A Roadmap to Revitalization:

The Report of the Properties in Mission Task Force To the Consistory Of the Reformed Church

Of the Tarrytowns

June 8, 2010

The Properties in Mission Task Force was formed earlier this year by consistory to create a priority list of recommendations on capital projects and major deferred maintenance, and present those priorities to the consistory and congregation for action as resources may allow.

History and Mission

This is the work we

accomplished, and our vision...

•AND A FEW THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT OURSELVES ALONG THE WAY.

Welcome To Our House of Worship, New Visitor!

We are glad you found a parking space and our rear entrance.

You can enter through the front too.

We have a special spot for the disabled.

Sorry about the driveway.

Be sure to read the history of our preachers.

We also own a house next door with leaders of the the church at the regionallevel.

This building is old.

It datesto 1837.

Be a little careful with the doors and steps. They are old too.

If you are in the sanctuary and there is an emergency, follow this exit sign.

We keep a lot of memorabilia in our basement, safe from the elements.

In the hall you can see our historic list of ministers.

We’ve been a little busy so we haven’t yet added our new pastor to the list. We’ll get to it one of these days.

Oh, your mom is in a wheelchair and wants to visit? We have state-of-the-art technology to help her come in the door. All you have to do is drive her around to the side office.

One of these days we are going to get around to painting the outside of the church and the house next door. We’re not sure when.

Did you say you like to sing?

We would love to have you sing in the choir. The rehearsal room is a little small, and the plaster on the wall is fading.

Sorry about that.

Actually, it has had water damage for a long time now.

We have ambitious plans to decorate our corridors.

Oh, I see you brought your baby girl. She’s so cute! If she cries and you want to hear the service from the back, you can listen in to our speaker system that broadcasts into the narthex.

We used to broadcast our worship services on cable TV. The equipment is a little out of date though.

Yes, we know about the shutters and windows next door.

We haven’t had the money to fix them up recently.

We’re going to be doing some work on the office too.

But the village told us we had to work on some safety code problems first.

There will be a reception after the service in our Friendship Room.

Again, if there’s an emergency, just follow the exit signs.

Our church has been fortunate to benefit from a lot of donations over the years. For instance, we have two portable organs.

Our sanctuary organ is a little rusty though.

I’d have to admit not everyone is enamored of our color schemes.

This was a really tough winter and our utility bills are very high. You have the same problem too? Our insulation in our sanctuary ceiling keeps us well ventilated when it’s hot though.

One of our challenges is that people in town like to use our parking lot for free. They don’t always use the proper entrance. We’re working on it.

• You know, we really like new members because their contributions make a big difference. The costs of compensating our minister have gone up 20 times since 60 years ago. So, we have only increased our properties and mission budgets by about 4 times, in the same 60 years. We’ll send you an appeal for a pledge in the fall.

…WAIT A MINUTE ROB. YOUR “TASK FORCE” IS MAKING OUR CHURCH LOOK REALLY BAD. PEOPLE WHO

VISIT US – THEY LOVE OUR HOSPITALITY, OUR WORSHIP

SERVICES, OUR MUSIC AND OUR HISTORICAL TRADITIONS! YOU’RE

NOT DOING US JUSTICE BY SHOWING US ALL THESE UGLY PICTURES! WE

KNOW WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO! GIVE US A BREAK! IT’S HARD WORK! HOW VERY CRUEL OF YOU! WE ARE SHORT ON MONEY TOO!

WELL…OF COURSE.

That’s where our Task Force comes in.

• For one thing, we’ve got this great new pastor. His name is Jeff. He has big plans. He loves kids and older adults. He is bringing in all sorts of new musicians and volunteers and bright signs. (And he keeps his sermons short!)

• It took 9,000 hours of volunteer time to research what kind of minister our church needs to grow.

• The chairman of our search committee sure is tired!

And, for 20 years we have been waiting for a chance to install a priceless old stained glass window.

Now we are going to do it!

Didn’t I ask if you like to sing? Our new music directors are the best around!

