Special Meeting of the Congregation on Dec. 7 right after worship!

Our Property Team & Church Council are ready to bring a final proposal for improvements in our new and old basement areas. Here are the basics:

For the 1952 basement area: The old portion of the basement has a women’s restroom, which is obsolete, since we have a new women’s room. We propose to convert that into an accessible restroom that anyone can use. The old men’s room is inadequate, but an overhaul of that space would be expensive and difficult. By re-doing the old women’s room, we’ll address basic restroom needs. The old basement flooring is asbestos tile, which is showing signs of wear. Due to the safety concerns with asbestos, that needs to be removed properly and replaced. Acoustic ceiling tile is deteriorating and will be replaced as part of the project. Lighting will be replaced with LED fixtures.

For the 2003 basement area: When we built the new addition, we left the basement unfinished for cost reasons. The lighting was meant to be temporary and is not great. Since 2003, we’ve tiled the floor, painted the walls, added a great kitchen, and a modern Women’s restroom. What remains is to finish the ceiling (both for improving the appeal of that space, and for better acoustics for when a large group of people use that space.)

What is the need? The space is used regularly by our quilters, Sunday school students, confirmation classes, and dartball team. We use the basement for funeral luncheons, large fellowship gatherings, baby showers, baptism lunches, the occasional rehearsal dinner, and birthday parties. Beside membership usage, 4H brings in a large group monthly, and AA has a small group in the space every Tuesday. Making the space more appealing, safe, and accessible will lead to greater use of that space, and will make a much better impression on our guests.

Cost estimate: The Property Team originally shared 1 bid, assembled by church member, Scott Christianson, who has worked for years as a construction expeditor with a commercial contractor. That bid, with a few updates, is at $77,000 to which we propose adding a 15% contingency. Total project cost which contingency would be $87,000. For comparison and at the request of several members, 2 more bids were obtained, one at $104k, one at $170k for the same scope of work, without any contingency.

Proposed funding strategy: We would need to raise about $60,000 total in new money from your pledges and gifts. Council recommends matching your gifts of with up to $28,000 of undesignated monies from our Memorial Fund. This would get us to our total project cost including contingency. We already have 3 households that have committed a total of $5,500 towards that goal!

Should the congregation approve this project, the work can be financed initially via borrowing from the church General Fund, with congregational approval.

When could this get going? The project can begin after your approval on December 7^th. Scott Christianson, who oversaw our new kitchen and new bathroom projects previously, has graciously agreed to oversee this project at no charge to the congregation. Some of the work will be done by volunteers and we’ll coordinate with the different groups that use that space, to minimize inconvenience during the project duration. We see this as a great opportunity to finish the 2003 addition, fix up the 1952 basement, and do so in a very cost-effective manner.

These are the two questions we will bring to you for a vote:

Does the congregation approve this proposal to finish the 2003 section and renovate the 1952 section of the lower level?
If the congregation approves of moving forward with the project, does the congregation approve of beginning the project using monies borrowed from the General Fund?

Thank you for joining us on Dec. 7 immediately following the church service, when you can help make the final decision! We can do this-and finish what was started 23 years ago!