On Nov 15, 2020 I talked with a representative from Church Mutual Insurance about our tentative groundbreaking in January. She expressed a desire to have us turn in the cost estimates for the building project during December as our insurance renews in mid- December & they would like us to roll construction insurance into our current policy all at once. Deb Wilson & I will work together to fill out the appropriate forms.
On February 18, 2020 John Ivy, Ken Appelt and I met at the 1719 E 29th St to try to locate a permissible area for a temporary church sign. The expense for the sign is being donated.
On Nov 24, 2020 Brian Gibbs, Veronica Morgan, Ronnie Keys, Ken Appelt, John Ivy & I attended a ZOOM meeting to discuss changes to the plans for the property. Most of the discussion was about saving $58,000 by using asphalt instead of concrete for our driveway and parking areas. There will be a concrete apron into the lot with curbs and drainage areas adjacent to the curb. The trash bin will be under concrete. Adjacent to the trash area there will be concrete a few feet out from the curb & 4 cuts in the curb allowing water drainage towards the back of the lot. There will be cost savings changes but the footprint of the building, the roof & skylight will be preserved. Most of the cuts will not be visibly noticeable. We will not know the specific cuts until our professionals are finished with their redesigns & quotes later this month.
Since we will be needing to access money for the property bills, the BOT approved (and this is in process as CD’s mature) rolling maturing CD’s into staggered US Treasury bills. This gives excellent security of principal. Interest rates are very low at this time.
The SST also approved the redesign expenses we knew we would have in downgrading the price of the Church construction. This is within the budget approved at the Congregational meeting.
The SST is in the midst of figuring out how many church chairs (mainly for the Sanctuary) and what accessories we need for these chairs. Pact Design has sent us renderings of chair placements for different rooms. The SST has decided to wait until sometime in 2021 to decide on the fabric and the wood stain of the chairs (time ok’d by the sales rep). The number of chairs and how they are decked out is the topic of discussion and we need to put a deposit down for 30% of the contracted chairs before January in order to freeze the price. Delivery will be before the end of 2021.
Respectfully,
-Kathy Wheeler, Chair, SST