Fall 2009

We have made great progress over the last six months painting, power-washing, repairing and replacing ... and simply keeping the "engine" of our many St. Paul outreach ministries in good working order. A few of the highlights of our ongoing work are as follows.

• The gates and railings surrounding the columbarium were scraped, sanded and repainted with two coats of durable exterior paint.
  
  
• The bell tower chicken-wire covering (preventing pigeons and squirrels from entering and nesting inside the tower) was repaired and large sections replaced with new secure covering.  The new wire covering will prevent any further degradation to the inside of the bell tower structure.
  
  
• Eight metal doorways (including both elevator entrances) were scraped, sanded and repainted ... with corner-guards installed to protect the doorways' new paint from being marred and chipped.
  
  
• We applied two coats of wood stain to all of the natural wood doorways leading into the church.  The doors at the top of our steps, on the sides of the steps and the doorways into the church from the columbarium all have fresh protective coats of weather-resistant stain.
  
  
• We have been power-washing the dumpster and the area surrounding it in the alley and have been successful encouraging StreetReach and its volunteers to help maintain the cleanliness of this area.
  (Thanks especially to tireless Doris and John Zesbaugh for their outstanding work with the StreetReach program)
  
  
• We "spruced up" (in a big way) the exterior of St. Paul in anticipation of our 125th Anniversary celebration.  Thanks so much to Janice Hoffman for providing us with 68 ... forty pound bags of mini-mulch ...  (yes ... 2,720 pounds of mulch) which,  with much help from many hard working volunteers ... including David Stubbs, Dorothy Stenman, John Serfling, Nancy Konvalinka and Janice  ... we were able give the front of our historic church a fresh clean look days before our 125th Anniversary Celebration.  A BIG thank you also to Ed and Nancy Konvalinka for the colorful and gorgeous chrysanthemums, ornamental kale and plantings which they provided (and planted) to add much needed color to our raised flower beds. Bravo to all who helped with the entire landscaping effort !!!
  
  
• We are still working diligently to adjust and tweak the operation of our boilers and heating and air-conditioning system.  Our hope is to significantly reduce our energy usage and employ preventive maintenance to reduce future energy and repair costs to our heating and cooling system.

Thanks to all who help keep our "hardy" building in good working order.  Here are a  couple of simple requests from the Building and Property Ministry at St. Paul ... if you see trash around the exterior of our building, please take the time to pick it up and deposit it in the closest trash receptacle.  Also if an item appears out of place within the building ... take the small amount of time to return it to its proper location and notify Marlene or Frank of any item that needs repairing or replacing ... THANKS !!!