St. Mary Parish Council Meeting, Thursday, August 21, 2025
Present: Lynn Cavanagh, John Dayton, Mark Godar, Linda Ollinger, Karen Schmidt, Scot Wilson, Sharon Mealey, Fr. Dominic Nguyen, Deacon John Osborne, Lee McFee, Angelina Willard, Greg Willard and Darlene Doorenbos.
Absent: Judy Binegar, Scott Collings, Sam Peiffer.
Opening Prayer: Karen Schmidt
Welcome: Those present introduced themselves and each told where they were confirmed. A recap of last year’s activities was presented.
Linda: On May 6, 2025, fifty members of St. Mary Parish, St. Patrick Parish and a few extras embarked on a one-day bus trip dubbed, Blessed Breakaway Jubilee Journey. The destinations were the Holy Family Shrine Church and The Cloisters on the Platte in Gretna, Nebraska. Fr. Scott Foley offered Mass at the Holy Family Shrine Church. At The Cloisters on the Platte everyone participated in a self-guided walking tour that featured life-size bronze sculptures of the 14 Stations of the Cross.
Lynn: The Parish Council organized a brief reception on Sunday, June 1 during coffee and rolls to honor Leonard Willard for receiving the Knights of Columbus Youth award and to thank him for his faithful volunteering as an altar server. Father Foley, Rick Jacoby and Lynn Cavanagh spoke at the event.
Karen: On Sunday, June 8 at 1:00 a farewell reception was held for Fr. Scott Foley, organized by Parish Council members. It was a fishing theme and included a card shower. The lunch served 100 people. A program of testimonies was presented with Al Fischmeyer as MC. Those sharing were Doris Hotchkin, Victoria Springer and Deacon John. Fr. Scott was presented with a gift at the end of the reception.
Continuing Business: Lynn handed out copies of the most recent Time & Talent survey form that was used in 2021. It was asked that members look over the survey and make suggestions for changes. Judy Binegar and Lynn will work on updating the form with input from Sharon Mealey on Worship & Spirituality, Angelina on Faith Formation, Connis Dayton on Social Action, Linda Ollinger and Karen Schmidt on Parish Life and John Dayton on Buildings & Grounds. The revised Time & Talent surveys will be handed out at church some time in November.
The Big 10 list, started by Fr. Foley, will continue. John Dayton will work on updating the list and these will be presented in November along with the Time & Talent surveys.
Recruiting new parish council members—At this time Barb LaPlaunt has decided not to serve on the council. In the past, nominations for the council were received and these were then voted on by parishioners. This was discontinued. Requests for new members have been put in the bulletin several times in the past year with little result. Fr. Dominic suggested that an announcement could be put in the bulletin asking for parishioners to nominate themselves or nominate others to serve on the council. The names of those who are interested would be put in a hat and the number of members needed would be drawn from the hat. Parishioners would be informed ahead of time of when this would occur. No decision was made at this time and will be put on the February meeting agenda for further discussion.
New Business: Lynn requested to step down from the President position and would like to nominate Karen Schmidt to take over the position. All agreed.
The dates for future meetings are October 16, December 18 (social with St. Patrick hosted by Fr. Dominic), February 19, 2026, April 16, 2026, and June 18, 2026. They will continue to be on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. The council is scheduled to host the parish pancake breakfast on December 14.
Worship & Spirituality Commission: The commission most recently met on August 14, 2025. A Holy Hour for Vocations will be held in conjunction with Thursday Adoration sometime this fall. The annual All Souls Prayer Service has been scheduled for Sunday, October 26 at 5 p.m. Anyone interested in joining the schola (choir) can be directed to our organist, John Landkamer. Our next meeting will be on September 11.
Finance Council: The end of the fiscal year, which is the end of July, showed a Net Income of the Operating Income to be $12,440. Net Income has been steady over the years with seasonal ups and downs. Other funds are $115,000 in CDs purchased through Tom Cirks. Jay will continue to post donations in the weekly bulletin.
Social Action Committee: The MICA food drive was a great success. Through the tremendous generosity of parishioners, MICA received 576 pounds of food and $275 in donations. The next meeting is September 4 at 11:00 a.m.
