Budget cuts imperil further restoration of Arizona's historic San Xavier del Bac mission
More than 20 years after a major restoration project was launched at San Xavier del Bac, a Spanish Catholic mission nine miles south of Tucson, Ariz., the church suffered a major setback: state legislators cut the state's Heritage Fund, which designated a $150,000 grant to the mission.
The restoration team was planning to use the grant to repair the mission's 200-year-old east tower, one of the final exterior projects on the decades-long undertaking. But the architects have suspended work on the tower and have turned their attention to a smaller project, the east arcade off the mission's courtyard.
"We weren't willing to start something we couldn't finish," says lead architect Bob Vint, who has been working on the mission since exterior restoration began in 1989.