Who is there who can join me to finish digging the trench (about 90 feet) and laying conduit? Give me a call or send an email! –Tim
Digging for the Grange sign
Great progress has been made on the trench and conduit needed to bring power from the building to the site of our new sign. A crew of volunteers joined me on Sunday, August 3rd to get started, and indefatigable Lewis Neill continued the work during last week.
We’ve got 2 runs of conduit buried at least 18″ deep, from the corner of the building, across the driveway next to the building, and down the slope to the driveway from the road. Our crew on Sunday accomplished this much–many thanks to Alison and Andy Forrest, Stephen Wright and Kevin Taft! Then over the next couple of days, Lewis continued the trench and conduit across the lower driveway and began coming down the west side.
We are still working on the design and planning for the new sign, but this work gives us a big step forward. And it’s affordable–I did get a quote from a dance community member with a Kubota tractor with a trenching bucket–but it would cost about $600 just to complete the run to the new sign location, money we don’t have. We’ll rely on “sweat equity” to get this project done–see my invitation in the adjoining column.
The Friends have been awarded the grant! Getting closer to new bathrooms and basement exits!
S0–when does the construction start? Well, first we have to raise the matching funds–the grant covers 50% of the cost, and must be matched with money raised by the Friends. This is a project which will cost about $50,000 overall, so it’s a big goal. And we won’t receive the grant money until the project is successfully completed, and the official report is accepted. The Friends have a good start on the matching funds, but more will certainly be needed. Your donation is tax-deductible, and will be greatly appreciated! You can find the donation forms at the Grange website: https://www.capitalcitygrange.
What else do we need to get started? We need your help raising that money–will your employer make donations to community projects like this? Will they match your contribution? Contact Patty Giavara of the FCCGH (pattycope@comcast.net) to find out how! We’ll be needing some volunteer labor to do demolition, when we are ready to start construction, and also for painting the completed projects. Contact me to sign up to help during the construction! We need to fine-tune the plans before we start. We’ll be planning the schedule for the work so that we can minimize the time the bathrooms are out of commission–we are expecting to put a couple of Port-A-Potties in the parking lot to help out, and won’t want to do that in the middle of winter!
Watch for the Friends’ fundraiser, which ends on Sept. 6th! Every year, the FCCGH and the Contra Dance Umbrella (CDU) hold a “challenge fundraiser”, which asks the dance and Grange community to match a “challenge” amount raised from a small number of loyal supporters. This year, the total to match will be $2,000, and the goal is a total of $4,000. Half of this will support the Grange’s operating expenses, and the other half will go to the renovation project. We’ll be collecting donations starting on August 16th, with the big push coming on Saturday, Sept. 6th, at a contra dance featuring Nils Fredland and the Free Raisins! And did we mention the dessert potluck?
We’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Capital City Grange this year, so please be generous! It seems as if we have a great opportunity to “reboot” our Hall with this major project, we look forward to lots of contributions, as we all work together to update our community Hall.
How can we afford all these projects? (editors comment) 7/23/14
What do you think? We’ll be having meetings to discuss all of these questions–like the furnace meeting announced in this issue of Grange Notes. We’d love to have your input!
Furnace Update 7/23/14
During our summer hiatus from regular Grange meetings,the need for decisions hasn’t gone away. Those of us who can remember back before warm weather arrived know that it won’t last forever–this is Vermont! Alert readers will remember we’ve been warned that our furnace is on its last legs. Heating oil is one of our largest annual expenses, and of course we need to keep the Hall warm once cold weather comes back. So some of us have been studying the options.
We’ve gotten quotes from a couple of heating system contractors, for a couple of options: replacing our current single furnace with another oil furnace, or changing to a pair of gas furnaces, to independently heat the 2 floors. Sizing of these has been based on our current fuel usage, and the current furnace size.
We’ve been lucky to get help from a new member of the Montpelier dance community, who has about 40 years of experience in HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning). Bill has stepped forward to use his expertise to evaluate the heating and ventilating needs of our building, using spread-sheet based tools. He’s surveyed the building, and interviewed me about the structure and the insulation levels–including the 12″ of cellulose which we put in the attic floor back in 2007. By doing this study, Bill expects to recommend the size of the furnace(s) we need, to run the most efficiently and minimize our fuel usage. He also expects to give us recommendations on where we should consider adding insulation to reduce our heating load and save money every heating season.
As we also prepare for the planned renovations of our basement fire exits, and of the downstairs bathrooms, we’ll be looking for opportunities to improve our insulation during the reconstruction of these areas.
On August 2nd, before the CDU contra dance, I’d like to hold a meeting to discuss Bill’s recommendations, and to make some decisions about which way to go. By that time, we should have some solid numbers on the heating needs of our building. This will not be a regular Grange meeting, but a meeting focused on this one issue. I’d like to meet at 5:30, planning on an hour of discussion followed by a potluck dinner; there will be a dance that evening with set-up starting at 7:00 as usual. Please contact me if you can join us in helping to make this decision!
Tim Swartz, Master (with everyone’s help)
Capital City Grange #469
225-8921
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