As I mentioned in my previous update, the carpenters have started the framing work in Fellowship Hall.  When I stopped by today the men were hard at work in Pastor J’s and Helen’s offices and in one of the upstairs rooms.  Here are a few photos.

I finally have something to report!  Seems like a long time since much has happened at the church but this week Belfor came back and removed all of the debris in the sanctuary and also removed the carpeting.  The original tile is now exposed.  Here are some pictures provided by Glenn and Jennie H.

Also progress has been made toward the restoration of fellowship hall with the formal decision that a sprinkler system is not required.  Since was confirmed, plans for a new floor layout are being drawn up by the architect and Belfor is working on finding out exactly what the insurance will cover.  We have our building permit for the rehab and hopefully the plans will be finalized soon and work can start to get our fellowship hall back on its road to “recovery”.  You will be hearing more about the plans in the week or so.

Now about news our bells and chimes:  As you all know, the day of the fire, with the help of Peter S., I removed the handbells and chimes from the church to keep them safe.  Here is the story of their journey from that day until now:

I live on the 3rd floor of my building and installed a hoist to bring items (in particular wood pellets for our stove) upstairs, rather than have to lug them up the 2 flights of stairs. This came in really handy for getting the chime and bell cases to my home. Here’s a video of our hoisting one of the larger cases up.

So with Kris’ help,  I got all of the smokey cases with the bells and chimes in them on my 3rd floor porch.  The cases were permeated with smoke so they had to stay outdoors for a bit, but were protected by the porch roof and tarps.  Once arrangements had been made with Befor to, as I call it, de-smoke-a-fie the cases, we moved all of the bells and chines (almost 100) to my 2nd floor for storage on the floor of a spare room and all cases were taken by Belfor.  Meanwhile approval for cleaning of both chimes and bells were received from the insurance company and I arranged to get them both scheduled for the work.  About a month ago both Malmark (chimes) and Schulmerich (bells) contact me to arrange for the instruments to be shipped to them for the cleaning.  So Belfor brought the cases back and the instruments packed up and picked up by UPS.

Neither the bells nor the chimes have had any work done on them for almost 20 years and you know our bell choir uses (or did before Covid) for rehearsals every week for an hour and a half, preformed using them in church about 20 times a year and also used them to attend the Hudson Valley Handbell Festival, and all day event held annually.  So in short they have been well used.  As you would expect there has been wear and tear on the instruments and this damage is not covered by insurance.

The chimes refurbishment has been completed and the additional cost above what the insurance covered was about $275, a cost that was covered by a special donation.  The chimes have been returned and are in storage at Normal Brothers (thanks to Roy and Peg P).

The handbells on the other hand are still at Schulmerich and we have received the quote for additional parts not covered by insurance because they are wear and tear.  This additional cost is about $2000.  I have been told that the money is not available  from the church’s treasury to complete this project.  So I am turning to you to help out.  The total value of these bells is over $50,000, the insurance company is covering about $3000 of cleaning work on the bells so now it is up to you to help out,  If you can make a special donation to help the bell choir “bail out” their beloved bells, please make your check payable to “Calvary Presbyterian Church” and send it to Calvary Presbyterian Church, 120 South Street, Newburgh NY 12550. If you prefer to use a credit card or PayPal you can do this through our website  Be sure to note that the donation is for the bell choir so they get credit for the income and it goes to the correct expense.  Thank you ahead for your help.

As always this update comes with prayers and wishes for everyone that they are in good health and that life is good for you all.

The scaffolding is down and the cleaning crew is now working on cleaning the lower area of the sanctuary.  When I was there yesterday they were meticulously washing every nook and cranny in the pews. Lamb Stained Glass Company will be returning to complete the washing of the stained glass windows in the next weeks.  The electrical work is completed, the church is being lighting using our newly refurbished chandeliers and spot lights and the Haiko fans are circulating the air (though it was hot in there to work!).  You can see by the photos attached how beautiful the sanctuary looks.

Sorry – I missed sending an update last week. The weekend passed so quickly and here we are Thursday already! But work continues at Calvary. The painters have taken over the scaffolding and have been scraping, speckling and painting during the past two weeks.

The electricians are close to completing the wiring upgrades, lighting conversions and cleaning and reinstall of the chandeliers. This has been a big project and will defiantly help us to see better the wonderful paint job that is being done! The large fans that were added to the to do list are scheduled to be delivered by July 9th and installed, the wiring has been readied for their delivery. These fans will help keep the sanctuary much more comfortable both in winter and summer.
The fire committee had a meeting (masks and socially distanced) last week and included those that showed an interest in helping formulate the plans for the new fellowship hall. At this meeting the revised mail floor plans were discussed and these plans have now been revised by the architect. Geoff from Belfor will not meet with the building inspector to see if our requests can be completed within the scope of our budget. Also at this meeting the Fellowship Hall Design Committee was formed from this meeting and includes Diane M., Noa S., Kate C. and Bobbie B. They have begun checking with potential community users to gather input for how the future use of the space might be reimagined.

Another item under discussion is a list of sponsorship opportunities. Once this is completed, based on our wish list and what the insurance will cover, it will be sent to all and posted on our website, giving supporters the opportunity to financially help with the restoration of the church.

The fire committee will continue to work diligently to get this job done making the best use of the funding available.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th of July weekend.

It is a  beautiful spring day at Calvary Presbyterian church.  The flowers out front are in full bloom.

Once again, the previous week at Calvary was quite busy because of the relaxing of the rules by New York State.  Belfor continued  working in the sanctuary and in fact completed all of their cleaning work that required the scaffolding.  The painters will soon take the “platform” and completely paint all painted surfaces of the walls over the next couple of weeks.  The plans are that the scaffolding will be taken down at the end of June, this is a full month before it was scheduled.

Because the scaffolding will be removed earlier than we plan, the fire committee had to take some quick actions to be sure the other contractors that need to use it were contacted and able to complete their jobs.  To keep the scaffolding for an additional month would cost us $10,000 so we had to act fast!  We were able to sign the contract with CDR Electronics, our alarm company in time for them to order the necessary special equipment for the smoke and heat detection to be installed in the peak of the sanctuary. It  can take up to 3 weeks to obtain these items.  Charlie of CDR will be running the necessary wiring and plans on having the installation completed by the time the scaffolding is removed.  They have also been contracted to complete the update needed to the alarm system in fellowship hall, though the pressure is not on for that portion of the work.

We were also able to get Lamb Stained Glass Studios to come last week and complete the cleaning of the windows accessible from the scaffolding.  They also constructed their own scaffolding to clean the rose window and the window in the organ loft.  They were really responsive.  I contacted them on Friday and they were there Monday to start working.  They will clean the lower windows after the scaffolding is removed and the cleanup and painting is completed by Belfor.  Check out how dirty the cloth is in this picture – not sure all of that is smoke, but I am sure some of it is!

American Eagle Electric continues to work diligently on the lighting that needs to be completed from the scaffolding also.  They have a lot of work to do!

As you already know, the fire committee met with Geoff of Belfor the previous week to obtain the plans provided by the architect of the existing layout of fellowship hall.  During this past week  Jim F and John C worked hard to sketch out possible solutions to make our fellowship hall a more user-friendly place for not only us but the use of the community in the future.  The fire committee met again to discuss these plans.  On Friday we had a zoom meeting with the session and trustees on Friday to discuss all of the happenings at the buildings as well as the possible layouts for the hall.  The session approved the work and now the suggested plans will be given to Geoff for the architect to consider and draw up.

All of this work is exciting to see move forward and I can’t wait until this is all complete and we can step back into our new buildings!

Have a safe and wonderful week!