to the church.

The addition is expected to be complete in the fall of 2011 with remodeling work to start soon after, Schott said.

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