Next fund-raising campaign coming for new St. Mary Church
By Bill Rea

Fr. Paul Hancko was flanked by Elio Bellon and his daughter Paula as they unveiled a three-dimensional model of the proposed new St. Mary Catholic Church in Nobleton.

A third fund-raising campaign is about to start to get the construction of the new St. Mary Catholic Church in Nobleton going.

Elio Bellon, who chairs the steering committee working on getting the new church built, told the congregation Sunday that things are progressing, although there are still a few hurtles to clear; most of them involving paperwork.

"We are this close, very close, to making it a reality," he declared.

"I'm excited more than I ever was," he added. "We are so close to it."

The plan is still to phase the construction, and the first phase is expected to cost about $2 million. Bellon has said throughout the process that if the first $1 million can be raised locally, the arch diocese will approve putting up the other half, and things are looking very good on that score, he observed. In fact, he said the up coming campaign will be geared more to collecting money to reduce the size of the required loan.

"We're very close to getting the amount of funds to get the okay to proceed with the building process," he remarked.

In order to make the first phase as inexpensive as possible, some of the features of the church are going to be waiting until later. They include the construction of the steeple. As well, while there will be a balcony and hall constructed, completion of these two features will be waiting until subsequent phases.

Bellon said there will be a meeting with the chancery of the arch diocese in the next couple of weeks, with the hope of approvals coming sometime before the end of this month. The next steps will be to get the drawings completed and tendering done over the winter.

While he said there's no way they'll be able to get construction started this fall, he's hoping there will be a ground-breaking ceremony before the end of November.