Engineer’s assessment found new cracks in bell tower after March storms
After damage from heavy March storms, Holy Family Parish in Arnold has moved all Masses from the church to its parish center.
Holy Family pastor Father Gerald Blessing announced the decision to parishioners on April 3.
After the March 14 storm that caused damage throughout Jefferson County and elsewhere, a structural engineer inspected the bell tower of Immaculate Conception Church, the worship site of Holy Family Parish. The engineer noted additional cracking in the tower that would need to be repaired and recommended that the tower be reinforced with steel in order to ensure its continued safe use, Father Blessing said in his announcement.
While the initial assessment confirmed there was no immediate danger, the engineer “expressed concern that it is now increasingly difficult to determine exactly what level of wind and storm the tower can safely withstand,” Father Blessing said.
The cost to reinforce the bell tower with steel was estimated to be more than $100,000. Additional repairs to the church building, including tuckpointing and interior plastering, had already been identified at a cost of about $30,000. Insurance would cover the storm damage, but not the additional repairs, Father Blessing said.
Father Blessing met with parish leadership and the finance council to discuss the costs of keeping the church building — which dates back to 1895 — safely operational.
“The unanimous decision was made that it would not be in the best interest of the parish to pour more resources into such an ailing structure,” Father Blessing said. “Since we made the decision not to do the reinforcement of the bell tower, we could not determine when the structure would be safe for use. Therefore, since parishioner safety must come first, we made the immediate decision to vacate the church building.”
Holy Family Parish was formed in August 2023 from the merger of the former St. David and Immaculate Conception parishes in Arnold. Last fall, the parish started celebrating all Masses at the Church Road (former Immaculate Conception) campus. Even though Mass can’t be celebrated in the church, parish leadership wanted to keep Mass at the same campus, which is home to the school and nearly all parish life, Father Blessing said.
Eucharistic adoration and confession are also taking place in the parish center until further notice.
“This is a resilient community that continues to respond and move forward in the midst of adversity,” Father Blessing said. “Given the facts at hand, over the next couple of months, we will be sharing additional details on how all parishioners can be involved and take part in continuing to build our community to be ever more resilient. We are currently looking at how we move forward, and with the input of parishioners, we will formulate a plan.”
