At long last, we are getting ready to move ahead with some badly needed re-modeling of Trinity’s facilities. We plan to do an initial phase relatively quickly, funded from existing assets and a modest increase in our mortgage. We would then continue to define a more major project to be funded by a capital campaign. We are calling these initiatives ‘Phase 1’ and ‘Phase 2.’
We’re going to be asking you to authorize Phase 1 at the annual meeting on March 24th.
Phase 1 – the parking lot and the end of the Sunday School Wing
We believe it is urgent to address these two major pressing repairs. Both the parking lot and the end of the building are deteriorating rapidly, and we need to repair them in order to be good stewards of the property God has given us and good citizens of our community. In addition, we’re excited about what God is doing among us, and we want to remove these obvious barriers to visitation and growth.
Based on initial estimates from a couple of contractors, we believe that the cost of patching and resurfacing the parking lots would be around $30,000. The cost of putting a brick façade on the end of the Sunday School wing (similar to the exterior wall under the steeple) would also be about $30,000. This total, 60,000 would be funded by cash on hand and a restructuring of our building loan:
Parking Lot Fund – available $17000; expected to use $17,000
Capital Projects Fund – available $16,000; expected to use $3,000
If costs are modestly higher than expected, we could use more money from the capital projects fund. However, we would like to hold on to this for engineering of Phase 2.
The remaining $40,000 for phase one would come from a restructuring of our current loan. We currently pay 6.25% interest on the loan, and our mortgage company is able to reduce that interest to 5.25%. They will give us a small additional loan of $40,000 at the same interest rate, raising our total loan from its current payoff of $245,000 to $285,000
We currently have approximately 112 payments left on our loan (9 years, 4 months). Under the new agreement this would increase to 120 payments (8 additional payments). The payment amount would be about $500 higher than our current minimum payment, but still about $500 less than what we have been paying, thus allowing us to actually reduce our budgeted mortgage payment for the coming fiscal year.
Phase 2 – Expansion of sanctuary for new entryway and bathrooms.
The capital campaign committee which considered long term plans last year felt that the best things we could do to improve the quality and user-friendliness of our buildings would be to (1) connect them, (2) upgrade our bathroom facilities, and (3) provide a better entryway / fellowship area. To do this they propose expanding the sanctuary, projecting the current roofline 40 feet toward the other building.
The sketches above are a very preliminary concept that achieves these goals. After we consult with architects and engineers, the final plan might be quite different than this. But we expect to keep the cost of this more major project in the $300,000 – $450,000 range. This will need to be funded by a capital campaign, including gifts and pledges from the congregation and friends of the church. It may also require a second restructuring of our loans. Whatever we do, our goal will be to make Trinity’s buildings more appealing and more functional.
We are asking you to pray and think about these ideas, especially Phase 1, prior to the annual meeting on March 24th. If you have any questions or comments, please give them to one of the pastors, one of the elders, or a member of the General Board.
We’re always trying to find more ways to get news and prayer requests into the hands of God’s people at Trinity. Our latest tool is a group text app that will allow those who don’t check their e-mail very regularly to receive the most urgent prayer chain items and the most immediate event announcements. We won’t be sending out every prayer chain or news item; in fact we’ll try to only send one or two of these texts a week.
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