| Over the past year, your Building & Grounds Committee members have been researching how we best address masonry issues found on the exterior of our church building. We are pleased that Old World Masonry Restoration, a company with a lot of experience with limestone mortar work in the Fan, will be working with us starting in May to complete this major renovation project. Estimated Date for the project to begin: May 9, 2022 Three Phases: Phase 1:Church wall facing east, in the alleyway between 1915 Grove Avenue and the main church Phase 2:Church wall facing north, work completed along Grove Avenue Phase 3:Church wall facing west, along Meadow Street |
| What does that mean to you? The mortar repair will be done on three sides of the church, starting with the alleyway between 1915 Grove Avenue and the main church building (aka church office entrance alleyway).In all phases of the project, there will be a lot of dust.The stained glass window is covered adequately to protect it. Work in Phase 2 along Grove Avenue requires use of a lift.Therefore, the Grove Avenue sidewalk from the office entrance alleyway to the corner of Grove and Meadow will be closed for at least one week, probably around the week of 5/16/2022. The repairs along Meadow are the most extensive and therefore will require the most time.The lift will also be needed during this phase, requiring that the northbound lane of Meadow Street be closed for approximately three weeks.This lane closure is likely to begin around the week of 5/23/2022.The city alley access on the south side of the church will remain available, and users will be able to turn south onto Meadow from that Meadow Street alleyway.The Meadow Street parking spaces will remain available. For safety reasons, we recommend that you use the atrium/City alley entrance (south side of the church) for the duration of this project.While church staff should be able to enter through the church office entrance after the first week, we believe that consistency in how we access the building offers the greatest safety for all others who join us in activities at the church.We specifically ask that you do NOT walk under the scaffolding and that you closely follow closed sidewalk instructions. Please know that we will do all we can to keep the area as clean as we can. And also be patient if the weather affects the timing of the work getting done. We are certain that the crew will do their best to keep this job moving along as weather permits. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this work will cause. We appreciate your understanding that this is an important project as we strive to be good stewards in maintaining our special church building that is over 100 years old. We are doing our best to preserve its beauty and to keep it a safe place for our community, and we sincerely appreciate your support. NOTE: We have two additional projects scheduled for the next few weeks. 1) Starting next week (this week now), Vassars Services will begin loading equipment for the installation of new HVAC systems for the music suite/youth room and the Blue Room areas. Most of the installation work is anticipated to be completed during the week of 5/2/2022. There should be minimal impact for others during this installation. 2) On May 9th, Jeter Flooring will start installing replacement flooring in the hallway between the Williams Building and the Blue Room (music suite hallway). This is a 2-day job and should have minimal disruption to any activities in the church. We are asking that no heavy carts or other equipment be rolled over the new flooring until after 5/9/2022, giving at least one week for the new floor to set before any heavy use. Blessings, Donna Soyars, Chair TBC Building & Grounds Committee |
Update from B&G Chair, Donna
I received a call from Clint Hobbs this morning, and here is the update:
- He and his team will be at the church THIS AFTERNOON (Tuesday, 5/10) to begin to set up scaffolding.
- He will be starting work tomorrow morning at 7:30am.
- The lift will arrive likely by next Monday. It will be used to set up the final sections of the scaffolding.
- Clint received the City permit yesterday (hooray!).
- Clint will be meeting with the City inspector probably tomorrow to go over the signage requirements for the sidewalk and street closures. The signs are expensive. That will add to the cost of this job in an unanticipated way. Clint is working with the inspector to do his best to minimize this cost.
- The City is requiring that the Meadow Street closure occur daily from 9am to 3:30pm. That will result in a longer span of time to complete the job. Therefore, it is possible that his crew will work an occasional Saturday to make up for time lost during the Monday-Friday work week. This is different from what we told folks in our letters. It will probably make them happy, so I am not intending to send out separate communications to everyone unless leadership feels that is needed. This will help our TCCC parents, so it would be good to communicate this change to them.
- Whereas we thought that it would be a 3-phased approach, it is now possible that there will be a blending of phases 1 and 2 . I told Clint to do what he needed to do to get this job done well and efficiently, understanding that this is a difficult job to begin with. We will be as flexible as we can be. That means to be alert each day to where they are working and the most safe access points. I still believe and will repeat that using the alley/atrium entrance is the safest entrance for the duration of this project.
- I told Clint to let us know which Saturdays he may need to work so that we can coordinate with April. If there are other events that we need to be aware of that would potentially need result in a need for coordination on Saturdays, please let me know.
Thanks so much for your support as we move forward with this important project.
