Beginning with the fire-exits, the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall has begun the projects promised over the last year. The Friends have raised enough money (through donations, fundraisers and grants) to get going on the basement improvements which we’ve been planning for a couple of years.
The bathroom renovations will start later, we’re hoping in the spring of 2015, after we raise enough money to complete that phase. The Friends have received a grant to cover 50% of the total cost of about $50,000, but we still need to complete raising money for the remaining half.
Right now, the existing stairs that led to the fire exit on the NW corner of the building have been removed, and contractor John Mallery is showing how the new stairs will run, using a new stair-stringer. On Monday, a concrete-cutting company sliced through the foundation wall. Soon, the new stairs and a new landing inside will be framed in. A wall will divide the stairway from the upstairs Hall. New fire exit signs and emergency lights will show the way out, through a new exterior door, and there will be a new concrete landing on the outside.
After that, John will build the new vestibule around the “front” basement stairs, with a fire-door and “fire-code” sheetrock-covered walls. All of these changes will make the Fire Marshal much happier with our downstairs space, and we will ask him to increase our legal occupancy for the downstairs from 49 (our current limit) to at least 100!
Check out the changes next time you come to the Hall!