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Saint
Saviour’s Episcopal Church
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350
Sound Beach Avenue
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Old
Greenwich, Connecticut 06870
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Saint
Saviour’s Episcopal Church
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350
Sound Beach Avenue
|
||
Old
Greenwich, Connecticut 06870
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An update from the junior warden
Over the next few months, you will see some changes in the physical plant of Saint Saviour's. There will also be some changes you will not see unless you happen to like crawling in dark, damp places. We continue to take steps to improve, enhance, and maintain our buildings, and we think these steps will support important program developments as well as preserve the physical structures. Many of these changes, unfortunately, will be expensive, and they have been put off for too long. We are always looking for additional bodies and minds to help, so please give me a call if you are willing to help in any way.
Here are some pending property and maintenance projects the vestry will be addressing over the next few months.
1. We are exploring modest changes to the Social Room that would create a dedicated space for Godly Play. The changes would include installing a new floor, painting the room, removing the furniture at the far end of the room (where the piano is), installing simple shelving for Godly Play materials, and installing a room divider to separate the dedicated Godly Play area from the rest of the room.
2. We are exploring changes to the kitchen, including sale of the big gas stove. In the short-term, we may replace the stove with one that works while we consider other upgrades to the space.
3. A fire wall will be installed between the large dance room and the adjoining storage space, and the heating ducts that currently end in the storage area will be extended into the studio.
4. We are assessing whether we need to replace the main sewer line that runs between the lower level of the church and Sound Beach Avenue. We have ongoing and expensive maintenance with our current pipe which is old, cracked, and very easily clogged.
5. We will fix the brick paths that lead up to the front of the church and the path in the chapel garden. There is a significant amount of water pooling at point where the main path meets the stairs, and this water seems to drain into the lower level of the building (the women's room and the sextons' storage closet). The path in the chapel garden is very uneven.
6. We are researching installing a hand rail along the steps into the garden from the church porch.
7. Work will be done on the window wells, on either side of the front of the church, to try to prevent water from pooling here (and ending up in the lower level of the building).
8. Corner drains and possibly sump pumps will be installed in the lower level bathrooms. Better drainage and a new sump pump may be installed in the sextons' closet and in the furnace room (where we have also had significant flooding after heavy rains).
9. The parking lot lines will be repainted, putting in clear directional arrows and a cross-walk at the end of the path. This is to improve parking lot safety for the many children and adults who participate in Saint Saviour's activities.
10. The gutters and leaders on the rectory will be replaced and much of the facia board repaired. The rectory is experiencing water damage because the gutters have not been maintained in recent years. Non-functioning sump pumps in the rectory crawl space are also being replaced.
11. We plan to hire a roof expert to help us assess the condition and remaining life in the tile roof on the church, as well as to perform some repairs on parts of the roof that are leaking because of tile breakage and the collection of debris over the years. The flat roof on the parish hall will also be evaluated.
These projects are in addition to the regular maintenance that needs to be done to a 75+ year structure. Again, if you would like to help with any of these projects, please let me know. I would welcome your assistance.
Bruce Graham
Property