We have this great nursery school too! It’s called New Beginnings.

You know, maybe you are right. There are signs of revitalization all around us. Didn’t the Task Force pay attention to that?

For one thing, we have this neat old clockworks control in a room under the steeple. It’s cool!

And yes. We do have some safety precautions in place, in important spaces like Ammerman Hall and elsewhere.

• And what about our commitments to social justice, missionaries, underserved and poor populations, and finding out what our community needs most from its Town Clock church home?

Yes…maybe we ARE starting to come alive again…on both the inside and the outside!

A steeple clock

right on time!

OK OK Rob. We get the picture. There are some things that work really well in our buildings; and some things that need work. What is the Task Force really trying to say?

• You already told our Task Force one thing: you are ready to install the Tiffany Window. That’s about $150,000.

2. All white surfaces on the exterior of the Town Clock Church need repainting. That’s about $30,000.

3. Since the Tiffany Window is going to make the entrance to the Randall Lobby look great, we need to cover the Synod House with insulation and vinyl siding, and repaint the front so it looks like it is in keeping with the “Tarrytown look.”

That’s about a $70,000 project.

4. A new sound system needs to be put into place in the Sanctuary, with speakers in the narthex, where people can see into the Sanctuary through a pane glass window. This sound system will help hearing-impaired individuals – and everyone who comes to worship – and anyone speaking into a microphone.

That’s about $15,000.

5. We need to finish bringing the Synod House and the church buildings up to safety codes as the Village has asked us to.

That may cost $18,000.

6. We need to save on our utility bills by insulating the ceiling above the sanctuary.

That’s a smaller project - $7,000.

7. We need to take a careful look at how mobility-disabled individuals in our aging congregation and community can get access to activities in Ammerman Hall as well as first-floor usages.

That could mean an internal or external elevator, or a chairlift. Costs could be as little as $15,000 or as much as $70,000.

8. Installing the Tiffany Window will also necessitate changes in how Randall Lobby looks.

The window would be backlit from the Lobby.

A way to accomplish this economically would be to make some simple but vital changes in the way rooms along the corridor to the Friendship Room are used…

These recommendations include:

1. Move pastor’s office to the current choir room and renovate.

2. Move music room to the current main office to accommodate the growth of the program, and renovate.

• 3. Move secretary to the current A/V room.

Renovate it so that an opening would be cut into the wall between the room and the Randall Lobby, so she could be the first point of contact for visitors, and have better access control.

• All that would cost about $80,000, depending on how much renovation work goes into each space –

• such as replacing carpeting and maybe adding laminate flooring in the lobby…creating aesthetic space in the corridor for possible art displays…allowing for some new windows…and arranging file/storage space so that the secretary could still access them if she now were to work out of the A/V room; etc.

AND THEN THE MAGIC BEGINS…CREATING SOME NEW BUILDING BLOCKS FOR COMMUNITY OUTREACH, INCREASING OUR CONGREGATION’S FAITH AND NUMBERS, AND CATCHING UP ON YEARS’ WORTH OF DEFERRED MAINTENANCE TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF OUR CHURCH HOME IN NEW WAYS.

The overall cost of this “slate” of improvements would be

around $450,000, depending particularly on decisions about disability access

mechanisms. This would call for a new attitude on the part

of consistory and congregation…

• $116,000 has already been contributed toward the installation of the Tiffany Window. A private donor has offered to help defray remaining costs of that installation, & replacement of our existing sound system with a new one.

That leaves between $250,000 and $300,000 to be financed through other means as consistory, in consultation with the Finance Committee and private donors, as you might deem appropriate.

We hope you share our

vision.

Task Force members and friends thank you

• Rob Wingate, chair• Ann Phillips, second chair, and chair of

Properties Committee• Rev. Jeff Gargano, president, consistory• Glen Allen, chair, subcom./space usage• John Vydareny• Sue Nagle• Twink Wood• Janie Couch Allen• Bill Lent• Jeremy and Mi-Won Goldsmith