INSIDE St. Luke's Episcopal Church - October 2011
Warden’s Report
2011 is shaping up to be the ‘Year of Buildings and Grounds’ for St. Luke’s Church, as we lay new cornerstones to secure the future of our beautiful -- and old -- buildings. Our venerable church is large and historic (original cornerstone laid in 1889) and in any normal year, routine maintenance at St. Luke’s – roof repair, for instance - represents a major project. This year – in part because we couldn’t afford to put them off any longer-- we have three.
Fire Protection
The project nearest to completion is a fully modernized and upgraded Fire Protection system. If you walk through the Assembly Hall, which by itself is the size of most churches, or along the hallways in any of the three floors of the Parish House where we conduct Sunday School, where we rent out commercial space to tenants, and where we have our music suite for choir practice, you will notice the smoke detectors on the ceilings and the red alarm boxes going up on the walls. (The Assembly Hall space actually has a laser beam that runs across the top to detect smoke.) We are more than halfway finished with this project and are pleased to report we will be ready for final walk through and inspections by the Montclair Fire Department in the next six weeks. This project was a must for our safety and cost approximately $66,000. It brings us a state-of-the art fire protection system the envy of any equivalent space. We are thrilled to celebrate its near completion.
Accessibility
As you know, another urgent priority for us is making the church and Assembly Hall handicap accessible. On July 31st, more than 35 members of St. Luke’s gathered to discuss parish accessibility with local architect Paul Sionas and reached some consensus on our long term plan (the Master Accessibility Plan) which, in keeping with the theology and welcoming philosophy of St. Luke’s is meant to offer nothing less than full universal access to all parts of our facility. This includes handicap accessible restrooms and an elevator to reach all floors of the Parish House. Sionas is designing this Master Plan to include all estimated costs. However, given the large expenses involved, it is beyond the scope of our resources to complete the full project in one year, so in addition to the design of the Master Plan, the meeting prioritized a plan to immediately bring universal access on a cost-effective basis 1) to the Assembly Hall and 2) from the church to the Assembly Hall. The architect has been working on this plan for over a month and we are expecting his detailed plans, with estimated costs, imminently. The vestry hopes to approve funding for one of the plans within the next six weeks and to begin breaking ground as soon as possible. We would love to cut the ribbon on a new ramp by Easter. In a future letter, when we have more details, we will communicate the cost of this project after the contracts have been bidded out, but at this point we conservatively estimate the immediate – call it Phase 1 -- project will be more than the Fire Protection Plan, up to $100,000.
Heating & Cooling
As if these two building improvements were not enough, last December our antiquated heating and cooling system lurched to an end. We currently have one old boiler on its last legs providing us inefficient heat. Heating and cooling our facilities efficiently is a challenge and the investment will be costly. We have drafty spaces—the sanctuary, the Assembly Hall, the choir room-- old heat-leaking (but beautiful) windows that would be a huge expense to replace. We have hired a reputable commercial consulting group to design plans that offer us a range of four options at different price points. We expect to hear from them in the next week or two and present the vestry with options that offer various trade-offs to heat and cool our spaces most efficiently at the most reasonable cost. We estimate the expense of this project may reach $200,000.
As we are a parish that is still turning a corner to financial sustainability, we still run a deficit, a deficit that is stubborn in part because of our aging facilities. For instance, given the price increases in fuel oil last year, it cost us $60,000— well above what we had budgeted-- to heat and cool our facilities. By switching to natural gas and to a modernized system we hope to reduce those expenses, perhaps dramatically.
In the end, though, these are capital investments a modern facility requires and which we could no longer put off. How do we pay for these projects? To underscore the importance of pledging and stewardship in the life of a parish, in this economic time that is challenging all of us, we are the fortunate recipients of two timely bequests – one for $200,000-- that will go a long way to help us to defray our immediate infrastructure expenses. The rest we are paying for out of our savings and through our usual plate and pledge.
Just as we all ‘own’ these improvements as parishioners at St. Luke’s by virtue of our financial support, so too do we address them by virtue of a lot of volunteered hours of dedicated service. Not one of these projects could be completed without parishioners volunteering their time and energy and expertise. Among all of these volunteers, we would like to single out Will Hobbie, who stands out in this momentous year and St. Luke’s owes him a special thanks. More often than not, it has been Will who has been the point person leading these initiatives. When the boiler went out, it was Will’s number on the speed dial. He is always available with a set of keys to meet the contractors coming to the building and has been relentless in seeking out the smartest responses to meet St. Luke’s many infrastructure challenges in the last year. Will offers an incredible example to all of us as to how one person can make a difference for all of us in our community. We hope to make it easy for everyone in our congregation to know of the many various committees or opportunities to serve – from buildings and grounds to teaching Sunday School. Everyone’s input is sought and everyone’s participation is valued.
Thankfully, at St. Luke’s we have many other projects and initiatives to report on—among them the Parish Listening Process—which we will address in out next letter—that are much more about celebrating and meeting our spiritual needs. But every house of worship has its nuts and bolts that need attending to and this letter offers our attempt to do that. The Wardens, the Rector and the Vestry hope that regular letters such as this one will keep you better informed about all aspects of our worship together and offer another invitation to all of you to deepen your understanding and broaden your commitment to St. Luke’s