Buildings & Grounds: Buildings and Grounds met on Tuesday, August 12. Ongoing upkeep and repairs were discussed – limestone cleaning, window screens installation, pew repairs – will be addressed before the end of the month. The fire door entering the church basement will not close. Solutions are being considered and hopefully implemented before the end of the month. The Big Ten sign up will continue. An electronic lock set for the basement door is being considered and will be addressed by the end of the month. Insulation for basement kitchen fan will be applied to fill gaps. The roof of the bell towner is missing a small number of tiles. Repair options are being investigated. A suggestion is to install a metal roof. Next meeting is scheduled for October 7, 2025 at 4:00. Meetings will be held every 2 months. Addendum: Mark Godar has stepped down from the Buildings & Grounds committee. The new committee is Al Fischmeyer, Steve Brenemann, John Dayton and Tom Kriegel. The fire door to the basement has been fixed; further changes will be addressed by Corbett Construction. The old kitchen ventilation fan has been removed along with electric wiring and has been winterized. Mouse traps have been set in the rectory and the church. A downspout in the Prayer Garden has been fixed. There is a portion of raised cement in the Prayer Garden, which Jay has painted yellow to avoid tripping. We are looking at the best solution to this problem. Hawkeye Lock & Key was contacted about the electronic lock for the back door to the new and old kitchen. It was decided not to do at this time due to the cost of $2000 to $3000. The bell tower is missing two tiles. There is no moisture issue currently. We will investigate the best process to address this based on incoming reports about life expectancy of different kinds of roofing options. John Osborne suggested painting the wood around the stained-glass windows in the church to extend life/protect the windows.
Knights of Columbus: Greg presented the report in the absence of Kent Reed. The Knights will continue to help with the Community Meals every other month. The next one they will be involved in is September 15. The cost is $250, which comes out of the church’s operating fund. There won’t be a meal in November, but they will be helping with the January 15, 2026 meal. They seem to get an adequate number of volunteers to help. Mark and Donna Godar have stepped down from heading this and Dave and Francesca Cunningham will take over. The Tootsie Roll fundraiser will be September 2 to 4 with collection sites being at Hy-Vee, Walmart, Fareway and McNally’s.
Staff Reports: Angelina: Summer activities included a Parish Family picnic, High School Youth Conference (5 students attended) and Vacation Bible School (6 students attended). We are now preparing for the end of the summer Parish Family picnic scheduled for August 30. This will be put on by the Knights of Columbus and Faith Formation. Hy-Vee will grill on site and will donate the buns and a side dish. It will be held at Central Park’s main shelter from 11-3:00 with the meal at noon. There will be crafts for the children. Faith Formation classes will resume October 1. We have also welcomed 4 children into our church community, as well as 2 adults so far this year through OCIA/C (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults/Children.
Jay: Customary work continues in the office regarding maintaining obligations to the dioceses, vendors, committees, parishioners, and assisting Fr. Dominic when necessary. Currently working on an issue for the parish app reinstatement and available for download on the Google Play store for Android phones – working with company who developed app to help resolve the issue. Exact circumstances are not known as to why it was made unavailable.
Pastor’s Report: The diocese has ordered 450 copies of the book “Becoming the Good News”. The book is about developing strategies for evangelizing in the Church and outside the Church. The diocese would like each parish to have a core group of people who will read the book and attend deanery conferences held throughout the year. The conferences will have a speaker and then there will be a brainstorming session. The ideas would be brought back to each parish to discuss how they could implement some of the ideas. Fr. Dominic would like someone from our parish to lead the book study and if anyone is interested, they are to contact Fr. Dominic. The first meeting is on September 7 from 1-4:00 at St. Pat’s in Ottumwa. Fr. Dominic handed out copies of the Intro and first chapter and asked the members to read and consider being in the core group. Lynn and Scot shared positive feedback about the book.
Fr. Dominic plans to visit parishioners who are homebound.
Adjournment: The next meeting is on Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Scot Wilson will do the opening prayer and Fr. Dominic will do the closing prayer. Linda closed the meeting with prayer and meeting ended at 7:30.