28 Aug Elevator project approved

What goes up, must come down!

This is the law of gravity, of course, but it’s also an apt description of what an elevator is supposed to do.

In the August business meeting, our church approved a recommendation from the Trustees to modernize our current elevator. The cost of completing this project is approximately $150,000.

This recommendation is many months in the making, and I’m grateful for Joanna and the Trustee Committee for their due diligence in receiving bids and asking the necessary questions for this approval to occur.

While the vote to modernize the elevator took place last month, it will take several weeks (and months) to order and secure the needed parts before the work can begin. Once everything needed is in place, the estimated time needed to modernize the elevator will be 6-8 weeks. This means that we will not have an elevator for this period of time.

Fortunately, we can take the 50% down payment from our Capital Expenditures account. The remaining half will be due when the project is completed. We will use some funds from our equity and some from our line of credit with Regions Bank to make the final payment.

If you’ve been fortunate enough not to notice, let me inform you that there have been occasions in which our elevator has stopped working. The people who’ve been stuck in the elevator have shared their stories with me and others on staff.

The critical issue is the age of the elevator and that the parts needed to repair it are no longer available. So, it’s imperative to move forward with this modernization process.

You’ll be informed when the actual repair work will begin, and this obviously means that some classes on the upper floors may be temporarily relocated to the floor levels.

I appreciate your support of this needed maintenance of our main building. We all use the elevator, and this is a necessary investment. I’m grateful we already have funds in place to begin the work and know we can all work together to provide the remaining balance at the proper time–DC