Building and Grounds Update – Spring 2021

As we begin to come out of our COVID shutdown, we have been able to advance a number of our projects.  Our parking lot islands have been cleaned up and mulched by the volunteers watching over them. Flowers are starting to appear again and we even have a live goose nest in one this year. In trade for contributions, our youth mission trip group provided help in weeding and mulching the gardens in front of the Connector Hall and the Multi-Purpose Room.  Many thanks to them and all of the other volunteers who helped clean up our site on our work day on March 20. We still have some islands available for landscape adoption, if anyone is interested to take responsibility.  They include:

  1. The island around our sign in front of the church
  2. The landscape strip along the sidewalk in front of the Nursery
  3. The landscaped area in front of the Multi-purpose room
  4. The landscaped area along the Connector Hall

Those interested in taking on the duties of adding Spring mulch, seasonal weeding and adding seasonal flowers to beautify the churchyard, please contact Mike Arthur (Facility Manager) or the church office.

On other projects, we completed the first phase of an upgrade to our security and fire alarm system and we also accepted a bid to replace the roof on our Sanctuary and Nursery wing.  Once complete, we will have replaced the roof on each of our buildings within the last 3 years (hopefully no more leaks for decades).  Mike Arthur, along with other volunteers, is proceeding with the construction of an additional storage room on the second floor of the South Building. Our architect is also preparing the plans for our “porta-cochere” (driveway cover) at the access door of our North Building.  You should see construction of each of these projects (roof, storage room and the porta-cochere), as we go through the summer and fall.

Our Financial Report shows that we remain within our allotted budget of $30,800 for the year ($15,532.83 costs to-date for the first 6 months of our Fiscal Year) and we should have sufficient funds for the remaining FY (ending 8/31/2021).  We also still have a little over $8,700 remaining uncommitted in our major project reserve savings account and $37,228.74 in our emergency contingency fund.  In addition, members have now contributed $29,771.13 into the Future Growth Building Fund and we can now apply these funds to the new storage room and porta-cochere projects.  In addition to the above, the Committee has also taken on the responsibility of overseeing the utility and insurance costs for the church. $39,296 were budgeted by the Session to cover these costs.

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 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.