SOUTH JORDAN — About 250 families who follow the Hindu faith will soon have their own Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple here, moving worship services from a private basement to a more permanent home.
Fund-raising efforts have brought in the $300,000 needed to build the 4,000-square-foot temple in the first phase of a three-phase construction project. A $600,000 cultural center will be built during the second phase, and a towering entrance to the temple is planned for the third phase. Planners will need to bring in a consultant from India to help in the construction of the intricately designed tower.
A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively planned for Aug. 22, which kicks off a five-day celebration for followers of the Ganesha Hindu religion. Temple president Indra Neelameggham hopes for a complete temple by spring 2002.
It will be the second Hindu temple in central and northern Utah; the first is the Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. The new temple will sit on a $200,000, 4-acre parcel at 1131 W. 10290 South. More than $500,000 is still needed for the cultural center and entrance tower. One major donor is confident.
"We'll get there," Dinesh Patel said.
For now, services are held in the basement of Neelameggham's home. A growing Utah Hindu population, with youths just getting to know the religion, need more, Patel said.
"In order for children to continue in the faith and culture, you need to have a place you can call your own," he said.
NJRA Architects' Selvam Rajaveln said Utah has nothing like the proposed temple in South Jordan. The 15,000-square-foot cultural center will feature an auditorium and stage, classrooms and a library. The landscaping surrounding the structures will have an Indian motif. A statue from Hawaii representing the deity Ganesha — easily recognizable by the elephant head — will be moved from Neelameggham's home to the temple, funded by years of donations.
"It's not a membership church like other faiths," Neelameggham said. "It's kind of a loose type of faith," and a temple, defined by wherever worship takes place, is open to anyone, anytime. Donations have had to come from all corners of the community, which has been partly why a planned groundbreaking has been delayed for more than a year.
"It's been a long haul for them, but we think we're about there," said Clark Labrum, South Jordan's community development director.
Temple representatives were to meet Wednesday night with the City Council for a public hearing and to seek approval of a conditional use site plan.
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com