St. Patrick’s building new church rectory

By Jan Schultz
Imperial Republican Correspondent
Activity has picked up at the corner of 7th and Broadway where construction is underway for a new rectory for St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
Records are unclear how old the current rectory is, which stands just west of the church at 128 East 7th Street. The new rectory, which will also house the parish office, is being built south of the parish hall in a lot that had been used for parking.
Fr. Lothar Gilde, who’s been the St. Patrick’s pastor for nine years, is excited about all the features the new rectory will contain - most notably its three bedrooms and three baths, an attached garage, a large gathering/meeting area and no stairs inside or out.
The larger gathering space will allow more room for hosting priests from the southwest Nebraska Deanery, in which Imperial is centrally located, Fr. Gilde noted.
An easily accessible office with a separate entrance is one of its most welcome features, he added.
The south-facing new rectory will have 2,650 square feet and another 550 square feet for its double garage. There is no basement.
Tom Terryberry, a St. Patrick’s parish council member, said discussion about a new rectory “got more serious” in the past year, due largely to consideration of how to deal with some of the issues with the current rectory.
Projects such as remodeling the kitchen, basement issues, unsafe back door steps and adding an attached garage to the current house have been addressed over the past decade or more, he said, but, in the end, patching up those issues didn’t seem to be the way to proceed.
Fr. Gilde said the parish council and church groups were discussing a possible attached garage when he arrived as pastor nine years ago.
“There are lots of issues and each one is difficult, so we looked in a different direction,” Terryberry said. “There was a lot to patch up.”
Approval from Lincoln Diocese administration and then a signature from the Bishop on the plans came in February/March, he said.
Dirt work began in mid-June and foundation forms were being placed last week. Spady Construction is serving as general contractor.
Terryberry said there are no definite plans for the current rectory, but the general consensus is to have that space west of the church opened up, preferably by moving the house off the property by someone interested in purchasing it.