Talkeetna parish seeks help to address future flooding

CatholicAnchor.org
Renamary Rauchenstein, the parish life director of St. Bernard Church in Talkeetna, remembers the flood of 2012 well.

“The waters were rising on both the Susitna and the Talkeetna River,” she explained, when suddenly a logjam on the Susitna sent the Talkeetna’s water rushing towards the little village, and toward the church.

“I jumped in my truck and rushed to the church. The visiting priest was consuming the consecrated hosts, and I began trying to move things up higher.”

But then someone ran into the church and shouted, “Your tires are under water,” and Rauchenstein got out as fast as she could. Eventually, the church was flooded all the way to the altar, 18 inches above the floor.

The result: the little parish church, home to 25 families, was devastated. Flooring, crawlspace, wiring, the boiler -— everything was ruined. Fortunately, insurance covered the damage, and a repaired church emerged from the old.

But two things were apparent. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the rivers’ flow had been permanently changed, and unless the church, which sat lower than the nearby road, was elevated, a similar or even worse flood wasn’t far in the offing.

Another major problem was the roof. For 15 years, parishioners had been saving to change the roof, which needed to be higher. Its low slant was trapping heat and moisture — threatening the structure’s wall and causing ice to form.

All of this added up to more than the tiny Catholic community could afford.

Enter Catholic Extension, an organization which has aided U.S. mission dioceses and parishes since 1905, and has often assisted the church in Alaska. Laurie Evans Dinneen, director of stewardship and development for the Archdiocese of Anchorage, wrote to Extension to see if they could help St. Bernard.

“We submitted a proposal in September, and they came through in November,” Dinneen recalled. But there was a small catch: Extension would find a donor to provide the generous sum of $54,000, provided the local community matched that amount.

St. Bernard is committed to $29,000, and their canonical pastor, Father Scott Garrett, is helping them secure assistance from nearby parishes in the Mat-Su Valley — St. Michael in Palmer, Sacred Heart in Wasilla, where Father Garrett serves as pastor, and Our Lady of the Lake in Big Lake.

Additionally, other parishes have offered support.

St. Patrick Church in Anchorage has decided to dedicate their annual Lenten almsgiving to help out with the matching grant fund.

Over $100,000 would be “a lot of money for the Valley to raise,” said Dinneen, but with the generous matching grant from Catholic Extension, and the assistance of people throughout the archdiocese, it is possible that the money will be in hand by the April deadline when the parish has secured permits to begin work.

The church will be elevated five feet, and the area contoured to make it attractive. The money the parish has raised for the roof will still be used for that purpose as the matching grant money can’t be money already saved, but must be newly donated money. And a new roof is vital to maintaining the structure.

Depending on how much money is raised, the church may be able to begin its “rectory” project so that visiting priests can have a place to stay when they travel to the remote parish.

The plan, aided by a grant from The Bishop’s Attic II thrift store in the Valley, is to wall off the present sacristy from the church, install an outside door and make it exclusively a small room for a priest, who visits every few weeks to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and provide other sacraments as needed. A church closet could be turned into a confessional.

“We can’t thank Catholic Extension enough for their generosity and for the partnership that we’ve had with them,” Dinneen said.

Rauchenstein echoed those sentiments.

“It’s amazing,” she said of the matching grant. “We couldn’t be more grateful. Everyone is over the moon about it.”

Talkeetna, a picturesque town of 900 located about 115 miles north of Anchorage, was connected to the road system in the early 1960s. A few years later St. Bernard Church was established. For most of its existence the parish has been served by occasional visiting priests and deacons. But oftentimes no priest is available and parishioners must organize Liturgy of the Word celebrations and distribute pre-consecrated Communion.

Donations to help St. Bernard Church may be made by contacting the Anchorage Archdiocese Pastoral Center at 297-7789, or by sending a donation to St. Bernard Parish, P.O. Box 510, Talkeetna, Alaska 99676, and noting that it is for the matching grant.