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Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Watervliet and St. Anthony's in Schenectady are among several parishes in the Albany Diocese undergoing major renovations.

The Watervliet parish, a result of a 2005 merger of six parishes in that city and Green Island, had renovated its current church and faith formation center in 2011. Now, it is using $250,000 from the sales of unneeded buildings to modify its parish center.

The parish center, a former school building, will then accommodate socializing and office space. The work has included asbestos abatement and replacing old windows with energy-efficient ones. Rev. L. Edward Deimeke, pastor of IHM, expects that construction will begin by the end of the month and be completed by the end of the year.

St. Anthony's parish in Schenectady was damaged by a March 7 fire; parishioners have been at other parishes for Sunday Masses, but daily Masses are still held in the chapel. Insurance is covering repairs, but community members are working toward a $250,000 fundraising goal to complete extra restoration projects at the same time as the fire restoration.

Frank Ranucci, office manager, hopes the projects will be completed by Thanksgiving.

A restoration committee of 10 people prioritized gutting the church hall so it was available as an operations center for the parish's annual festa last month. Church repairs progressed enough that attendees could visit the sanctuary during the festa.

They were greeted with historical displays and videos of the 115-year-old church.

"The people absolutely loved going into the church," Mr. Ranucci said.

The community is awaiting architects' proposals for repairs to the altar, sanctuary and nave. Depending on funds raised, committee members hope to accomplish 10 other projects simultaneously: replacing the church's lighting and its heating and cooling systems, improving accessibility for persons with disabilities, correcting faults in the decorative limestone foundation, restoring a stone grotto and statue, updating smoke detectors and the like, updating the chapel, making changes to the church's main entrance and addressing a drainage problem in the church hall.

"A lot of people have worked very hard on this," Mr. Ranucci said. A fundraiser is being planned for the fall.[[In-content Ad]]

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