Church Roof Project

Top Priority Project​

As many of you may have noticed, the roof of the church has been leaking for some time now. While there have been some light damages to the roof in the past, the situation became critical during the last 2-3 years due to heavy thunderstorms. Strong winds that accompanied these storms caused, on several occasions, large damages to the roof that have cost us about EUR 13,200 since 2017. 

The most evident result was major leaks at several spots in the front part of the church (e.g., before the tabernacle). But a non-negligible and more dangerous consequence was that several roof tiles fell on the ground and damaged property. Fortunately, for now, we have avoided a major tragedy, as falling tiles could have easily led, in the worst-case scenario, to even a loss of life. Hence, during the past year, fixing the church roof has been the top priority for the Fabrique d’église (FdE)—the Church Council. While we secured a part of the financing, we are turning to the communities to help us finance some EUR 60,000 of the estimated total costs.

Why does the reparation start so late?​

The easy answer is ‘the money’. But let us give you a bit more background. The first signs of roof deterioration were spotted already in 2016, when the FdE started to discuss the issue and was planning to request the Commune for financing the reparation together with the refurbishment of the electricity, as financing needs were expected to be beyond our own resources. While the electricity renovation project went through, FdE was not given high chances of receiving a subsidy for the roof.

Hence, other ways to finance the reparation had to be found. Given the large surface area of the roof, an idea was raised to offer the roof to a company that produces green energy through solar panels; in return, we wanted to ask that they finance the costs of repairing the roof. This proved to be a dead-end street, which was unfortunately realized quite late. The FdE also tinkered with the idea of presenting the repair of the roof as a ‘green energy’ project to the Commune to increase its appeal. But, lacking positive feedback, the subsidy was not requested during that period.

At the same time, in 2017, the FdE decided to renovate the basement of the church to provide communities with a place to meet and carry out their activities. The decision was also taken due to the fact that there were accumulated assets sitting on the bank account yielding meager returns in a low-interest environment. The decision was also taken because, at that time, the roof situation did not appear to be that acute. The newly renovated hall was a major investment, consuming a substantial part of our savings.

Damages to the roof have started to become more recurrent but still did not seem overly critical, which took off pressure to deal with the issue and unfortunately led to further worsening of the situation. During the Covid-19 pandemics, the leaks started to become more and more evident. Therefore, in 2021, the FdE tried again to approach the Commune. After an inspection of the Commune’s technical service regarding the roof’s condition, it was confirmed that the situation is urgent, implying that the chances of receiving a subsidy for the reparation were sufficiently high. Therefore, the FdE requested in its 2022 budget a subsidy. Unfortunately, nobody has ever informed the FdE about the final decision.

Where do we stand now?​

With no news on the subsidy allocation, the FdE decided in 2022 to carry out the reparation irrespective of the subsidy and finance it through a bank loan and increased contributions from the faithful. At the end of 2022, the FdE found out by accident that the subsidy requested for the 2022 budget was actually approved and could still be used in 2023. During the first half of 2023, the FdE consulted and prepared documentation for the public tender, which is an obligation for public institutions for projects whose projected costs exceed a specified threshold. The call for tender was published on 9 September and the FdE is expected to take a decision on contract allocation in October. We hope that some work will start before the end of the year and finish in the first quarter of 2024.

What is still needed?​

The received subsidy will not be sufficient to finance the entire reparation. A 2021 price estimate prepared by a construction company puts the total costs at around EUR 240,000. With high inflation over the past few years, we expect the costs to be about EUR 260,000. The subsidy, however, amounted to “only” EUR 180,000. We are therefore missing some EUR 80,000. While the FdE can finance a part of the outstanding amount from its own resources, it would still be obliged to take out a loan to cover the whole amount. To avoid indebting itself, the FdE would like to request that the faithful co-finance a larger part of the missing amount in order to keep the church open for regular mass services and other activities.

Our goal​

We want to raise EUR 60,000 from the faithful to co-finance the project costs. To facilitate your contribution, you can use any of the following channels: