Twenty years after it was first discussed, a new $4 million parish center is being built at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pekin.
Changes in plans in reaction to neighbors' concerns, Pekin City Council decisions backing the neighbors, multiple fundraising campaigns and the COVID-19 pandemic all made the road to construction a long one.
"Ultimately, we ended up with a plan that meets the needs of our parish and although it's more costly than we expected, it demonstrated our willingness to listen to the neighbors and act on their major concerns," said church spokesman Bill Fleming.
Those acts, according to Fleming, were not asking the city to close a block of St. Joseph Place for the new parish center, installing an underground stormwater detention tank instead of a storm water detention pond, and not encroaching into the historic neighborhood.
"St. Joseph has been part of the neighborhood since 1904," Fleming said. "We've been a good neighbor for 120 years and want to continue that into the future."
The new parish center is being built in the cul-de-sac in front of the church at 303 S. Seventh Street.
The parish center will be connected to the church through an interior walkway. It will have offices, gathering spaces, meeting rooms, a youth group space and a kitchen, all moving from the current parish center.
The St. Vincent de Paul food pantry and a chapel were supposed to be part of the new parish center, but those plans were dropped to reduce the building's footprint.
The food pantry has moved from the current parish center into a nearby former insurance office that it purchased.
The cul-de-sac was vacated by the city so the church could build there.
Construction of the new parish center began in September and will continue into next year.
Church neighbor Christine Christensen, who has lived at 404 N. Seventh St. for 33 years, said she came up with the idea of building the new parish center in the cul-de-sac and pitched it to the church.
"The church is part of our neighborhood," she said.
"I thought the cul-de-sac would be a good place to build the parish center they need without it going into our neighborhood. I'm excited to see what the church builds. It'll be something attractive to look at driving up Seventh and block out some of the noise we get from Court Street."
The current parish center, located south of the church on St. Joseph Place, was built in 1960 as a convent for the nuns who served the parish and taught at St. Joseph School.
The convent was converted into the parish center in the early 1980s. It hasn't been serving the church well for several years.
"The current parish center isn't functional for our needs, isn't energy efficient, and can't be cost-effectively upgraded," Fleming said. "That's why we're building a modern, better-designed parish center that will be more efficient and larger than the current parish center."
The former parish center will be taken down near the end of the project and the property will be used for a parking lot.
Father Michael Andrejak, St. Joseph's pastor since 2015, vocalized many church members' thoughts about the new parish center during a groundbreaking ceremony held just before construction began.
"This is a glorious day for our church that's been a long time coming," he said.
