There’s been a lot of activity on the building front this month. If you attended services in person on Sunday or have driven past the church lately, you may have noticed that we have started removing trees to make room for our new sanctuary. While we are all sad to see them go, rest assured that they will be replaced – some of them by multiple younger trees. The trees in the excavation area have been left with tall trunks rather than grinding down the stumps. This makes it easier for the construction crews to dig them up later. We saved a truckload of mulch located at the east end of the upper (east) parking lot. Some people may want to take home a bucket of mulch as a memento. Others may want to take a load home for spring yard work. Help yourself!
We have passed several other major milestones this month. We submitted our application for a building permit. We have a permit number and are in line for review. We have completed the second round of review for the Final Development Plan. Submission for the next round (and final, we hope!) will be February 16th. After site plan approval, it will take several weeks for recording.
We have also begun working on three preconstruction projects: moving a gas line that runs under the excavation area, installing a new electric transformer, and performing some asbestos remediation in the existing social hall. Our contractor is coordinating with Xcel energy and the City of Fort Collins to accomplish the first two tasks. The current estimate is that work will be completed by the end of April. The BET has selected an asbestos remediation firm. This will be scheduled at a time convenient to the church schedule.
The BET has been working on finalizing the contract with Pinkard Construction. In the meantime, Pinkard has been collecting bids and choosing subcontractors. Finalizing bids has been challenging as economic conditions and supply chain conditions change frequently. Pinkard has some ideas for protecting us from future increases in the cost of some materials and will work hard to keep costs under control.
After our pandemic lull and the long Planning Department review process, we are excited to see the pace of the project picking up. Currently, we are expecting to break ground at the end of April.   Â
The Building Expansion Team is Peg MacMorris, Jerry Hanley, Chris Bettlach, and Margaret Cottam. Katie Watkins is our member from the staff. You can reach us at buildingexpansion@foothillsuu.org.