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Parishioners at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Ijamsville will soon enjoy a new, 12,000-square-foot multipurpose building, which church officials hope will be complete by September 2010. The Rev. Michael Jendrek, the church's pastor, said a capital campaign to construct the multipurpose building — which will host eight meeting rooms, office space and storage for the parish — is in the works. The congregation has been raising money for the project since 2005, and has spent about $1.47 million of the building's projected $2.85 million price tag.

This money was collected mostly from gifts from parishioners, Jendrek said.

The church paid off the mortgage on its existing sanctuary and social hall back in February, and celebrated this with a mortgage burning ceremony.

"We wanted to pay that off before we began on the new building," Jendrek said.

Jendrek said the church lacks storage space, which makes storing decorations for various activities, like last weekend's fall festival, difficult.

"There's no basement in any of our buildings," Jendrek said.

He said the new building will be built in one level, but could be added onto if a need for more space arises.

Right now workers are grading the land for the construction, which is just in its initial phase, he said.

State to close Big Woods Road

at Md. Route 80

The State Highway Administration plans to close temporarily Big Woods Road at Md. Route 80 today to allow work on planned improvements.

The closure will begin after the morning commute, and is expected to go through spring of 2010, when the administration hopes work will conclude, weather permitting.

The road closure is part of a $1.6 million project aimed at improving the intersections of Route 80, Big Woods Road and Ijamsville Road, which now do not directly intersect. State highway officials hope the project will improve sight distance at the intersection, making it safer.

Northbound traffic on Big Woods Road will be detoured to Md. Route 355 for the duration of the project.

Road improvements are being funded partially by Frederick County, and partially through the state's portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Another portion of the project, the intersection of Ijamsville Road and Route 80 which has been closed to facilitate the realignment, will reopen to through traffic on Saturday.

The Gazette's Construction Connection column addresses the southeastern Frederick County. If you have any questions about growth that you want to see addressed in The Gazette, please call New Market/Urbana reporter Christian Brown at 301-846-2132, or

e-mail him at chbrown@gazette.net.