“This sanctuary will be a spiritual home,” he said. “Not only for us but for those believers yet to be born.”

Some of those young believers, just starting out their faith journey, were in attendance in the audience of more than 200 people. They were easy to spot because many were wearing bright yellow toy hard hats.

The new church is being built at Sixth Avenue North and North 25th Street. The area is currently the St. Edmond Catholic School’s practice field located east of the school.

Pat Leiting, design team chair and parish lay director, said in his remarks that it was his first experience with building a church and that he appreciated not only the experts who helped but the input from the parish as well.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Jason Hamilton, of Fort Dodge, hold his daughter Maggie Hamilton, 1, as they look over renderings of the new Holy Trinity Catholic Church Wednesday afternoon at groundbreaking ceremonies.

“We had input from surveys that was included into a design that conveys the heritage of all of our churches into it,” he said.

“There are many improvements,” he said. “To make it more handicap accessible, we’ve eliminated steps going into the building. We will have a large gathering space and internal walkways.”

He also said they plan to repurpose items from some old churches, including Stations of the Cross and stained glass windows.

“This signals a new beginning of our Catholic life in Webster County,” he said.

The needs of the parish can now be met in almost one location: St. Edmond for education of youths, Marian Home to take care of the needs of seniors.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Framed by part of an excavator, guests at the groundbreaking for the new Holy Trinity Catholic Church watch the ceremony Wednesday afternoon.

And soon?

“A new church will soon provide a place of worship for the families of our parish,” he said. “It’s the foundation on which to build for the generations to come.”

Keith Kolacia will be the construction manager for the project.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering what happens next,” he said. “Next week, you’ll see some activity on site as we demo some existing buildings.”

“In about two weeks, Rasch Construction will begin grading for the site itself,” he said. “We hope to have the building pad done by late September.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Jude Zach, 1, of Fort Dodge, has a little trouble with his toy construction hardhat Wednesday afternoon during the groundbreaking for the new Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

He said the structural steel should arrive in late November.

“It’s not the greatest time to hang iron,” he said. “But you’ll begin to see the structure take shape.”

If all goes according to plan, he said, he’s hoping the building will be enclosed by spring 2019.

“A lot of this is in the hands of God himself,” Kolacia said. “If all goes well, we’ll be celebrating Easter Mass in 2020 in our new worship space.”

After a blessing from McCoy, the traditional shovel of earth was tossed, followed by refreshments.

Those refreshments were in homage to the event too. Hard hats had been turned into bowls filled with sandwich cookies that became “spare tires” and vanilla wafer 2-by-4s.