NEW ACCESSIBLE ENTRY/ WHEELCHAIR LIFT UPDATE

                Last year from January 2016 until June 2016 St. Louis was part of the Upon This Rock initiative. As a part of this program, parishes were asked to identify a need that they would like addressed in order that each parish may continue their good works. For more than 10 years we have been discussing the possibility of making the church hall handicapped accessible. This entails installing a lift to make it easier for people to access the hall and adding a new handicapped accessible bathroom. Obviously, this is quite an undertaking.

                The trustees and the finance/restoration committee have been meeting with an architect on design work and future implementation. We had hoped that we could begin work on this project this past construction season but things don’t always go as planned. We originally wanted to enclose the whole handicap ramp and presented a design to the Preservation Board. However, they did not accept that proposal which required a re-design of the project. This required a couple of more trips to the Preservation Board to make our presentation. The Preservation Board approved our latest design which is scaled back from the original. By the time we were able to put together everything we needed to send out requests for proposals, the construction season was winding down. We would not have been able to complete the project without disrupting several of our activities in the Church Hall. We are now looking toward beginning the project next spring. Please pray that all goes well.

                There is a picture of the design in the display case at the Main Street entrance to the church. Thanks to your generosity, this project, long in the planning stages, will become a reality just not as quickly as we expected.