Our professionals have been working to revise and finalize the plans for our future Church to meet the code requirements of the City of Bryan’s Planning & Zoning. The redesign aims to find cost reductions to stay within our budget and to safeguard the original design goals of our Sanctuary. Some areas of concern are:
Humidity control within the building by the HVAC systems while meeting the City of Bryan’s outside air intake requirements. A solution being discussed is to have windows that could be opened in the classrooms, the offices, and the Multipurpose room.
The initial plans called for one large commercial outdoor unit for the Sanctuary with appropriately designed ductwork to minimize mechanical noise entering the sanctuary. The proposed Value plan would create several smaller A/C units within the Sanctuary space & less well-designed ductwork with the risk of significantly increased noise. Ken Appelt is working with the professionals to keep the original Sanctuary A/C ductwork plans as designed by the acoustical engineering team.
Ken also brought up the question that the A/C unit to the offices might be better served by a more efficient higher SEER rated unit since the offices would have more use during the week than the Sanctuary. He is working on the answer to this question.
To honor Kathi’s late mom, Pat Childress, the Appelt’s have pledged an additional amount of money beyond their generous matching fund. This will be used in the Church building project with an acknowledgement to Pat’s many years of service to Religious Education at the UUCBV. A plaque will be hung in the RE area in Pat’s honor.
Because the details in the plans are so critical to building the new church we have longed for, the groundbreaking date of April 10 will need to be delayed. We need to get our plans finalized, to have our contract with the contractor reviewed and revised as needed by our attorney, and our contract signed. We also need to turn in our expanded church insurance with the details required from the finalized plans. The insurance company requires that paperwork be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to work being started.
Please be patient. The SST wants to get this right! -Kathy Wheeler