Thursday, January 16, 2020

Week 49 - The Ground Is Frozen & The Wood Is Blue


Some folks have asked about the blue streaks in the pine-beetle-kill tongue and groove wooden planks in the ceiling.

Here's why:


The mountain pine beetle and the blue-stain fungus is an excellent example of symbiosis.  


The blue stain fungus travels from tree to tree on a special structure in the beetle's mouth parts. This is its means to travel to new trees.


The fungus helps the beetle by stopping the tree from producing its natural defense resin and the beetles are hence able to mine and lay eggs while avoiding the tree' defenses.


The blue stain fungus spores germinate and produce a thread-like mass that colonizes the phloem and sapwood.


Blue-stain spores are sticky and eventually block the water conducting columns of the tree draining the trees of their nutrients eventually causing the tree to starve to death.


Did you notice that there is one plank in the ceiling that is totally blue?  Don't let it irritate you.


Navajo rug weavers always add a small intentional mistake to a beautiful rug to illustrate that only "God" (translate to your own word) can make something that is perfect.


Enjoy our almost perfect ceiling! 


Research by Robyn Rathweg



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To view the Building Committee's latest construction progress video, click here:


Monday, January 13, 2020

Because The Ground Is Frozen...

Announcement From The Pulpit
January 12, 2020
 Jim Highsmith, Building Committee Chair, 
&
Marky Lloyd, Board President 

Jim:

Last week, Reverend Lydia announced that our new building was almost complete, which it is.

But, her announcement also mentioned that like any construction project in Colorado, we’ve run into a hitch due to the weather.  

We were delayed by the wet spring but did some catching up over the summer. 

Unfortunately, the early snows in October and November and very cold weather in December have made it impossible to complete asphalt paving of the parking lots -- a requirement for occupancy.  

That leaves us two alternatives for occupancy
  1. install a temporary parking lot or 
  2. wait until the weather improves in the spring to do the asphalt paving.


The Building Committee and Milo Construction have investigated temporary paving options and the most viable one would be 
  • putting down a 4-inch layer of crushed, recycled concrete, then removing that in the spring and replacing it with permanent asphalt. 
  • There is also concrete work to finish that would require some ground heating. 


The advantage to installing a temporary parking lot is that we would be able to occupy the building in mid-to-late February providing us greater certainty around an occupancy date. 

Waiting to pave the parking lots is dependent on better weather, which could push occupancy into April ... weather permitting.    

The disadvantages of temporary parking are cost, risk, and environmental impact. 
  • The additional cost would be in the $80,000 to $95,000 range. We recently received a new donation of $75,000 that would help cover this cost, but it could be used for other things, such as reducing our loan. 
  • The risks include additional maintenance costs of the temporary surface after snow plow damage. 
  • The main environmental impact would be the significant carbon footprint of trucking concrete material in and out.


Marky:

Last Thursday the Building Committee and the Board met to discuss our options and decide which one to take. 

The Building Committee presented details of the information that Jim just summarized and much UU-type discussion ensued. 

We discussed the benefits of earlier occupancy balanced with our values of environmental and financial stewardship. 

In the end, the Building Committee recommended to the Board that we wait to install our parking lots. The Board then voted to accept the Building Committee’s recommendation. Both votes were unanimous. 

So, as Jim said, that decision means that our move into the building will be delayed until April ... weather permitting. 

However, some very good news is that our friends at the First United Methodist Church of Lafayette have assured us that we can continue to meet there on Sundays. 

As well, we plan to have another building tour before the service on Sunday, February 9, so you can see all of the progress since our last tour.  

I know that we are all disappointed with this further delay. Speaking for myself, when the Board first learned about the parking lot issue in December, I was quite dismayed. 

However, as the days passed, I found myself accepting our new reality and able to see the bigger picture--and even some silver linings. Here are some of ours:
  • We can be proud that we are living our UU values of being good stewards of our construction funds and of our environment. 
  • The extra months will give us more time to move everything back into the building without a frantic rush.
  • And … we are having opportunities to learn important things about ourselves--both as individuals and as a congregation:
    • We are thoughtful.
    • We work well together--even under stress.
    • We are resilient!
Thank you for your support.