GUIDELINES
Covid Guidelines
We follow the direction give by:
1. Centers for Disease Control
2. Illinois Department of Public Health
3. Cook County Department of Public Health
4. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Fire Safety and Security
1. Do not hesitate to call 911 in an emergency. There is a landline in the office (southwest side of the lower level off the passageway). Our address is:
St. Mary's Retreat House
14230 Main St.
Lemont, IL 60513
2. The house landline telephone number is: 630-257-5102
After calling 911, call Deacon John P. Vidmar, 708-204-4390
Deacon Josep Winblad, 312-833-9170
3. Fire extinguishers are available in all the hallways, the front lobby and rear lobby (former kitchen).
4. Smoke detectors are very sensitive. Candles and smoking will set them off. Candles and smoking (including vaping) are prohibited in the building. Cooking is prohibited. Food can be warmed up in the microwaves located in the kitchen. The electric stove in the rear lobby is for staff use during the week.
5. The alarms cannot be turned off after they are sounded. Wait for the firemen from the Lemont Fire Department to arrive to turn the alarm off. The smoke detector alarm system is in its own panel is in the electrical room in the southwest lower hallway at the back of the building. The Lemont Fire Department has keys located in a lock box on the porch to get into the building.
6. The breaker for the Alarm System is in the electrical box in the rear lobby (former kitchen).
7. The smoke detector and the alarm panel are located in the electrical supply room which is the last room on the northwest side of the house. They are not to be touched. The fire department will reset the alarm system after they have been set off.
8. The fire hoses that are still mounted in a few places are obsolete. Downstairs hoses have been removed. Upstairs hoses will be removed. Water has been disconnected to them.
9. The building has the following exits:
North side front
Southside east hallway
Southside west hallway
Southside Kitchen doors
Upper level southeast side staircase to the outside (Doors are not alarmed)
Upper level southwest side staircase to the outside (Doors are not alarmed)
Upper level northeast side staircase leading to the lobby
Upper level northwest side staircase leading to the lobby
10. The doors can be set to stay open using the allen wrench located near the front and back doors. Please do not leave them open because they permit wild animals to enter the building. Open the windows to allow fresh air into the building.
11. The doors should be locked at the end of the day's events when everyone goes to sleep. That time is set by the facilitator. All doors can be locked using allen wrenches.
12. There is a door to the boiler room in the Electrical Room. it is not locked for access issues. There is no reason to go in that room. Please stay out for the safety of all.
13. There are basic first aid supplies in the north east side dining room cabinets.
14. There is a portable Philips Hearstart defibrillator stored on the front wall of the dining room leading to the east side door to the kitchen. There is a voice recording to lead you through its usage.
Landlines
There are five landline telephones located in the building:
Reception Desk
Front of Dining Room
Office
Upstairs north library
Upstairs south library
Meals
1. Meals are all catered by an outside caterer. There is no serving staff. The caterer will bring the food in from the back parking lot and set it on the tables at the front of the dining room. Serving is buffet style.
2. If extra serving utensils are needed, there are some extra in the west dining room cabinets. Please do not throw away the serving utensils. Collect them and clean them in the kitchen sink and leave them out to dry.
3. There is no staff to clean up after meals. Assign someone from your party to collect the extra food at the end of meals and put it into the commercial refrigerator in the kitchen. At the end of your retreat, please take the food home. Any leftover food will be thrown out on Monday.
4. There are extra eating utensils in the cabinets in the front west end of the dining room.
5. The caterer can not guarantee that there is no cross contamination of foods in their kitchen and distribution. . People with food allergies should bring their own food.
New Mattresses
1. There are 27 Tempur-pedic mattresses and 61 Quality Sleep Shop Robby mattresses. The Tempur-pedic mattresses are between 14 and 14.5 inches in depth. The Robby mattresses are 10” in depth with the top 3" having a gel to keep a person from sinking in as much as the Tempur-pedics.
3. Mattresses and box springs are covered. These are to be left in place and not removed.
4. All rooms have pillows for each bed as well as a blanket on the bed and an extra blanekt on the clothes rack.
Supplies
1. Paper towels, toilet paper, garbage bags of various sizes are located in the northeast front dining room armoire. Cleaning soaps such as Mr. Clean are all located in and on the metal cabinets located in the west side of the kitchen.
