By Jack Engelman, Hamilton
For sake of brevity I would like to make a few points in response to Sonny LaSalle’s letter in the Bitterroot Star on September 18th.
Sonny conveniently cherry picks the facts regarding public, private and neighbor opinions and concerns regarding his desire to raze St. Francis Catholic Church to advance his narrative and dismisses facts that do not.
The two alternatives to remodel the church that LaSalle refers to both had the goal to increase the capacity of the church. The church’s own study shows that the number of families in the church in 2004 was close to 600 and decreased to 539 in 2019. The church could address the needed upgrades of the building without increasing the size of the St. Francis Church.
LaSalle is correct in stating the provision in the Historical Preservation Act allows an owner of a historic structure to legally modify or replace the structure. What LaSalle fails to mention is that the modifications or replacement of the historic structure must conform to current building codes and if not, variances must be granted, following the City of Hamilton’s Zoning Criteria for review. The new church does not conform.
The efforts to save the historic building are not made up of a “few emotional people” as LaSalle stated. Hundreds of concerned citizens have signed petitions to renovate, not raze. Beautiful St. Francis church has in fact evoked “EMOTIONS,” past, present and hopefully for generations to come.