Public hearing set for

St. Mary's demolition

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Historical Preservation Commission Thursday set the date for a public hearing on St. Mary's Catholic Church's application for a demolition permit.

The public hearing is set for Thursday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.

The church wants to demolish a former convent and school that have a historic preservation designation.

St. Mary's was represented by the Rev. Douglas Grams, St. Mary's pastor, and Mary Ellen Domeier, chairperson of the parish's long-range planning committee.

Grams quoted Bishop John C. Nienstedt as saying, "'I want you to keep the land,' so our plan at this time is to keep the land for future development.'"

Although discussion was to have been deferred until the hearing, Grams and Domeier did respond to questions from commissioners. The commission has until Nov. 25 to act upon the permit request, or the matter automatically goes to the City Council for consideration.

Several commissioners asked about what the parish had done in trying to put the buildings to other uses.

"We made contact with Metro Plains, a firm which has done numerous building retro-fits, and three applications for subsidized housing were submitted," Domeier said. "All failed despite the expertise of Metro Plains and a substantial local effort at lobbying MHFA (Minnesota Housing Finance Agency) on scoring criteria."

In answer to another question, Domeier said, "We were meeting with other groups while the Metro Plains project was on-going."

"It just seems that the parish is looking too narrowly," Chairman Jim Bodine said. "From our perspective, it seems that there are other uses. It's a big building. Try to look beyond the parish."

Domeier was joined by Steve Franta in elaborating upon the contacts that were made in an effort to find other uses for the buildings.

"We've given it our best efforts for 6 years," Domeier concluded.

"You never exhaust every avenue," Brian Tohal said, "but it reaches a point where it's not practical to continue the search."

Councilor Ron Fleischmann, a member of the commission, suggested that two volunteers from the commission meet with representatives of St. Mary's to further discuss the issue. Bodine and Commissioner Christine Carmichael volunteered to represent the commission at the meeting.

The commission also got permission from St. Mary's pastor for a walk-through tour of the buildings prior to the public hearing.