Assessment of Our Physical Plant

 

The Board of Trustees has grappled for years with too many things to fix and maintain and too small a budget.  The consequence of this has been just doing bare bones maintenance on an as needed basis, providing no preventative maintenance or structural repairs.  The MPC looked at the needs of the church buildings, the overall use of the property and buildings and a vision for how to best support our growing ministries.  Major maintenance and capital costs associated with our buildings as they exist and are configured at present include:

 

Annual painting of one side of the sanctuary exterior                         $10,000

Steeplejack work (repair of rotting wood, reinforcement of

structural beams, painting)                                                                    $20,000++

Church house furnace                                                                             $7,000

Parsonage (including completion of window replacement,

new furnace, new roof, kitchen & bath renovations)                          $50,000

 

Additionally, the auditorium was the center of intense discussion.  It is underutilized by the church and has untapped potential for rental income.  A complete renovation of the space would include roof, floor and window replacement, new lighting and sound system, and a move of the kitchen to the old Christian Education room area.  These repairs would also include improved heating and ventilation for usage by large groups year-round.  For example, the addition of air conditioning would provide us with comfortable worship space in the summer months.   The estimated cost for this work is $250,000.

 

The upper and lower church parlors offer additional underutilized and inefficient space.  The upper parlor is poorly heated in the winter and unusable in the heat of the summer.  The MPC looked for ways to add classroom, office and meeting space.  It is possible, architecturally and structurally feasible, to create three floors out of these two existing ones.  Visionary plans show reconfigured first floor space, two large classrooms on the second floor, offices and meeting space on the third floor, served both by stairs and an elevator, and air conditioned.  The estimated cost for this work is almost $900,000.  Our largest tenant, the Mamaroneck Community Nursery School, has already expressed a need for additional classroom space and could immediately use the second floor.

 

The overall preliminary site plan prepared by Ernest Harris Architects includes some additional improvements to enhance the property that would become part of a long-range plan.

Based on all of the research, discussion and brainstorming, it comes down to this: we need to convert one of our physical assets so that we can better utilize, maintain and grow the remaining assets.  The conversion proposed is the sale of the Church House.  The revenue generated by this sale would go to making the necessary repairs and modifications to the main Church building including the parlors, the auditorium and the parsonage, and a significant portion of the money would be added to the endowment fund to help ensure that the remaining buildings will be maintained.  This recommendation is endorsed by the MPC and many, but not all of the members of the Board of Trustees and Church Council.  It is a significant move.  As a group, we agreed that it must be brought before the body of the MUMC congregation so that we can collectively agree on a course of action and move forward toward the future growth of our church community.

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