Holy Rosary Parish in Edmonds will break ground on its new Parish Center on Sunday, May 1 at approximately 12:30 p.m. Demolition is scheduled for May 16 with site work starting immediately after.

“This will be a great day for the Parish,” said Rev. Kenneth Haydock, pastor. “A new parish center was our first building priority when I came here in 1996, but it was deferred by rebuilding the school. Midway through that project, the church began to crack badly and had to be rebuilt. Now, at long last, we will begin!”

The Parish expects to move into the new building during March 2012, said Haydock. “People from the Edmonds community have visited us to attend funerals and weddings as well as to play pinochle and bridge. Our chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society runs our food bank and clothing bank that serve 200 people a month. The new parish center will allow us to expand our ministries, including those that touch the lives of the general Edmonds community,” he said.

The new building will have flexible meeting space which can be subdivided for a number of events or opened to accommodate a large dinner or reception. The basement or first floor will accommodate staff and also have small meeting rooms.

The parish, located at 630 7th Ave. N., is the religious center for some 1,800 families. The new Parish Center Building will be constructed because the current structure, built as a residence for the nuns who founded Holy Rosary School, is inadequate in size and deficient in meeting seismic, energy and fire codes. It also does not meet modern regulations for access by the disabled and has issues with moisture and asbestos.