Mowing at NUUC – We Need Some Help
The mowing season is underway and the Building and Grounds Committee (B&G) again plans for NUUC to handle the mowing ourselves using the same approach as last year. Doing the mowing ourselves will save about $4,250 in the budget by avoiding having to contract out the mowing.
The B&G Committee will handle the mowing on a rotating basis with some help from the congregation. B&G Committee members will mow 3 weeks of each month, and the 4th week plus sometimes the 5th week will be handled by a different volunteer from the congregation. This approach will spread the work so each committee member will mow about once a month, and each congregational volunteer would mow just one time during the season. Our approach will keep everyone's work commitments reasonable.
The areas to be mowed include the church yard (bounded by the driveway and the parking lot plus the yard around Nielsen House. In addition, part of the southern field at the rear of our property and the west side of the parking lot are included.
We have a zero-turn riding mower, which we use for almost all of the mowing. Having the zero-turn mower continues to make a big difference in our mowing efforts. It has cut our mowing time in half and some volunteers even say the mowing is now fun!
If you are not familiar with using a zero-turn mower, we will give you some brief training for about 15 minutes that gets you familiar enough with the mower to comfortably mow the main parts of the yard. For a few small, tight areas, which the zero-turn mower cannot handle, you would finish up using a self-propelled push power mower. People who haven’t used a zero-turn or even a riding mower, have done well using the zero-turn mower. We also have had a few people who prefer to use the push mower to mow the entire yard instead of the zero-turn mower, which does provide one with more exercise.
We would like to get 1 or 2 volunteers from the congregation each month to mow one time in the season. The mowing season runs from the end of April through early November. This year volunteers from the congregation only will be needed beginning in the last week of April through October. Three of those months will contain 5 weeks and require 2 volunteers, so we need a total of 10 volunteers.
Please consider volunteering to mow one time this season. If you would like to help the church handle the mowing, you can see the mowing sign-up schedule posted at this weblink: tiny.cc/NUUC-mowing . To get scheduled, contact Bob Keith at bobkeith@zoho.com or 740-815-2825. You also can contact Bob if you have questions or would like more information.
