by Bob Rockwell
It is past mid-April and spring seems late in arriving. We have made great strides in improving our building. We had a new roof put on two years ago. March 29 Adirondack Basements installed a commercial dehumidifier, sealed the inside baseboard perimeter of the basement and crawl space under the sanctuary, covered the vents in the sanctuary crawl space and installed new windows in the basement. This should reduce our heating costs and make it a bit harder for mice to get in the building. We have just re-connected with Apex Solar. They will be making a reassessment soon and let us know what trees need to come down, so we should have solar panels on our south facing roof sometime this spring. The RE wing has been painted and is awaiting having the carpets cleaned and then hopefully we will get a tenant and a regular rental income.
If we have a stretch of warm weather I will get out my power washer and wash the building. Then we should have a clean-up and painting party.
The UUCGF Annual Meeting is scheduled for after the service and coffee hour on Sunday, May 5. I discussed the new officers that are up for election in the last newsletter. I failed to mention that the Pastoral Care team now consists of Rich Myette, Will Aitcheson and Karen Johnson. Joan Reid stepped down because of family health demands. The budget for approval has a short fall of about $2,000 which according to Elayne should be manageable. However, this means that we need to be serious about fundraising projects in the coming year.
Herb Ogden, president of Rutland UU has contacted me with the suggestion that we join him and members of Rutland UU on Saturday May 11 for a hike on Tim’s Trail, in the Nature Conservancy’s Buckner Preserve in West Haven, VT, about a five-minute drive from Whitehall. For more information see: https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/helen-w-buckner-preserve-at-bald-mountain/. This seems like a great opportunity to get to know some people from Rutland UU and vice versa. I will announce this on Sundays and have a sign-up sheet for people who are interested.
Many thanks to Diane Collins for organizing a wonderful series of films dealing with the environment for Friday Forums in April.