Operations Report – April 2013

I am sure everyone is looking forward to Spring — by that I mean the weather — not the vernal equinox. Winter seems to be determined to hang on this year rather tenaciously. Despite this, we are beginning to make our plans for the arrival of warm weather.

Spring Clean-up:

The date reserved for Spring Clean-up is May 18^thwith a rain date of June 1st. Now would be a great time to mark your calendars for this traditional event. We not only get a lot of work done, but gather in community and camaraderie. We will have “lite” & heavy duty jobs, inside and outside work, clean-hands and dirty hands chores and, as always, a great lunch. Please don’t miss out. Mark your calendars and plan to join us for a “fun work time”!

Improvements:

Our program of improvements is on-going. New progress has been made in the following areas:

- The Nursery is now completely redone with painting throughout.

- Painting of the coat closet which is near the Nursery.

- All of our offering plates have been refinished and look great due to the efforts of Jose.

- We offer a very big thank you to SavATree of Bedford for recent work they did at the church and in the East Yard Cemetery. They kindly donated the use of their bucket truck for the work that was done. We are very grateful for this generosity.

New projects include refinishing the outside South Entrance near room 1, and refinishing the greeting table which is located in the Narthex.

 

Maintenance:

We have had a problem with raccoons which are visiting the grounds during the daylight hours which is very unusual. One has been trapped and another got away before we could get the proper people on sight. Raccoons can be dangerous. If you see one, please let one of the staff members know so that they can call the right people to try to trap the animal. Please do not try to feed such an animal.

The propane water heater has been repaired and we have good hot water once again throughout the facility. A faucet which was leaking has been replaced in a preschool bathroom. A leaky faucet in the bathroom near the office has been repaired as well.

Our goal is to keep our facilities and grounds in first-class condition. If you see something that needs repair or improvement, please do not hesitate to bring it to the attention of the Operations Commission. You may contact any member of the Commission or me.

Thanks to all for helping us to keep things in good shape and for volunteering when we call for assistance. Everyone’s effort is very much appreciated! Think spring and think about our upcoming Spring Clean-up. Thanks!

Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

 

Operations – March 2013

While away on vacation during the Month of February, I have been hoping for a break in the weather at home. However, it looks like Winter will be hanging on for a while. Most of this month’s news from Operations is the result of work Jose has been doing during his “facilities’ improvement periods”.

Improvements:

In addition to the improvements regarding the new cabinets, hand-sanitizer and picture on the fireplace wall, Jose has finished all of the painting in the Library/Lounge. This includes the ceiling and all walls. We have also installed a coat-tree.

Estimates have been obtained for reupholstering the cushions for the “This Ends Up” furniture. Operations will be taking up this improvement possibility at its March meeting. We can get a better quality fabric at a very competitive price for all of the removable cushions. Options for the sofa will be explored.

The rehab of the Nursery is nearly complete. The remainder of the trim should be painted and the ceiling and all walls have been spackled and painted. Upon completion of the Nursery, we will paint the coat closet next to the Nursery.

Also on our improvement schedule are the outside doors near Room #1.

We have had a rascal raccoon frequenting the Church yards during daytime hours. Help was sought from the Town, but the animal control people concluded it was not sick. They recommended we contact a company to have it humanely trapped. With so many children and adults on the property each day, we decided to have it trapped and removed.

Our main propane water heater had some problems in early February. A switch on the circulator motor was replaced as was a back-flow preventer. Adjustments were made to the two regulators and now working properly.

We were recently offered six long tables with folding legs and have accepted this gift. A big Thank You to Jack Shaughnessy for picking up the tables and delivering them to the Church. Our plan is to sort out some of our damaged tables and replace them with the newly contributed tables. A very big Thank You to the donor of these tables.

Despite the continuing nasty weather, we are looking ahead to spring and have set the date of May 18^th for our traditional clean-up and spruce-up of our facilities and grounds. Please mark your calendars!  Our rain date is June 1^st.

We continue to strive to keep our facilities and grounds in first-class condition. If you see something that needs repair or improvement, please do not hesitate to bring it to the attention of the Operations Commission. You may contact any member of the Commission or me. Thanks to all for helping us to keep things in good shape and for volunteering when we call for assistance. Everyone’s effort is very much appreciated!

Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

 

Operations Update

We completed our last Work Party for the year today. A very big Thank You is passed along to Skip Mahnke, David Cruikshank, Don Blaney, Ed de Jong and Bill Friscia for helping me with the final winterization of the main campus of our Church. We trimmed back the rest of the grasses, took the refuse to Yorktown Recycling and spread one load of much along the center island of the North Parking lot. Our very good news on Friday evening was that our Landscaper, Mike Androsko, of Androsko Landscaping had completely cleaned up the storm debris in the East Yard Cemetery. This very welcome work made our task much easier this morning and eliminated the need for another work party on December 8th.

