It seems like just yesterday that I gave this report – and indeed it was – at the Congregational Meeting, so if you were present there you can just skip this because nothing exciting has happened in the last 24 hours! If you were there, thank you so much for all the support you are giving us. On one hand, we are so often the bearer of bad news. But on the other hand, we get to report resolving issues and getting things back in a better place. It makes us feel good to know that you are understanding more and more the repercussions of our aging facilities, the necessity of taking good care of them, and the importance of wisely planning for the future. I’m one of those people who take stewardship of resources very seriously, whether they are personally mine or whether they are resources I use regularly, like our church. This is our church, these are our buildings and grounds, these are our responsibility. And it feels so good to make things right!

So what have we accomplished this past month? Well, we got a supposedly solid date with Solar Impact for the installation of the solar panels on the Education Wing & Youth Room roofs. It will be August, they assured us! The tree work in the east parking lot will be completed by mid-June. In addition to some tree hazards, we are also bolstering some of the parking spaces that have gotten extremely compacted because of the increased use of that space with Publix rentals. That compaction affects drainage and damages adjacent tree root systems.

Otherwise, it’s been a slower month for us for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that we ran out of money! But we are using this time for aspects of our work that don’t cost money right now, like redesigning the Education Wing bathrooms to be ADA-compliant and suitable for housing Family Promise and grappling with courtyard drainage and regrading.

Glenn Acomb is diligently moving us forward with the courtyard issues, detailing the challenges and decisions that need to be made before we can dive in with heavy equipment, reduce the grade, and tackle drainage, buckling sidewalks and trip hazards. Stay posted for opportunities that will allow us to share as much information as we have. We could just repair the damage and put it back like it is, but after 30+ years, perhaps it’s time to re-envision that space. We’re hearing that there are some things you would like to be different, which may require more grading or a different configuration of benches and tables or walkways or walking surfaces. We certainly don’t think it is advisable to bring in big equipment twice – once to repair and then later to make it more user-friendly. But we will do what the congregation determines. There are hard choices to be made, and some exciting ones, too! We’ve gotten good feedback from many of you so far and are eager to put our heads together to see what the congregation comes up with. We are thinking it is time to get some hard estimates for pieces of this remediation work as well as for upgrading the space to be more of what you want it to be, gathering whatever information that is of no cost.

Carol and I are doing cleanup of the House Master’s review and compiling lists of the lower hanging fruit, a.k.a. repairs, for the plumber, electrician, handyman, and others to review.  We will then get estimates of the costs and put those items into our priority list.

I am going to have some help with the capital reserve allocation spreadsheet and I’m so hopeful to report progress in the next newsletter! I think it will be really helpful in financial planning as we move forward to anticipate costs several years out rather than being caught unprepared.

Next on our priority list is probably the Education Wing bathroom re-model, the courtyard drainage and re-grading, three HVAC systems (with estimated prices of $12,000 for a split system with the air handler inside the building and compressor outside, $33,000 for a package unit with all components outside, and $25,000 for a second package unit) and the foundation/façade repair for Reimer Hall ($14,000). These are all big-ticket items, unfortunately, so we may be waiting until Capital Campaign monies are available.

Always and ever, we would receive any financial windfalls with fall-on-our-knees gratitude!

Liz Harvey