Important Updates From Sandra – 9/13

Update on Parking Lot

Capital Campaign “Projects Team Leaders” Ann Peterson and Greg Grabowski have been working over the past many months on research and planning of the parking lot & sewers project. We have met with the City Manager of Kenilworth who has had extensive experience with permeable surfaces.  Currently Greg and Ann are working with several civil engineers to get RFP’s to determine who they will hire to provide indepth analysis on best methods for upgrading our parking lot. Once the civil engineers do their analysis of the lot and provide best recommendations, whether it is non-permeable or permeable, a town hall meeting will be held. Congregation members will have an opportunity to see the outcome of the studies. The parking lot and sewer work is planned for mid-July through August 2020.

The parking lot, as you know, has been deteriorating rapidly over the past two years. Dick Whitaker, Mike Skilton and I did research two years ago on the sewers and repaving.  Funding was not available to do the extensive work required, so this project was proposed to the capital campaign committee as a priority for funding. It is now a priority project.

Over the past several years repairs have been done on the sewers and five years ago we added gravel and repaved. Patching of the indentions was not a feasible option. It would have been a waste of a few thousand dollars that we felt could not be justified if an overall plan was to be part of the capital campaign.

I had a qualified professional plumbing company come out and look at the sewers and do some camera work while they were doing the annual rodding out the sewers. It was their opinion that there is no immediate safety threat to driving over these settling areas and thought the timing of the work next summer would be an acceptable time frame.

Last winter we attempted to block off the icy patches by using brightly colored cones to prevent people from parking where they would slip if ice was on the lot. That did not work well as people parked over the cones. This year we will block off a portion at the south end so that those using the lot cannot park in spaces where there is risk of falling due to frozen water in indented sections.

 

Lobby Ceiling – Following a waiting period post roof installation to ensure the roof repairs are holding I proceeded with the planned ceiling repair. As you know, there were large areas where water seeped (or flowed in at times) causing damage. The remaining work to be done is replacement of tiles in the lobby. This is a Buildings and Grounds budgeted item.

As part of the Capital Campaign remaining upgrades will be done to the lobby. The volunteer project leader is Buildings and Grounds member Johna VanDyke who is working collaboratively with Ann, Greg and me to accomplish a freshening of our lobby space. This will include new floor tiles for the lobby, wing hallway, bathrooms, office and Room 3.

Please call me or email me at srobinson@ucevanston.org with questions you may have or if you just want to talk about Buildings and Grounds projects you are curious about.

Sandra Robinson, Executive Operations Director