2. There is another cleaning supply cabinet in the east side sacristy of the chapel on the second floor.
3. All light bulbs are LED and should not need replacement. Please Report any light bulb that burns out.
4. Brooms are located in the storage areas under the southwest staircases of the building.
5. Each bathroom has a mop and cleaning bucket.
6. There are extra paper plates, paper bowls and napkins in the west storage cabinets in the front of the dining room. This cabinet also has extra plastic serving spoons, serving forks and serving tongs.
7. The northwest dining room cabinet has extra plastic forks, knives and spoons.
8. Salt, pepper, tea, sugar, sugar free sweeteners are all located in the east side dining room cabinets.
9. Styrofoam and paper cups can be found in the drawers of the cabinet at the coffee station in the dining room.
Walls
The dining room walls have been drywalled and painted. Many of the bedrooms have been repainted. Nothing may be scotch taped or affixed to the walls. Painters tape can be used to put up posters.
Lighting & Outlets
1. All the bedrooms have motion sensors for lighting that are manual on and auto off. They are set to turn off after 5 minutes of no movement. The 8 bathrooms have motion sensors that are auto on and off. In addition to this the sacristies of the chapel and the south library and meeting area have auto on and auto off motion sensors. there are no motion sensors on multiway switches and please turn these off.
2. The dining room has light switches at the north and south end.
3. Do not go into any breaker boxes to turn lights on and off.
4. There are no replacements for any LED fixture.
5. The flood lights on the front of the building are on a shade sensors. The outside porch canned lights are on a switch and have to be manually turned off and on. the light switches are marked in the inside porch area.
6. Breaker boxes are located
Main Floor: Utility room, the northwest end of the dining room, southwest corner room, kitchen
Second Floor: Chapel, last room on the northwest side (308) , southwest corner room and woodshop
7. All rooms have grounded 3 prong outlets. All of the rooms have a hotel style lamp that has 2 grounded outlets.
8. The four doors on the back of the retreat house have flood lights that are on motion and light sensors. Do not turn the switches on the inside of the door frame to the off position. That disables the light.
9. If the chapel is used and you have to turn on the lights in the front of the chapel, there is an electrical panel in the west sacristy which controls all of these lights. This panel also controls many of the lights and outlets for the inside rooms so please be careful not to shut designated breakers. There is a sign under the panel box which identifies which breakers should never be turned off.
Lobby Furniture
1. That furniture is to be kept in the lobby and not moved. The couches have wheels on them to make it easier to clean given their weight. Moving the furniture scratches the wax floors. Please leave the furniture in place in the lobby.
Fans
1. There are fans stored in the storeroom under the east stair well in the dining room entrance.
2. Put the fans back near that door. We will store them.
Heaters
1. The house is kept at 55 degrees when retreats are not being held. There are electrical portable heaters located in various rooms to supplement the heat when the whole house does not have its temperature raised. Do not plug two of these into the same circuit. They will blow the fuse. Each one is rated at 1500 watts (13.5 amps). Most of the circuits are 15 amp. A few of the fans have had the circuit board removed and are now controlled by switches. One switch has a position to open the louvers and the opposite position to start oscillation. the other switch has a high heat/ high fan position and a low heat/lo fan position. return both switches to the middle position and disconnect from the wall outlet.e oscilaation and louver
Plumbing
1. The Retreat House is not used during the week. People coming in first on Friday will encounter cold showers. That is because the water in the hot water lines has cooled off. It takes running the water to bring new hot water from the hot water tank to the various places in the building. We have hundreds of feet of water piping and it can take awhile especially in the corners of the building before new hot water comes to the showers or sinks. We try to run the water on Friday afternoons if there is time.
2. The toilets have pressure tanks in them that lose pressure at times when not used. If they do not flush, turn the water off to the tank, depress the flushing handle until the water gurgling stops, Turn the water back on. The tank will pressurize. It should flush. If not, report it. There is a toilet plunger in each bathroom.
3. Water shut offs are located in the downstairs women's washrooms. The inside rooms are controlled by shut off valves in the kitchen. The main water shut off for the building is located in the boiler room.
4. There are outside faucets located on the north, east and side of the building. They all have a shut off in the room from which they exit.
5. Sinks and toilets each have a shut off valve.
Boiler Control
1. Each wing of the building (4) has its own circulating pump controlled by a switch. The chapel has its own circuit and own circulating pump.
