ZWINGLI RECONSTRUCTION NEWS
Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2010 Click to view this in a new window as a pdf.
Univest receives loan application
Local bank rises to the top of potential loan providers
The Ministry of Stewards reviewed the loan products offered by a number of financial institutions and they found that Univest Corp. offered the best package. The loan rate was very competitive and the bank will not impose early pay-down penalties; something other institutions could not guarantee.
Approval is still pending as of this publication date.
Pipe organ being prepped!
Work has begun on preparing the pipe organ components for the
move to their new location. The pipe work was cleaned at Steve
Emery's shop some time ago as part of the initial “protection”
process following the fire. Because of a generous offer by an
anonymous donor to cover the costs of moving the organ, the
congregation will be able to enjoy its accompaniment, early on, from a more appropriate location in the front of the sanctuary and not from a back (or is it now “side”) corner of the sanctuary. This phase of preparation will be completed prior to construction, readying the pipe organ to “go in” at the earliest convenient time. [Thanks to Earl Ludwig for submitting this information.]
A Tale of Two Seatings
Pews or chairs?
As discussed in the Q&A section, below, Zwingli is working toward a decision on how the congregation will be seated during worship services and during other activities held in the re-configured sanctuary. The planned seating shift that will result from the altar moving to the Wile Avenue side of the building will result in a semi-circle configuration for seating. The existing wood pews will be difficult to arrange in a semi-circle due to their length. Until the church school wing is finished, the sanctuary will also host some Sunday school and other “classroom” functions. This would require flexibility in moving the seating to accommodate the events. The existing pews must be bolted to the floor to ensure stability. This would preclude the use of the pews during our time of need for flexible seating. Plus the pews are very heavy and difficult to move. Chairs will offer the best combination of flexibility and ease of changing configurations. If chairs are the seating choice, what can be done with the pews? They are being stored at cost to the church. A congregational member started looking into selling them to other churches. It turns out that churches that might be considering new seating arrangements are strongly considering chairs instead of pews. The market does not seem to be there for pews. If Zwingli goes with chairs for seating, the church is still looking for suggested options for the pews. If you have any suggestions, please send them to the church office.
Help us improve communication!
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, it's highly
likely that others have that same question. Submitting questions and suggestions
can be anonymous if you prefer. 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.
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.
NEW!
Q: Can the sanctuary roof shingles be re-used?
A: Those shingles left undamaged from the fire do have some useful life left. There were some shingles damaged by the fire and portions of the new construction will need a roof covering. Matching the new to the old will be impossible. If the old shingles could be removed, packed and stored carefully, they could possibly be re-used in other construction. To do that, each shingle would have to be individually removed and handed to someone on the ground. That process would take days of dangerous, manual roof work. There currently does not seem to be an efficient way to recycle the old roofing material.
Cookies & Soup!! 
updated 1/30/2012