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College Street Project Task Force Monthly Report

March 2006

Dear First Unitarian Members and Friends,

Your College Street Task Force has gathered and discussed a bundle of information this past month and we want to share it with you. Please mark your calendars for a soup supper with Steve Erban, the architect on Thursday,
April 6th at 6:30 p.m. in the social hall.  Steve will present his concepts, site plan drawings, floor plans and roof ideas.

Other opportunities for small groups to meet with Task Force members are Sunday, April 9th following the second service to discuss building plans, Sunday, April 30th following the second service to discuss financing those plans, and Thursday, May 4th at 5:30 p.m. to discuss financing those plans.  

Here is our proposed timeline. Please note, that it is often changing.

• Mid-March  - Preliminary concept drawings of the building
• Late March - Case statement with concept drawings sent to a sampling of congregation to determine the feasibility of conducting a successful capital campaign
• April 6, 9 - Group presentations and opportunity for feedback
• April 13-15 - Steve Olson, from The James Company conducts a financial feasibility study with a report by April 24
• April 30 (noon) & May 4 (5:30 p.m.) Financial Hearings
• May 11, 7:00 p.m. - Congregational meeting to review refined drawings and financial reports. Members vote whether or not to conduct a Building Fund Appeal for construction of a new church home on College Street. The outcome of this vote determines if we will conduct a Building Fund Appeal and whether we will have the go-ahead to the architect to produce construction drawings.
• June-August– Contingent upon a positive congregational vote on May 11th, a Building Fund Appeal is conducted and construction phase documents are produced.
• September 2006 - Construction could begin

COMMUNICATION

This is a fluid and evolutionary process.   To help keep you up-to-date on the project, please go to our church Website www.cpinternet.com/~firstuu and click on "Updates – College Street Project" where you can see evolving design schematics, task force contact information, mid-month newsletters, and a download of our Architectural Program Statement.

VISION/MISSION

Based on congregational long-term planning and feedback over the past several years, the task force proposed and the Board has endorsed a new vision and mission for our congregation:

• VISION:     We will be a beacon of progressive religion in our region, inspiring positive change in the world.
• MISSION:  Caring for one another, growing spiritually, and working for justice.

We selected "Building to Grow our Principles," as the theme for our College Street Project because it speaks both to our new vision/mission and to the physical act of constructing a new spiritual home.

BUILDING & AESTHETICS

Architect Steve Erban and the task force have met and reviewed four sets of site plans, each building upon the previous version.  One thing we know, the site is dictating what we will build and has the potential to be "green" and fabulous!

We have completed soil borings, assessed the viability of a large white pine and consulted with city officials to now know that it would be most advantageous to build a one-level building with indoor parking and to place our building closer to College Street and as far East toward Missouri Avenue as possible. This will avoid bedrock, take advantage of existing utilities, allow us to build into the hillside for energy savings, satisfy the fire marshal and leave a smaller footprint on our beloved planet among other things.

With this information in hand, the task force has to date voted unanimously to pursue a design including underground parking and on the eastern side of the property. Access will be from College Street. The architect has now begun work in earnest on the actual design of a structure, floor plans and roof options for the task force to consider.

FINANCE

A $40,000 grant was received from the Zeppa Family Foundation to pay for the first two phases of our architectural contract and for a confidential Financial Feasibility Study to be conducted over the next two months by Steve Olson, Program Director, The James Company.  The James Company has conducted over 1,000 financial feasibility studies for churches and was referred to us by Duluth's own Peace Church and Pilgrim Congregational, both of which have conducted recent successful capital campaigns.  Steve Olson believes our Building Fund Appeal should be able to raise 1½ to 3 times our annual operational pledges over a three-year period.

Please stay tuned and check our website often. Engage!