BUILDINGS
"I joined the Finance Committee about 1980(through to 1983) which covered the period of the building of the church.
Members at that time (from memory) were: Fr Neville Browne, Norm Price (Chair), Sean Gardiner, Gary O'Loan, Brian Lattimer, Stephen Tindall, Bernard Moran and myself.
There were many issues that occupied the committee concerning building the church.
The major one was finance, with the bulk of the money coming from the diocese we also had to raise as much ourselves as possible, hence the parish fairs, garage sales cake stalls etc. The diocese owned two pieces of land in Glenfield. One plot in Powrie St (which had been swapped in the late 1960s for the land on which the Glenfield Mall now stands) plus the triangle of land on Glenfield Rd/High Rd. The parish got the proceeds of the sale of this land towards the cost of the church.
Another issue was access to the land on which the church was to be built. The council wouldn't allow access from the driveways on Wairau Rd, but the driveway from Glenfield Rd (the current St Thomas More Lane was then only a single lane and the council wouldn't allow access through there either. So Fr Neville bought the house on Glenfield Rd, subject to the owner still living there for up to five years, and used the land at the side of the house to establish the road. The main sewage pipe ran through what is now the hall and the grassed area outside the back of the church, so this had to be relocated before any consent was received.
Debate was had on a dedicated church vs a utility hall/church; the building materials of brick vs concrete block; carpets vs lino for the floors (this was settled by StephenTindall telling us that they had just gone through the same exercise at George Courts and that carpets cost more but lasted longer-this original carpet has just been replaced after 34 years); the size of the window behind the alter was originally going to be one piece of glass double the current size, but the engineers forbade it because of structural concerns; a flippant discussion was had how best to use the space under the church, the most popular suggestion was to use it as a pub which could have funded the repayments, but Fr Neville in his wisdom never took the suggestion to the bishop.
The tendering process caused some angst as long time parishioners the O'Sullivans were bidders to build the church and missed out by $400 so there was a lively debate on the legality of awarding the contract to them, eventually the contract went to King Bros. Builders, the lowest bidder.
When building was confirmed Fr Neville announced at Mass that "We will be looking for sponsorship and discounted materials, including FOBT pricing and for those of you who don't know, that means Fell Off the Back of a Truck" Fr. Neville later said he was invited to afternoon tea with the Bishop to discuss proper conduct shortly afterwards.
One meeting was held at Stephen Tindall's place after he had just come back from a buying trip in Brazil for George Courts (he had not set up The Warehouse at that time) and brought back some fine brandy to share. Bernard Moran was on the wagon and didn't touch a drop but sat the whole evening swirling and smelling the glass of brandy. When he tried to get up to leave he fell flat on his face, legless! We figured that the alcohol had evaporated from the glass and gone to the brain. He had to be driven home and carried to his front door. When Annetta Moran opened the door, if looks could kill, I would have died that night.
Finance meetings weren't always business. One meeting we heard a car screaming down Wairau Rd, a loud bang, 3-4 seconds silence then an almighty crash and sound of scraping metal. All of us rushed out, except Fr Neville who went to get everything to administer the last rites, and arrived to find a car upside down with the roof collapsed. We looked inside the car and to our astonishment no-one was in the car. There were two very intoxicated gentlemen sitting on the side of the road who wanted to leave but were persuaded to stay until the police arrived.
One little known fact is that we used to have separate collections and accounts for Albany as there was talk of a church being built there. Since we had two collections each Mass (first for the Priest and second for the parish) and Fr Bruce Bolland wanted to separate cash and envelope collections we ended up accounting for eight categories of collection, which made counting the collections a logistical nightmare. When Fr Neville arrived and I explained this he told me "your the accountant, sort it out". I soon calculated that the Albany part of the parish was losing money, so separate collections stopped, then we went down to one collection and allocated the priest's portion, problem solved.
When the hall was built we got funding from both Lotto and the ASB Trust. I was asked by Fr Phil to prepare a set of parish accounts to go with the applications. Like a good accountant I asked him whether he wanted the accounts to show the parish as rich or poor. The outcome showed us with enough funds to get the grants, outstanding loans but little other assets as the church was valued at nothing since we had no intention to ever sell it."