Another big Thank You is passed along to Jose Sandavol who worked with me on Monday & Tuesday to strengthen the underpinnings of the Chancel in anticipation of tomorrow’s Concert.

We also have installed new “risers” on either side of the Chancel for this Sunday’s Concert. These risers will allow the choir to spread out more and allow all members to see Director, Simona Frenkel. These risers are a big addition to the Church and will be used for concerts for many years to come. I also made additional risers for the “main stage” (i.e. Chancel) so that the back row of choir members can be seen and can see their director. All of these additions will enhance the enjoyment of the spectacular concerts that Simona and our great choir perform.

Another addition to our great facilities is in the making. We have established a design which will significantly enhance the “kitchenette nook” which is part of the Library/Lounge. The existing kitchenette nook is of a very old style which dates back to the 1950′s and is only partially functional. The old style cabinets, stove top and sink will be removed and replaced with oak faced cabinets with substantial counter space. Several other accoutrement are being considered to further enhance this space and bring it up-to-date. This work will commence this month. The new cabinets are already on site. We will do this work in-house to minimize costs.

We recently had one of our heating circulators spring a leak and this necessitated a repair by our plumbers. Our new fuel oil contract is in place with Burke Heat and the price is slightly less than last year. Routing maintenance continues throughout our facilities. In a word, things are in good shape. Overall, I am very happy with all that we have achieved this year and look forward to continuing our progress in the coming year.

We wish all members and friends of our Church Best Wishes for a Joyous, Prayerful and Happy Holiday Season! Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations Commission & Facilities Coordinator.

SuperStorm Sandy

As all have noted, we have had quite a week with Hurricane Sandy! We took many precautions to protect the Church property and I am very happy with the results. Our actions before & after the storm are listed below:

1. The shutters on the Sanctuary windows were firmly fastened with cross braces so that the shutters could not vibrate loose. This protected both the shutters and the very fragile window sashes. Following the storm, all of the special braces were removed and stored for future use.
2. Sump pumps were checked to be sure they were working properly before the storm and the basements were dry. Both sump pumps were recently replaced. Check valves were installed in the lines so that we do not waste energy with water in the lines flowing back into the sump pump wells. Fortunately, we had relatively little rain with this storm so the ground water that usually comes into the basements did not materialize. Good news for us during the extended power outage.
3. The freezers were emptied and most of the frozen food was brought to our home to keep it frozen. We lost a few items which thawed on the first day of the power outage. Virtually all of the frozen goods were saved and have now been returned to the Church freezers.
4. We had quite a few large branches come down from the tree by the shed and along the East berm in the North parking lot. All of this debris has been taken to Yorktown Recycling so the campus looks pretty good following this huge storm.
5. The furnaces, circulators & copier were shut down during the power outage so that any power surges upon restoration of power would not affect the motors or electronics. Following restoration of power on Saturday morning, all was switched on again and no problems have shown up.
6. We lost quite a few shingles and peak-caps on the roofs of the C/E bldg. and Fellowship Hall. Jose and I were able to replace all on Friday. No interior problems have been found since.
7. We have had one of the 10 ft long copper leaders from the Sanctuary gutters come down during the storm. We tried to restore this leader, but could not do so safely. Therefore, our good friend, Tom Clemmens of Clemco Constrution, will reinstall this leader as soon as his emergency workload eases up.
8. While not related to the storm, we have begun refinishing several of our offering plates which had gotten somewhat dilapidated. Those at the Service on Sunday may have notice our use of very old offering plates. This is the reason for using the old ones. Jose is doing a great job on these and we will have four of them restored by Sunday, 11/11. We plan to refinish all of the good offering plates.

 

We continue to strive to keep our facilities in top-notch shape. This takes a great deal of effort behind the scenes and we are indebted to all of those who help and those who bring problems to our attention. Our facilities are used by huge numbers of people each week as openness to the community is part of the Mission Work of our Church. Please let me know if anything looks amiss. We will try to correct problems immediately. Thanks! Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

News from Operations

A very big Thank You is offered to the 15 stalwarts who participated in our Fall Work Party on October 20^th. It was gratifying and a real pleasure to have Craig Hibben accompany me for a walk around the main campus to plan the work for our Fall Work Party. Craig’s advice was very helpful. Thanks, Craig!

We accomplished much and our main campus looks great and is pretty much prepared for the Winter season. We do have another smaller work party scheduled for December 8^th to cut down the grasses and take the refuse to Yorktown Recycling.

Those participating in the October 20^th work party were:

Peter Marsh           John Chessa                 Sue Nelson

Judy Chessa          Carol Annacone           Mable Seymour

Dick Seymour       Squeegee Mills             Marsha Henderson

Dave Ramage        Ed de Jong                     Bill Friscia

Julie Friscia

Preschool Fence: Operations and the Preschool shared the cost for replacing the portion of fencing from the preschool entrance to the Butterfly Garden. The existing posts were saved, but a new bottom rail was added to strengthen the overall fence.

