Mike DeWein, who has been arranging an energy audit for St. Anthony's, asked me the other day to see if I could find anybody who could tell us about energy use in the building prior to when it went out of service. Considering the fact that the building ceased being a church back in 1972, that is a tall order and neither he nor I am very hopeful. 

But hey, it's worth a shot. I called the Diocese to find that Joe Dejulio, who had been taking care of the building for the diocese until GSCA (then Mansion Community Arts) bought the building, has retired and seems to have left the area. A nice lady in the real property office offered to go down to the basement and see if she could find any records. Nope, nothing there. 

Well, Mike said, how about calling heating oil companies? I don't relish the prospect of getting out the phone book and calling every one, but the least I could do is call Long Oil, which is basically right in the neighborhood. I left a message last week, and today got a call back from Jerry. 

Jerry knows the building pretty well, because after St. Anthony's closed as a church the owners, I assume the diocese, rented it out to the state as a site for processing and mailing election material. His wife worked there for several years, and he visited often. And because he was working for an oil company, he got the job of draining the two 75 gallon oil tanks in the basement when the state left in 1979. 

Unfortunately, Jerry says, Long Oil was not supplying oil to St. Anthony's before it closed and doesn't know who did. But we had a good talk about the neighborhood, and his memory of attending a funeral as a young boy at St. Anthony's. And, at least we know the oil tanks have been drained and we won't have to face that hurdle. 

The energy audit is the next step in figuring out a plan to heat the building, with lots of options — and lots of opinions — still on the table. We're thankful to have knowledgeable people like Mike guiding us.