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Dear Centenary Family,
Our Trustees have been very busy, working in concert with staff, administrative council, and dedicated volunteers to maintain the buildings that house our ministries. Our Parish House/Education building will reach 100 years of service in 2023 and we hope to have it improved and functioning on the way to its centennial and beyond.
This week, Gepetto Custom Woodworkers removed two of our Grace Street doors in order to fabricate accurate replicas of our 1930s doors. Please work with us while this entrance is not available to us. The doors next to the church office will be available as an at-grade entrance to the church from Grace Street. The new doors will be reinstalled with new hardware and improved security access as part of security upgrades for our front and rear entrances.
We have also scheduled cleaning and re-lining of the 1960s-era ductwork in the areas of the church offices, chapel/parlor, Fellowship Hall, and choir room. This work is scheduled for May 1-4.
We’ve made many improvements to the church since March 2020—some visible, some invisible. The church’s bathrooms received a major upgrade thanks to Centenary’s United Methodist Women. The Church Parlor got a righteous refresh with new flooring (a gift from George and Mary E. Vetrovec) and the efforts of dedicated volunteers Mary Sue Sanderlin and Vikki Brock. New plantings grace the front border and rear entrance thanks to Vikki Brock, David Pippin, and Mann Brown. We repaired the Parish House’s leaking roof, provided an upgrade to Wi-Fi service throughout the buildings, and with Bob Hundley’s help we replaced the troubled floor in the Fellowship Hall and addressed stormwater issues in our courtyard.
Behind all of these projects we rely on the good help of Al Richardson and Ryland Bailey, who is even now coordinating repairs following an electrical inspection (we passed!) and the inspection and repair of our sanctuary’s slate roof.
A number of these improvements would not have been possible were it not for Kim Chen’s efforts to secure a windfall in the form of Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits for our kitchen/elevator project. Administrative Council established a Capital Reserve Fund for supporting needed improvements to our physical plant. I extend my thanks to every one of you who assists and supports the maintenance of our church home, as well as to the many saints who came before us who had the foresight to establish an endowment that supplements our maintenance funds.
In gratitude,
Jim Hill
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