From The Executive Operations Director

There is never a quiet moment at UCE. As I write from my balcony office there is the clamor of set-up for Mothers of Multiples as they prepare for their big resale event at UCE tomorrow. Rentals are important to UCE as they provide additional income and an opportunity to share our space with others in the community who are doing good work. Over the summer we provided space for Beth Emet who held 39 services, 13 weekly soup kitchens and 4 bar/bat mitzvah services and parties at UCE. On October 13 Curt’s Café hosts their annual fundraiser in our sanctuary. In October the Democratic Party of Evanston hosts their annual dinner. Each week there are men’s groups, a grief group, and other rentals in various classrooms. Just this last week we had a last minute concert rental that brought 200 people to our sanctuary.

It is a joy and honor to hear the excitement when others in our community walk into our sanctuary and are thrilled they will be holding their event here. Each experience for me is important, each contract negotiation holds meaning. Our rental program provides more than $60,000 in annual income for UCE.

Thank you to Liz Kennedy Eason, our Sexton and Steve Eason our Custodian for cleaning and setting up our church for these rentals, as well as the many meetings, activities and services held in this building. This summer they juggled set ups for our Buddhist meditation group, Beth Emet and UCE happening all in one day or evening. It’s a busy place.

Over the past few months a roofing contractor has been working with me and our Buildings and Grounds co-leads. There was an in-depth review and inspection of the roof going down as far as the underlying base materials of the existing old roof. The contractor pulled together all of the required documents for sending requests for proposals (rfp) to various roofing contractors. The documents outlined recommended materials for our aged roof, including recommendations for a tear-off and roofing materials to be used to provide a long lasting quality roof for our future years.

The consultant evaluated hundreds of detail and material specifications and had to adapt well over a dozen details to meet the unique requirements presented by the Church’s hybrid steel and concrete construction. He also developed a design to fill in the “well” at the roof’s northeast corner to eliminate an awkward drainage configuration. It has been no simple task to figure out the best approach for a quality permanent solution for this roof.

Unfortunately, we are in great competition for roofing contractors as the building industry is strong currently and individuals and companies are spending money to upgrade their buildings.

Each of the five contractors who bid had work before we had an opportunity to respond to the bids. As we speak additional contractors are being sought. One option has been proposed by one of our choice contractors. That is to seal the roof with a protective coating for the winter season and resume work in the spring. These details are being worked out this week. It is our hope to get started before cold weather sets in. This has been a challenging, time consuming process that has required weekly communication with our consultant and our team.

The automatic doors have been delayed due to a review process in the permitting process. The goal for installation was ingathering or near the beginning of the church year. However, as construction projects can go, there were delays and hoops to jump through that were not expected. Mike Skilton and Julia Takarada provided revised drawings of the doors to meet requirements of the City of Evanston Preservation Council, thus an administrative approval has now been granted. This permit is ready. The second hurdle is the building permit which will be let as soon as our electrician and the door contractor have satisfied the City’s request for information. The electrician just called me to confirm that he is providing that information today. Julia is working with Stanley, our door contractor, to connect with the Building Department. Once that is done I will re-sign the contract based on the changes made for the Preservation Council and Julia Takarada will order the custom doors.

Patches have been made to the parking lot and will continue to be made. It is not wise for us to do a complete resurfacing of the lot at this time. Once the Capital Campaign goes forward funding will hopefully be approved for a complete upgrade of sewers below the surface, additional substructure materials built up, and then a new blacktop surface with restriping.

Thank you for your patience as we strive to make improvements to our aging building.

If you have questions or want to talk with me at any time regarding administration, finance, buildings, rentals or other topics, feel free to visit my office or email me at srobinson@ucevanston.org