News from St. Matthew WELS, Appleton, WI
Interest in our campus
As you know, the UW-Oshkosh Head Start program has been renting some of our former classroom space for their program. Recently their leaders contacted us to determine if we might have more space for them on our campus. According to their leaders they really like our location and would like to stay here for the foreseeable future.
While there are several options being discussed, Head Start has told us that their ideal scenario may be to purchase our property. Since this was unexpected, it is important that we consider what our long term plans are for this property before we can give Head Start an answer to their questions. Therefore we are forming a planning committee to look into all options available to us.
Please be assured that Head Start’s interest in purchasing our property came unexpectedly and unsolicited. Please also be assured that no decision on this or any other major facility issue would take place without substantial member input and congregational approval.
However, the timing of this couldn’t be better since we are at the point where we need to make some long term decisions on what to do with our site and buildings. We know that over the next 2-3 years we will need to perform several large and expensive maintenance projects. These include new flooring for the church and replacing the school roof, which could total about $200,000. In addition, there has been a lot of interest expressed in building a fellowship hall.
We will be meeting with Head Start to continue this discussion. We will keep you posted. Please feel free to contact myself, one of the pastors or anyone on the leadership team with any questions or comments.
It would seem that the Lord is taking us in a certain direction and we ask you to pray for his guidance in this matter.
- Pat Jacklin, President
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GJ - Fox Valley residents tell me that the city wants to buy the church for $2 million. St. Matthew's closed its school, so it has lots of classrooms and a big gym. The 100 year old building was remodeled about 15 years ago.
The Shrinkers want to sell the building and move to Monkey Joe's, a failed party center - how appropriate.
They want to sell by September!
Attendance and membership are both down, a shock to those who believe in Church and Change. The whole district is Church and Change but they are going down faster than the Greek economy.
Paul Calvin Kelm - why did you abandon Fox Valley when they needed your services so badly?
