State-Journal.com - Downtown Church may be sold for judicial center project

Downtown Church may be sold for judicial center project

By Charlie Pearl and John Zambenini

November 30, 2008

The historic downtown Good Shepherd Catholic Church is now being discussed in negotiations between the church and officials trying to find a site for a new $30 million judicial center.

Up until now, prospects for a new site involved only the Good Shepherd property where the school is located adjacent to the church - which dates to 1850.
However, Judge-Executive Ted Collins said Friday "there's a possibility the church itself may become a part of the negotiations.

"My main thought as chairman is that we continue viewing the property excluding the church," said Collins, chairman of the Franklin Project Development Board, which is overseeing the courthouse project.

"I'm not interested in incorporating it into the project."
Collins said there has been an interest in the Good Shepherd property - adjacent to the historic courthouse - "since we first heard the property might be for sale in December 2006.

"The whole time we've had discussions, I've been under the distinct impression the downtown church property included everything with the exception of the church. We proceeded with negotiations and appraisals."

Church may become available
Then recently Collins said he's "heard that some folks in the Good Shepherd parish believe it might be in their best interest to sell all of the downtown property."

Collins said all of the Good Shepherd property, including the church, "is a new possibility that I have not totally digested yet. It would take additional study and consideration from both parties - Good Shepherd and the Project Development Board.

"I'm open-minded to looking at that possibility if our Good Shepherd neighbors are open to the consideration of selling."

The school property includes classrooms, administrative offices and a gymnasium. The Good Shepherd Church steeple is the tallest among downtown Frankfort's prominent structures, including the courthouse and the old Paul Sawyier library.

Good Shepherd's pastor, Rev. Charles Howell, acknowledged at a Saturday evening mass the possibility of a sale of all the church's downtown property including the original Wapping Street church itself.

Howell said during the service Collins told him the county had appraised the Good Shepherd property at $2 million without the church.

The county, Howell said, appraised the property with the church included at $300,000 more, $2.3 million in total.

Howell said Good Shepherd would not release its own appraisal of the property as part of the negotiating process, which he also said has not yet begun.
"There's no money on the table," Howell said Saturday.

Paula Murphy, a downtown resident and Good Shepherd parishioner, attended the school from first to ninth grade and objects to its sale.

"It breaks my heart," Murphy told The State Journal in a phone interview Saturday.

Murphy, whose son is in the eighth grade at Good Shepherd School, lived in England for 20 years.

One of the reasons her family moved downtown when they returned to Kentucky was because the church and school make the neighborhood feel like home, she said.
"I'm just going to be sad because I won't see those school kids running out the door," Murphy said.

"That's where I'd gone to school, I'd basically grown up there," Murphy said. "The thought of the church abandoning the downtown property, it's like ripping the heart out of the downtown community."

When her family returned from abroad, Murphy said, the church had already shifted its mass from the Wapping Street building to its Leestown Road campus.

Murphy said she could see a financial advantage to selling the downtown property, but she doesn't believe it's the way to go in spiritual terms.

"I think we need to keep a Catholic presence in the downtown area," Murphy, who worked in the school's lunchroom for two years, said.

"Where you come from is valuable," she said. "In my view there's no way that building could be torn down."

"I think there would be a statewide outcry," Murphy said of the church "immortalized in Paul Sawyier paintings."
"That would be a travesty," she said.

Mark Dennen, acting executive director of the Kentucky Heritage Council, said Saturday the Project Development Board and the state Administrative of the Courts don't have to comply with any of the city zoning ordinances including the historic protection ordinance.

If federal funds were involved, the heritage council would have to review the project and "give an opinion as to whether there would be any adverse effect," Dennen said. But the same doesn't apply to state-funded projects, he said.

Property becomes top priority
The Good Shepherd property on St. Clair and Wapping streets - excluding the church building - became the top-priority site for the new judicial center in October.

At a public meeting on site selection in August 2007, the Rev. Patrick Stewart, then pastor of Good Shepherd Church, said Good Shepherd "is earnest about wanting to sell its downtown property" so it can build a new school on its Leestown Road church property.

Stewart said it's sad to think about Good Shepherd needing to leave downtown. But he added the new judicial center being built on Good Shepherd property - next to the current Franklin County Courthouse " would help keep the downtown area vibrant.

Stewart also said the time schedules for the new school and judicial center should be about the same.

Last month Project Development Board member Sam McNamara said the $4 million price for the Good Shepherd property was too high when it was initially considered last year, but otherwise he was pleased with it.

The old Model Laundry site behind the Frankfort Convention Center was the board's top choice for almost a year until discussions resumed with Good Shepherd.

Mixed emotions
Don Stosberg, a Good Shepherd parishioner for 42 years who served on the parish council decades ago, said Saturday he's "kind of neutral on the issue" of including the church in the negotiations.

Stosberg said the church, "right in the heart of downtown, has a spiritual history in this community and is important to many."

He said he also understands that "whatever the church gets for the property becomes a down payment on the new school. And of course the church wants to get the best price it can."

Parishioner Lee Colten said Friday he's "not emotionally attached to the church. So it's easy for me to look at it from a financial standpoint because that's a big factor when you look at a new school down the road."

Greg Meyer, a local builder and lifetime member of Good Shepherd, said Friday he's "in favor of selling all the downtown property. I think it will be a positive for the county and the parish.

"There are only so many buildings you can maintain," and having everything on the Leestown Road campus will work better, Meyer said.