Dennis Lyons, Nov 2017
Members at that time (from memory) were: Fr Neville Browne, Norm Price (Chair), Sean Gardiner, Gary O'Loan, Brian Lattimer, Stephen Tindall, Bernard Moran and myself.
There were many issues that occupied the committee concerning building the church.
The major one was finance, with the bulk of the money coming from the diocese we also had to raise as much ourselves as possible, hence the parish fairs, garage sales cake stalls etc. The diocese owned two pieces of land in Glenfield. One plot in Powrie St (which had been swapped in the late 1960s for the land on which the Glenfield Mall now stands) plus the triangle of land on Glenfield Rd/High Rd. The parish got the proceeds of the sale of this land towards the cost of the church.
Another issue was access to the land on which the church was to be built. The council wouldn't allow access from the driveways on Wairau Rd, but the driveway from Glenfield Rd (the current St Thomas More Lane was then only a single lane and the council wouldn't allow access through there either. So Fr Neville bought the house on Glenfield Rd, subject to the owner still living there for up to five years, and used the land at the side of the house to establish the road. The main sewage pipe ran through what is now the hall and the grassed area outside the back of the church, so this had to be relocated before any consent was received.
Debate was had on a dedicated church vs a utility hall/church; the building materials of brick vs concrete block; carpets vs lino for the floors (this was settled by StephenTindall telling us that they had just gone through the same exercise at George Courts and that carpets cost more but lasted longer-this original carpet has just been replaced after 34 years); the size of the window behind the alter was originally going to be one piece of glass double the current size, but the engineers forbade it because of structural concerns; a flippant discussion was had how best to use the space under the church, the most popular suggestion was to use it as a pub which could have funded the repayments, but Fr Neville in his wisdom never took the suggestion to the bishop.
The tendering process caused some angst as long time parishioners the O'Sullivans were bidders to build the church and missed out by $400 so there was a lively debate on the legality of awarding the contract to them, eventually the contract went to King Bros. Builders, the lowest bidder.
When building was confirmed Fr Neville announced at Mass that "We will be looking for sponsorship and discounted materials, including FOBT pricing and for those of you who don't know, that means Fell Off the Back of a Truck" Fr. Neville later said he was invited to afternoon tea with the Bishop to discuss proper conduct shortly afterwards.
One meeting was held at Stephen Tindall's place after he had just come back from a buying trip in Brazil for George Courts (he had not set up The Warehouse at that time) and brought back some fine brandy to share. Bernard Moran was on the wagon and didn't touch a drop but sat the whole evening swirling and smelling the glass of brandy. When he tried to get up to leave he fell flat on his face, legless! We figured that the alcohol had evaporated from the glass and gone to the brain. He had to be driven home and carried to his front door. When Annetta Moran opened the door, if looks could kill, I would have died that night.
Finance meetings weren't always business. One meeting we heard a car screaming down Wairau Rd, a loud bang, 3-4 seconds silence then an almighty crash and sound of scraping metal. All of us rushed out, except Fr Neville who went to get everything to administer the last rites, and arrived to find a car upside down with the roof collapsed. We looked inside the car and to our astonishment no-one was in the car. There were two very intoxicated gentlemen sitting on the side of the road who wanted to leave but were persuaded to stay until the police arrived.
One little known fact is that we used to have separate collections and accounts for Albany as there was talk of a church being built there. Since we had two collections each Mass (first for the Priest and second for the parish) and Fr Bruce Bolland wanted to separate cash and envelope collections we ended up accounting for eight categories of collection, which made counting the collections a logistical nightmare. When Fr Neville arrived and I explained this he told me "your the accountant, sort it out". I soon calculated that the Albany part of the parish was losing money, so separate collections stopped, then we went down to one collection and allocated the priest's portion, problem solved.
When the hall was built we got funding from both Lotto and the ASB Trust. I was asked by Fr Phil to prepare a set of parish accounts to go with the applications. Like a good accountant I asked him whether he wanted the accounts to show the parish as rich or poor. The outcome showed us with enough funds to get the grants, outstanding loans but little other assets as the church was valued at nothing since we had no intention to ever sell it."
Dennis Lyons, Nov 2017