St. Benedict Church hopes to begin addition in August

St. Benedict's Catholic Church of Decorah has removed the house and garage to the south of the church this spring in preparation for their new addition.
 
After the original plans were over budget when presented to the general contractor and architect, it was back to the drawing board to scale back costs.
 
"As a committee, we've done our due diligence in terms of being faithful to the budget," said St. Benedict's priest Father Phil Gibbs.  He added, "In that reference, we've scaled down some of the dimensions of the addition, but for the most part all of the amenities, everything that we wanted, is still a part of the project. We are happy about that."
 
"Within the next month or so, we'll be getting bids for the projects. Our hopes are that the first week of August we'll start digging. We hope to have a ground breaking ceremony in August," he added.
 
The project will take approximately 11 months. The hope is to have everything enclosed by the time winter sets in so inside work can be completed this winter.