3. There are thermostats that control each wing (east & west) and floor (lower & upper) as well as the chapel. These are set to about 68 degrees and there is a 5 degree variance from the south end the north end. The thermostats are on the north end so the south end will be warmer by as much as 5 degrees when the boilers fire up.
3. There are cutoffs for the radiators for the lower west wing in rooms 111 & 112.
4. Please do not touch the thermostats.
5. It is important to remind people that when the heat is on, to keep their bedroom doors open during the day. The thermostats are in the hallway and if the doors are closed, the thermostats will continue to call for heat and it will get exceeding warm during the night
Gas
1. There are no gas appliances in the Retreat House. All gas lines for the house have been capped and the shut off vales to lines supplying the former kitchen are in the off position.
2. There is a shut off valve for the boiler as well as the hot water tank.
3. There is a separate shut off valve for the whole house in the boiler room.
Internet Wireless Access
Modem router name: SMRH
internet pswd 1234567890
Elevator / Lift (passed inspection on 6/8/2020, registration granted on 2/10/21,
passed inspection on 12/23/2022, registration still not received as of 6/18/2022
)
1.Is located at the back ground level entrance (south side of the building)
2. To open the elevator, press the Number for the level you are at.
3. To move the elevator, it is necessary to hold the button for the floor you wish to go to. Releasing the button stops the elevator.
4. This is lift for the disabled. it is not technically an elevator.
5. Total load capacity is 750 pounds. That should accommodate a disabled person in a wheel chair, the wheel chair and a caretaker.
6. There is a mechanically release located in a locked box at the left front of the first floor door which will permit the lift to lower itself to the main floor and the door can be opened.
7. The light comes on automatically with a sensor.
8. The lift has a telephone number (630-xxx-xxxx) that can be used to call out.
9. In case of emergency, it rings at the Lemont Fire Department.
Campfire
1. There is a designated area for campfires in the field up the hill on the far side of the bathrooms on the south perimeter of the Retreat House.
2. You may bring your own wood. At times we have scrap wood to burn. Please ask about this. You are also welcome to pick up lose branches on the ground to burn.
3. Please leave any stacked wood alone. That is the property of people who have been doing tree trimming on the property. They use it for burning in their wood stoves and is not to be used for campfires.
4. Take a bucket of water with you to put out the fire at the end of an evening. Do not leave it unattended.
When You Leave
1. We do not have cleaning staff to strip the beds. Please strip the sheets from the beds and bring them to the dining room. Sort them on the west wall in piles according to the signs posted on the walls.
top sheets
fitted sheets
wash clothes
towels
pillow cases
2. The mattresses have mattress protectors. Please do not remove them.
3. Empty all the room garbage cans into the main garbage can for the floor.
4. Sweep all the floors
5. Empty all garbage cans into the dumpster located at the back (south) parking lot.
6. Close and lock all windows.
7. Shut off all the lights.
8. Check to make sure no faucets have been left running.
9. Check to make sure no toilets are running.
10. Check to make sure no water is running in any of the sinks.
11. You can lock the building by closing the front door, locking the back kitchen door from the inside and exiting either out the southeast or southwest back door.
12. Check to make sure the ventilator fans in the chapel are in the off position. This is the electrical box in the sacristy of the chapel.
13. The curtains on the windows should be pulled back.
14. Clean the mops and the buckets. Do not let the mops sit in dirty water.
15. Make sure the furniture is back where it was before the retreat.
16. Lock all the doors before you leave.
Mass Schedule for Local Churches
1. Saturday Mass is available at St. Mary's Monastery at:
Sunday: 7am
11am in Slovenian
2. Check the internet for mass times at
St. Patrick
St. Alphonsus
St. Cyril
2. One month prior notice permits us to arrange a Mass on the premises.
3. The deacons can conduct prayer services. Since there are four parishes in our proximity that hold regular Masses, we do not conduct Communion services.
While You are Here
There are over 100 acres that include:
Woodlands
Fields
Playground
Lourdes Grotto
Way of the Cross
Rosary Valley
Franciscan Cemetery
Bocce Ball Courts
Monastery Chapel
There is no fishing in the pond located by the Lourdes Grotto.
Please take the time to walk and meditate!