SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — In the kitchen of Saint Joseph's Church in Saugerties, a team of volunteers prepared a five-course meal to raise funds to fix up Saint Mary's Church down the road.

Among the volunteers was Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra, tending to a huge pot.

"We do the bouillanaise," Chief Sinagra proudly said. "It's got 15 pounds of ground beef in it, and it's all homemade sauce."

They hosted about 100 people for the $30-a-plate dinner on Sunday.

Thanks to several local grocers and restaurants, the food was almost completely free, allowing the church to put almost all of the $3,000 raised into a fund to make over parts of the property at Saint Mary's, which is showing its age.

"The church itself is almost 200 years old, and we constantly have repairs," Fr. Christopher Berean said. "We started last year to replace all the sidewalks, which are crumbling and falling apart. We're adding to that, so we have enough money to get estimates so we can finally fix it and make it safe for everybody."

That should take between $10,000 and $15,000, Fr. Berean said.

Because of this, and other fundraising events throughout the year, Fr. Berean said they are closing in on that goal.

Another project that fundraisers will not cover is the repair to Saint Mary's steeple, which Fr. Berean said was heavily damaged by just one woodpecker to the tune of $500,000.

Fr. Berean said the Arch Dioces of New York plans to give the church an emergency loan to fix the steeple.