Routine Maintenance: Many items of routine maintenance have been done since the last online report from Operations. These include: a new exit light in room #17, a new ballast in one of the driveway bollard-lights, adjustments to many door stops, replacement bulbs for burned-out lights, new window shades in rooms # 1 & 16, thorough cleaning of the grease interceptor in the kitchen, regular testing of the gas stoves in the kitchen including verifying correct oven temperatures, and much touch-up painting throughout our facilities.

Fuel Oil: A new fuel oil contract has been put in place with Burke Heating for the 2012-2013 fuel season.

Maintenance Reserve Analysis: Another update has been completed to our Maintenance Reserve Analyses. This work helps us to understand future needs and costs associated with the maintenance and operation of our facilities.

Budgets: Work continues on the Operations’ and Church budgets.

Custodial Work: We also offer a big Thank You to John Harrigan for substituting for Jose while he was on vacation to his home country. John did an excellent job and we very much appreciate his assistance. Jose has returned and we are very happy that he is back with us!

We continue to strive to keep our facilities in top-notch shape. This takes a great deal of effort behind the scenes and we are indebted to all of those who help and those who bring problems to our attention. Our facilities are used by huge numbers of people each week as openness to the community is part of the Mission Work of our Church. Please let me know if anything looks amiss. We will try to correct problems immediately. Thanks! Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

Memorial Fund Used to Pave the Rear Driveway

Funds from the Jeremiah Dineen Memorial Fund were used to help pay for the recent paving of the driveway connecting our two parking lots. This was a project long in coming to fruition.

We thank all those involved -  from Jerry who originally dealt with FPCY plans in 1997, to Tricia Dineen who carried on communication with the Yorktown Board, to Dick Seymour, chair of Operations, who persevered through thick and thin, and all Operations members, especially Peter Marsh who has special expertise in such matters.

Barbara Darragh, for the Operations Commission

What’s New with Operations In August?

1. A big thank you to the many who have signed up to be Stewards of our gardens. Plaques have been installed showing who is tending each garden. I also want to recognized Craig Hibben who designed all of our gardens and tended them pretty much by himself for over 20 years. A plaque is in the process of being made recognizing Craig as the “Designer and Shepherd of All of Our Gardens”. When completed, this plaque will be mounted on the large pine tree between the Sanctuary and the entrance to the Gathering Space for all to see. Thank you, Craig, for service well beyond the call of duty. We are anxious for you to get well again so that we can see you in the gardens!
2. New Air Conditioning Units have been installed in the main office, the Pastor’s office and the Treasurer’s office. This brings these areas of our facilities up-to-date with efficient air conditioning equipment. The older window units will soon be removed and stored as spares for other areas in our buildings.
3. We have completed our paving project which was long in the plan for the driveway leading from the large paved parking lot to the North Parking lots. The old gravel driveway required extensive maintenance and created much dust. The new paved driveway has been sloped properly toward the
   Cemetery so that it will drain onto our own property. We have installed four “speed-bumps” which have helped greatly to slow down the vehicular traffic through the property. Since installing the speed-bumps, we have not seen drivers “cutting through” our property to avoid congestion at the Rt’s 132/202 traffic light. Hopefully, this will continue to be the case.
4. Considerable routine maintenance has continued throughout our facilities. This includes painting of the Gathering Space, kitchen and preschool areas. Much touch-up painting has been done to keep everything looking good. All floors have been waxed and look sparkling fresh. Thanks to Jose for his continued maintenance efforts and thanks to Lisa Eliasson for helping with much of the painting in the preschool areas. We are most appreciative of both Jose’s and Lisa’s efforts!
5. Thanks to Kathy Anderson and Kim Wertz for their excellent work on cleaning-up and sprucing-up the Youth Room. This room now takes on a fresh new look. We will install new vertical window blinds in this room as well as putting in a new electrical receptacle for a future wall-mounted TV.
6. Another big thank you: this time to Bud Coccodrilli and Carl Anderson for their great work on repairing and staining the fence along our newly paved driveway.
7. We have recently experienced someone writing graffiti on the walls and partitions of the Men’s bathroom. We found it necessary to involve the Yorktown Police Dept and are continuing to investigate the source of this damage. We ask that if anyone “sees something to say something”.

We continue to strive to keep our facilities in top-notch shape. This takes a great deal of effort behind the scenes and we are indebted to all of those who help. Our facilities are used by huge numbers of people each week as openness to the community is part of the Mission Work of our Church. Please let me know if anything looks amiss. We will try to correct problems immediately. Thanks! Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations & Facilities Coordinator

What’s New with Operations – June, 2012

We experienced excellent success with both our Spring Clean-up and our Home Front Project on May 5. Overall, we had more than 110 people participate. This effort was followed the next Saturday, May 12 with over 30 Boy Scouts & leaders helping with the weeding & mulching of the island in the North Parking Lots and the berm. Thanks to everyone for a really outstanding effort!

