Catholics plan major expansion downtown

Artist's sketch shows concept of the expanded facilities being planned by the Catholic Church. View is from the junior high playground.

Mixed feelings surround a proposal to build a new ministry building next to the Catholic church in the city's downtown area.

The idea of consolidating the parish's offices into two co-located buildings remains offset by the need to move local businesses from their existing buildings to give the church room to grow.

The project includes remodeling the existing church at the corner of East Jackson and North 4th East streets and building an adjacent building to give the church needed space for a fellowship area, administration offices and classrooms, along with more parking.

If approved, the added facility replaces several of the church's existing buildings around town, including Good Counsel Hall. Located a mile from the church, the Elmore County Medical Center purchased the hall in recent years as part of its own expansion plans.

The Mountain Home Planning and Zoning Committee tabled its discussion on the church's conditional use permit for the project at its meeting Monday evening. If approved later by the city council, demolition of the existing buildings could start 30 to 45 days afterward, according to Bermensolo.

"By redeveloping in the city's central core, this project represents the most significant investment in Mountain Home's downtown vitality in recent memory," according to a statement released by the church's building committee. "This project provides an additional anchor point for further downtown revitalization."

This project "fulfills a 56-year dream" to enhance the local Catholic community by co-locating its fellowship, worship, administrative and classroom areas next to each other, the building committee added.

Originally, the Catholic community proposed moving the proposed facilities to a section of land on South 18th Street, according to Michael Brown, communications director with the Boise-based diocese, which oversees the Mountain Home church.

"However, the costs to build outside of the local area were too prohibitive," Brown said. "It was higher than the church was able to pay."

The church's fund drive last winter also fell short.

With the possibility of the church staying downtown, the responsibility of telling local businesses of the pending move fell to Claude M. Bermensolo, who owns the buildings in the project's path.

"Earlier this year in the spring... I gave them a heads up and let them know that we're looking at this option," said Bermensolo as he discussed the conversations he had with affected business owners. "I couldn't really tell them for sure what was going to happen until decisions were made and things were on paper as far as definite time lines go."

By September, Bermensolo received definitive word from the church's building committee, including anticipated construction time lines. With that in mind, he notified affected business owners Oct. 1, giving them two months to relocate. To make it easier to relocate, he gave each of them a list of vacant rental properties in the downtown area to help them find a new place to resume their businesses.

"It just ended up being sooner than they wanted," Bermensolo said regarding the time line.

Those affected include nearly a dozen downtown businesses, including a salon, hair stylist, boutique, locksmith and the Western Elmore County Recreation District.

See the Mountain Home News for the complete story.