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Renew and Revitalize Task Force Weekly Updateby Mother Storm + Tuesday June 11 The Renew and Revitalize Task Force is going strong! Yesterday evening, ALL our members were present, online or in person: Bill Haffner, Mark Trager, Linda Killian, Ocean Mills, Tom Finlan, Monica Sganga, Gina Taglieri, Ray Joseph, Christopher Burrows, Pat Wynne, Omaira Crane, James Fawcett, Toni Lewis, Rob Fath and Nathan Gallup. What a great group--and you can be part of it by signing up below! There's a role for everyone. Speaking of broad participation/engagement, last week's email had an 80% open rate--our highest yet. Thank you for reading these and staying on top of this work. A reminder that these updates will run through July 2, then adjourn until the beginning of August. The Task Force will meet throughout the summer, with its next meeting set for Monday, July 1 at 6 pm. Last night's meeting was led by Ocean Mills. The following items were discussed: - Because of the Bedell Grant funding, we will move the parking lot and arrival court projects to the top of the priority list in order to release those funds as soon as we can. Omaira Crane, Ocean Mills, and Warren Dodge will now arrange a Zoom call with our landscape architect, Sam Geer. Sam, of Urban Ecosystems, was contracted in 2021 to creat our Landscape Master Plan. You can view the slideshow of that Master Plan here, or the video of Sam presenting it to the parish in 2022 here. On that call with Sam, this subgroup will request more granular design plans from Sam for the projects in his masterplan we'll be carrying out, the Arrival Court and Parking Lot. They will also discuss recommendations of local engineers and contractors so that we can begin identifying the players in this project. - The subgroup working on replacing the church boiler gave a report. Most significantly, after researching and making calls to churches that had worked with Blocpower, they recommended we not work with Blocpower moving forward. If you would like more information on this decision, you can request to view the minutes by replying to this email. The Task Force was in complete agreement about the drawbacks and risks that working with this organization could pose for St. James in particular. It was agreed that work would now begin on finding other companies to work with, specifically those with experience with old buildings such as schools and churches--i.e., buildings with challenges similar to ours when it comes to installing more energy efficient systems. We've also established some helpful relationships with other Episcopal churches in Westchester who have offered to help advise us based on their errors and successes. - This same subgroup of the Task Force will now contact the diocese to inform them of our decision not to move forward with Blocpower for this project. (We first became aware of this organization from the diocese one year ago.) The diocese might also have (or be planning to have) financial resources for parishes looking to upgrade their heating and cooling systems. It was agreed that putting us on their radar would be a good idea. - Mother Storm reported that she contacted Mayor Arest of Scarsdale, and is hoping to speak with him by the end of this week about the plans for our campus. - In order of priority, the projects are now anticipated to take place in the following order: parking lot and arrival court, the exterior masonry work, replacement of the heating and cooling systems, and Great Hall renovations. |
Volunteer for the Renew & Revitalize Task ForceNext Meeting Monday July 1, 6 pm In Person or Online Join us as we prepare to begin work. All welcome to join in! For more infomation visit:
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Before & After Pics from our Master Plan
Before and after pictures are always fun -- and a good reminder of what lies ahead for us. If you haven't yet seen our Landscape Master Plan, which includes some of the projects slated for this campaign, get inspired and take a look at the entire presentation below.
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And Two More Pictures to Inspire UsFrom our Landscape Master Plan |