New windows have now been installed in the doors of Rooms 16 and 17 with the excellent help of Fran Proceller. These windows eliminate a safety concern and makes it more convenient to know whether the room is occupied before entering.

Jose has completed painting of the entrance hallway to the office. The color scheme is the same as in the office which helps to tie-together our entrance and office. Jose has also completed painting of the ramp door to the Sanctuary as it had begun to look rather nicked and chipped. Overall, Jose has been doing an excellent job on all of our on-going rehab jobs throughout the facilities. Thanks, Jose!

The Home Front project is very near completion. I want to thank Matt Hager, Bud Coccodrilli, Skip Mahncke, Ian Spence and Bill Friscia for helping me with several steps to complete this project. I have a couple more to go, but can see the end shortly. I believe the owners are very pleased with the outcome of our project.

We are pleased that many volunteers have signed-up as “owners”, or Stewards, of our various gardens. We have plaques being made which will acknowledge the Stewards of each of our gardens. These volunteers have accepted the responsibility to maintain their gardens throughout the year. Advice will be given by myself and Craig Hibben on changes any of the Stewards recommend. I know the gardens are in good hands in Craig’s absence.

If anything looks amiss, please let me know. If an improvement is indicated, please discuss that with me as well.

Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations

What’s New With Operations – May, 2012

We experienced excellent success with both our Spring Clean-up and our Home Front Project on May 5th. Overall, we had more than 110 people participate. This effort was followed by over 30 Boy Scouts & Leaders helping with the weeding & mulching of the island in the North Parking Lots and the berm. Thanks to everyone for a really outstanding effort!

New windows have now been installed in the doors of Rm’s 16 & 17 with the excellent help of Fran Proceller. These windows eliminate a safety concern and makes it more convenient to know whether a room is occupied before entering.

Jose has completed painting of the entrance hallway to the office. The color scheme is the same as the office which helps to tie-together our entrance & office. Jose has also completed painting of the ramp door to the Sanctuary as it had begun to look rather nicked and chipped. Overall, Jose has been doing an excellent job on all of our on-going rehab jobs throughout the facilities. Thanks, Jose!

The Home Front Project is very near completion. I want to thank Matt Hager, Bud Coccodrilli, Skip Mahncke, Ian Spence and Bill Friscia for helping me with the several steps to complete this project. I have a couple more to go, but can see the end shortly. I believe the owners are very pleased with the outcome of our project.

We are pleased that many volunteers have signed-up as “owners”, or Stewards, of our various gardens. We have plaques being made which will recognize the Stewards of each of our gardens. These volunteers have accepted the responsibility to maintain their gardens throughout the year. Advice will be given by myself and Craig Hibben on any changes any of the Stewards recommend. I know the gardens are in good hands in Craig’s absence.

 

Should anything look amiss in our facilities, please let me know. If an improvement is indicated, please let me know about that as well. Thanks! Dick Seymour for the Operations Commission.

 

Operations – May, 2012

Think Spring! Our annual Spring Work Party is coming up May 5. We also have the Home Front Project on the same day. Participants can do either or both. Bring tools, gloves, garden tools, wheel barrows, pruners, shovels, pitchforks and the like.  Lunch will be served in Fellowship Hall for both Spring Clean-up and Home Front participants. Please bring a dish to share.

We have installed a new Xerox 7545 WorkCenter. This gives us color copying capability with folding and stapling capability as well. Our old copier was over 10 years old and that is ancient in the era of copying technology.

New hand dryers will soon be installed in our main bathrooms. The current dryers were installed when we did our addition and had a long life, but one recently failed and it was too expensive to repair. Hence, we decided to replace both.

A new window has been put into the Office Door. This helps with safety and provides a more welcoming aura. Similar door windows are planned for Rooms 16 and 17. Thanks to Fran Proceller for helping with this project.

All of our office computers have now been connected both to Verizon’s new FIOS service and have been tied in with our new copy work center.

Jose has continued his improvement projects which are done on Fridays. The Gathering Space has been painted and rearranged to provide more open space and a more welcoming atmosphere. Other painting has been done throughout the buildings. A big thanks to Jose for this continuing effort.

Further improvements are being investigated as well. These are: rehab of our main unpaved driveway, annual dressing of our two north parking lots and air conditioning for our newly rehabbed office.

Routine maintenance continues throughout our facilities.

If anything looks amiss, please let me know. If an improvement is indicated, please discuss that with me as well.

Dick Seymour, Chair of Operations

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