Fall 2021
In addition to our normal summer maintenance, the Committee continued to monitor our utility costs and look for ways to reduce our energy usage. After review, the Committee approved a project to replace all the water faucets in the North Building with automatic on/off faucets. Due to multiple incidents involving water being left on for several days with much waste of water, it was felt that this replacement was necessary. In addition, since the water will now be instantly on and off and since the distance from our hot water tank to these faucets is very long, it was decided that the hot water lines to the North Building could now be shut off, again saving the waste of water and energy use.
A Fall Clean-up Day for site was held on November 13, 2021. With much help from our Youth Groups and other volunteers, the site was cleaned and prepared for winter. Some steps were also taken to reduce the amount of landscaped area in areas where we do not have volunteers to assist with maintenance. We are thankful for all who helped with our Fall Clean-up. We continue to be blessed with hard working volunteers.
Our parking lot islands were maintained again by the volunteers who signed up to watch over them and they looked great all year. We still have some landscape areas (back sidewalk along the Nursery, front along the Connector Hall, side and front along the Multi-Purpose Room) available for landscape adoption, if anyone is interested in taking responsibility. Anyone interested in volunteering to mulch, weed and add seasonal flowers to beautify these landscape areas, please contact Mike Arthur (Facility Manager) or the church office.
Our Financial Report shows that we are within our allotted operating budget of $33,800 for the Fiscal Year ($5,367.65 costs to-date for the first 2 months of our Fiscal Year). We are also within our utility budget of $42,600 ($4,718.49 costs to date in this FY). The Operating Account ended the last Fiscal Year with a surplus of $8,751.15 and these funds were transferred to our Major Project Reserve Account for future large projects. We now have a balance of $41, 873.36 available for future major projects. Our Contingency Fund remains at $47,228.74 and our Future Growth Building Fund has grown to nearly $39,000 through individual contributions from our Congregation.
With the monies provided through the Future Growth Building Fund, our first small building expansion project is now complete. Mike Arthur, along with volunteers, completed the new room on the second floor of the South Building contained in our Master Plan. This room will now be used as a small office for the Facility Manager and, his former office in the North Building (which is much larger), has now become the storage room for VBS and other youth programs. Our architect and our structural engineer also completed the final plan for our “porte-cochere” (driveway cover) at the access door of our North Building (plan attached). We are currently waiting on City approval of the project, so we can begin getting bids from contractors. Our goal remains to construct the “porte-cochere” in 2022.
Questions on any Building and Grounds project can be directed to Mike Arthur (Facility Manager) or any of our committee members; Holly Pfeifer, John Tullis, Jay Pearson, Robert Jones, Dave Brown, Fred Janssen, Dona Kauth, Bill Spady, Greg Eroe and Ray Harbeson (Chair). New Committee Members or Building and Grounds email advisors are welcome at any time.
Please contact Mike Arthur, Ray Harbeson or any of our pastors, if interested in volunteering.