ZWINGLI RECONSTRUCTION NEWS
Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2010 Click to view this in a new window as a pdf.
Fundraising in 2010 looks hot!
Several projects to be announced soon!
Two new proposals were shared with church council on Monday, April
19th for consideration. Council will deliberate on these proposals during the May council
meeting.
The Game Changer!
Jamie Moyer, pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, agreed to
personally participate in a fund-raising event to assist Zwingli, his
childhood church, in its rebuilding efforts. He spent 45 minutes on the telephone
with council moderator Michael Kracht, sharing his ideas on how to
proceed. Jamie provided the
name of the public relations firm that his charitable foundation uses. The next step is to contact them to get the ball rolling. A special thanks goes out to Jim and Joan Moyer, Jamie’s parents, for
personally delivering a memorandum from Mr. Kracht to Jamie on April 17th.
Sub-contractor bids coming in below original estimates
Savings to the church likely to be at least $150,000
Representatives of Zwingli U.C.C. met with Detweiler Builders and the three main sub-contractors where they put forth their “not-to-exceed” bids for their parts of the reconstruction. Unfortunately, this meeting could not be held until the congregation voted to move forward with the project.
The not-to-exceed prices are more than $150,000 lower than Detweiler Construction’s estimates in their original base bid. This is the result of the contractors doing all of the design plans for installation for free and by severely cutting profit margin – most commonly to around 5%, in one case to zero (unheard of!). The bottom line is that the overall cost estimate for construction is now at least $150,000 less than Detweiler’s original estimate.
Here are some of the other cost savings announced by the building committee:
Shelly’s promised the lowest possible price for the trusses to support the roof. A.M. Goshow promised the lowest price on Anderson Windows. Sherwin-Williams agreed to give us their top-grade “overrun” paint for 10 cents on the dollar.
Home Depot has offered to use the corporate buying-power of Home Depot to get us all our materials at cost or better.
Swartley Electric will be underwriting Jim Bush’s time and will provide the use of all tools for free. At this time, it is not possible to develop a dollar amount these offers will save Zwingli UCC. As soon as they are known, or can be accurately estimated, they will be shared with the congregation.
Some additional donations and news:
A group from outside the church has already offered to take on finishing a room in the education or administrative wing.
The total cost of moving and re-installing the organ has been underwritten by an anonymous donor – this is a very substantial gift!
Souderton Borough waived the requirement for an escrow account – saving several thousand dollars.
Help us improve communication!
This is just the start! Please let us know how to better
communications. What questions do you have? Please pose them
so answers can be delivered. A Q&A suggestion box will be present each Sunday at the Boys & Girls
Club. Forms will also be
on-hand for you to submit your question or suggestion. If you have a question, its highly
likely that others have that same question. Submitting questions and suggestions
can be anonymous if you prefer that. Answers will be printed in this newsletter and on a news bulletin
board at church. If you prefer to get an answer directly, please supply your name and telephone number
or e-mail address.
The plan is to use this newsletter and other
methods to get information out to the congregation to assist the many
committees and individuals share their current news and progress. So much is going on in front of and
behind the scenes that it has not been possible for all the volunteers to
get their job done and get information out to the congregation together and
in a timely manner.
Also, if you have information to share with
the congregation about what you are working on for rebuilding the church,
please send in the information!
To share information with the congregation,
for getting your questions answered or to suggest improvements in
communications, please see or call Rick Rogers at 215.513.0298. You can also email Rick at
rogers.rick@epa.gov.
Questions and Answers
Q: Why are portions of the building going to be left un-done?
A: The building committee was charged with moving forward to develop plans to build the design approved by the congregation. Once cost estimates began to come in, the committee looked for ways to reduce costs yet get the church as close as possible to building to the plan that originated from the congregation. The committee's recommendation was to build some of the structure as a shell, only. Building a shell includes finishing the roof and outside walls, finishing the interior of inside walls and covering inside walls to cover roughed-in electrical and plumbing. The shells will be finished by the builder to allow for safe occupancy in the completed portions of the church.
Q: Why does the plan include completely finishing the sanctuary and family life center and leaving the education and administrative wings finished as shells, only? Would it not be better to complete the education wing before the family life center? And, where will Sunday school classes be held?
A: The single-story education and administration wings can be more easily and safely completed with volunteer labor. The sanctuary and family life center involve very high ceilings which is much more dangerous for volunteer labor. A local example painfully illustrates this point. A scaffold accident occurred during the construction of a new local church school seriously injuring a volunteer. Also, scaffold would have to be rented for a longer period of time since volunteer work will take longer to complete the work, increasing that cost. Both sanctuary & family life center can serve as temporary Sunday school space until the education wing is completed. As reported by other churches, the family life center will also serve a role in bringing youth into the building.
Q: Why can't the existing pews be used in the new church configuration?
A: Although it's not totally out of question, the continued use of the pews presents a number of challenges within the new sanctuary space as it is designed. Initially, the sanctuary will need to be used as a temporary Sunday school and meeting space. In that situation, seating arrangements will need to be changed literally from one hour to the next. The pews are unstable unless bolted to the floor. Attaching pews to the floor would preclude moving them to enable flexible use of the sanctuary space. Also, depending on the floor covering, it may not be possible to fix the pews down and not leave permanent marks in floor coverings. The pews will also not easily fit in a semi-circle or U-shaped arrangement.
Cookies & Soup!! 
updated 1/30/2012