Capital City Grange

February 17, 2020 and on–carpet tiles!

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After we got all the ceiling tiles in, we cleaned the floor, and asked Country Floors to start installing the carpet tiles in the cafeteria section of the basement–most of the tables, all the chairs and the KT&P shelves were still stored in the alcove.

Caleb from Country Floors starts to clean up the floor–carbide knives on the rotary head scrape off any loose paint, to give a solid surface for the carpet tile adhesive to grip to
Once the floor was scraped, it was time to fill the seams, and any holes in the concrete. Lots of time on the knees for these guys!
Now the installers are rolling on the water-based adhesive (no solvent fumes!) on the scraped and patched floor.
The first section is laid–the redder-colored tiles from the base of the stairs, and the start of a 36″ wide “path” around the front of the bathrooms and the kitchen. The grayer-colored tiles fill the rest of the area. They hide the dirt even better!
After a couple of days of work, the tiles are laid, all the way to the North end of the cafeteria! You can see the KT&P shelves, bins and other items still piled in the alcove….
….so we got in a few volunteers, mostly from the Kids Trade & Play volunteer corps, to move all the stuff out of the alcove and make room for the carpet installers. Above are Dean and Oliver.
Here are Stephen, Ginger and Fred re-assembling the KT&P shelves. It’s great to have a hard-working crew like these folks!
And now the tiles are laid in the alcove! Plus the new ceiling tiles installed above. We hope we can develop this area to be a small-scale performance space–think “coffee-house” size. The red tiles are designed to set off this area as somewhat different from the cafeteria.
Then it was time for Country Floors to install carpet on the stairs. Quite a change from the way the stairs used to look!
We hope that the carpet, as well as being much more attractive, will remove some of the dirt and/or moisture from the shoes of people going down to the lower level. Our cleaning service will be cleaning the stairs regularly, of course!

Also, see the next set of photos for our other dirt-capturing innovation!

February 24 and on–kitchen improvements

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With the completion of the ceiling tile installation in the kitchen, we ended up with a lot of dust over the kitchen surfaces; we also needed a place to store janitorial items. They were previously stored in an inefficient, but huge free-standing cupboard in the alcove/Second Stage.

Thanks to donations of “hours” in the Onion River Exchange timebank, we were able to get a volunteer cleaner to remove the dust from the kitchen. Nancy Gore worked hard on Feb. 24th to vacuum, mop and wipe down the various surfaces–and the dishes in the top of the kitchen cabinets!
Here’s what the closet looked like before remodeling–with mildewed particle-board shelves and unpainted sheetrock walls, it was unattractive and smelly too!
With the walls primed and painted, new shelf-support channels and white melamine shelves, everything is easier to clean and brighter. Items on the shelves are easier to see.
With the doors reinstalled and re-painted, it’s easy to tell Hall users that the supplies are in the “Blue Closet”.

February 28th, 2020: just in time for Leap Day, sump pump and dehumidifier are installed!

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The new, commercial grade dehumidifier is installed on top of the partition in front of the Kids Trade & Play shelves. The fan inside will circulate around the whole basement. The condensate drains through the clear hose you can see to the right of the dehumidifier….
….and into the sump! Along with any water that drains from the drainage channel, the condensate will get pumped out of the basement, and across the ceiling, and under the driveway on the West side of the Grange Hall. With the insulation, this will keep the air in the lower level drier, preventing the growth of mildew.
By mid-April, the soil was defrosted enough that the crew from Northern Basements could dig the trench for the sump-pump drainage.
The trench for the drain-pipe puts it a couple of feet below the surface of the driveway, safe from the weight of cars, oil trucks and snowplows.

March 11, 2019–grate developments start

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We had enough money in our budget for the lower-level project that we decided to install large grates in front of both entrance doors. We started off in early March, on a relatively warm day…which turned out to be just a couple of days before the Coronavirus stopped all work. See below for a few pictures from the installation of the grate in the porch at the original entrance, and then a few more from the end of May installation on the newer, accessible “Main Entrance”.

Kurt Giavara screws down the saw guide, getting ready to make the 3rd cut through the old porch flooring.
And here’s the hole cutout–we have lots of room for sand and dirt to fall through the grate to the space below, before we will need to shovel it out!
Tim and Kurt are getting ready to lower the grate into its hole.
And here’s the grate in place….just waiting for people with dirty shoes and boots.

May 31, 2020: the second grate gets installed, in warmer weather!

Kurt and Tim have laid out the cuts in the porch floor at the accessible entrance we had built in 2008. Note that we are surrounded by green leaves instead of snow!
Here we are putting in the new framing, to support the floor boards and the edge of the grate.
Now the grate is installed! By the way, these grates are approved for ADA entrances; the aluminum bars are close enough together to not trap walkers, wheelchair wheels, etc. But there is still over 50% open area, so it should catch plenty of grit.

2019 VT State Grange resolutions

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Every year, local Community Granges propose resolutions for a wide variety of purposes. These are taken to the VT State Grange’s annual meeting, on the 3rd weekend in October. There, an appropriate committee reviews the resolutions that is in their area–e.g. Agriculture/Environment for resolutions related to dairy farming, crop farming, impact of pesticides, etc.. The committee has the options of:

  1. Recommending approval by the whole State Grange meeting
  2. Recommending rejection by the whole meeting
  3. Re-writing the resolution to clarify the intent of the resolution, to have the resolution call for a more clear action (by the Grange, the VT Legislature, the National Grange, etc.).

Each committee reports to the VSG State meeting about the resolutions it has examined, and on the action the committee has taken. The whole VSG meeting can then:

  1. If the Committee hasn’t re-written the resolution, to accept the recommendation to approve the Committees’ recommendation to approve or reject the resolution as written
  2. If the Committee has re-written the resolution, to accept the Committee’s version or
  3. Amend the resolution with suggestions from the floor, each of which will be discussed, debated, and voted on.

Representatives from Capital City and all the other Granges will go to the State Grange meeting, take part in committee work and in the debate(s) on the floor of the meeting. Each Grange gets to have 2 voting representatives; it is important for Capital City Grange members to let your reps know what you think–approve, reject, or modify–for each resolution on which you have an opinion.

I have attached the 2019 “Proposed Resolutions” below. Click the “Download” button, and a PDF will be downloaded for you to review. Unfortunately, it seems to show up upside down! Turn it over, read it, and please email me with comments!–Tim Swartz, swartztim15@gmail.com

2019 VT State Grange PROPOSED RESOLUTIONSDownload

Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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