By Laura Lane
David Morrison's $100,000 gift in 1994 was given to memorialize his wife, Mary.
"We started thinking of building a chapel off the side of the church, but that fell through," Gallagher said. "Then we started looking at the church, its old heating, the stripped handles on the windows which makes it impossible for us to open them, and our air-conditioning that is going downhill. We made a decision to try to get more money together to build a new church, but by then Mr. Morrison was dead."
If everything goes as planned, Sacred Heart will break ground on the new church in October or November. Gallagher said the Morrisons will be memorialized at the main altar.
Preparations for the new church have been under way for the past four or five years. In order to receive permission from the Diocese of Rockville Centre to move ahead with plans, the church had to raise enough money to cover half of the cost. The 3,300 families who attend the church recently completed phase one of their capital campaign, collecting $2.5 million. They are now committed to phase two, in which they plan to raise an additional $2.5 million.
"We don't have any major donors at our church," said John Rossi, co-chairman of the finance committee and vice president of the North Merrick Elementary Board of Education. "We were able to get the money through contributions and donations or monthly pledges by our parishioners."
The new church, which will be built on the existing church parking lot, will cost about $5 million. The plans, already filed with the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County, have been approved by three out of four of the needed departments. "We had hoped we'd get an answer, and the parishioners asked me if I could call to get things moving," said Gallagher. "I heard on Friday that we'd get approval from the third department in a matter of days."
The entrance to the church will be on Merrick Avenue, and parking will be in the Catholic school parking lot. After the church is built, the old church will be razed, but its stained-glass windows will be saved and used in the new church. And the auditorium at Sacred Heart's Catholic school, currently used for Masses to accommodate the many members of the church, will become a gymnasium for the school.
"The priests have been diminishing over the years," said Andrew Vessillo, co-chairman of the Finance Committee. "How many Masses can one priest do? If they have to do fewer Masses because there are fewer priests, the new, larger church will accommodate more people."
Comments about this story? LLane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
