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The St. John's Capital Campaign Update – September 2020

"Affirming our Welcome: Building in Faith" 

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Thank you again to all who have donated to the “Affirming our Welcome: Building in Faith” Capital Campaign. Your generosity and your ongoing support is enabling us to make many important upgrades to our facility, which will help us live more fully into our call to serve God, each other, and our community. Even though we are not currently coming together in physical space, we will return to our church home at some point, so we are continuing to move forward with the important work of the campaign to ensure that we are able to meet all our goals for these very important enhancements.

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Financial Position/Grants and Loans

Thanks to many of you who have made pledge payments, we have received approximately $86,000 during the first eight months of the year. Coming on the heels of the stellar response to the ‘first fruits’ offering in December, and in the midst of a world-wide quarantine, that is an excellent pace for donations. In addition, we are pleased to announce that we have received one grant from the diocese for $15,000 to support the project, and a second grant from the trustees of the diocese for $25,000, bringing our campaign total to approximately $ 925,000. The diocese has also approved a low interest line of credit for up to $200,000 to help facilitate our cash flow as we move forward with the implementation phase.

Roof Repairs Completed
We are very happy to report that our roof repair project is complete! After a slight interruption due to quarantine, the JD Candler Roofing Company has completed the roofing repair project. With a building as large and complex as ours, we will always have a need for some ongoing roofing work, but through your generosity this important project has helped to secure the future of the entire facility and will extend the life of many of the roof surfaces. This project included replacement of the roof above the chapel and chapel entrance: 200 composite tiles were replaced by hand on the sanctuary roof; the A-frame trim boards have been clad in aluminum; significant repairs have been done on the library roof; and many other minor repairs throughout the building have addressed other areas of concern. This work was estimated to cost $ 75,000, but fortunately the final cost came in at $63,420.

HVAC Project Almost Completed

We are nearing completion of the heating and cooling upgrades including replacing the original boiler and adding cooling to the Sanctuary, Chapel, and Jatho Hall. Fire and Ice Mechanical Co. is implementing this project based on our engineers plans and specifications. This project was estimated to cost approximately $ 425,000, but the contract for this work (not including a contingency for unexpected conditions) is $ 326,000. We hope that this project will be complete sometime in September. You may have noticed the exterior portion of this work at the corner of the building near 11 Mile and Woodward, where the new boiler and heat pumps are located.  Once the full installation of this equipment is complete, this area will be fenced in.

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Retaining Wall/Ramp at the Woodward Entrance –

The Vestry approved repair of the retaining wall along the sidewalk and ramp on the Woodward entrance of the church, which is an important component of our overall accessibility project. In order to reduce the scope of work to match our resources, the larger project proposed for this area was not included in our final plan ( a handicap accessible, sloped drop-off area). The Vestry did include a line in the Capital Campaign budget for $30,000 to perform necessary repairs to the retaining wall and sidewalk in this area. We solicited three bids over the summer and the Vestry approved a bid for $11,300 to complete the project, significantly under the projected budget.

 

Accessibility Project On Track
For the accessibility project (entry vestibule, elevator, etc.), we still plan to continue the design process sometime in the fall, which will allow us to “put the project out to bid” late next winter. Our hope is that this project will be complete by mid-fall in 2021. We are not planning any significant changes to this project – the entry vestibule and elevator are still central to our ability to welcome all to our space – but rest assured that in the next phase of design we will be incorporating measures to enhance safe and hygienic access to the building in response to what we have learned recently about communicable diseases.

If you are new to the parish or have not made a pledge to the campaign and would like to make a pledge or a contribution, please contact one of us or a member of the clergy, or you can make a donation here anytime. The fundraising campaign continues through December 2022.
 

We are so grateful for this community, and for the prayers, financial support, and hard work we have witnessed from all of you. Collectively we are demonstrating the love and resilience that has always been at the core of this amazing faith community, but has been called upon in recent days in ways we could not have imagined. We are grateful to all of you for your care for one another and your stewardship that will help to ensure another century of service to God and our neighbors at the corner of 11 Mile and Woodward!

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Marie Donigan, Capital Campaign Co-Chair

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Will Wittig, Capital Campaign Co-Chair, Senior Warden

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