From our Summer Newsletter:

As Kokoska's construction work winds down, it is wonderful to see the outpouring of help from the congregation to finish off the landscaping and painting. The number of people at the landscaping days in May was incredible. Thank you to all those that came out to help on the two beautiful spring days and to Barry MacLachlan for his planning and leadership in this endeavor! The bulk of the painting will be largely complete at the end of May. Thanks, as well, to all those that have come out and to Andy Mackay for all of his efforts in coordinating this. There will be still be some finish up work in June, when the contractor completes the storage room and kitchen as well as some touching up to do, so please don't put away the paint brushes quite yet.

The building will be ready and functional for the dedication on June 8th; however, we expect a few tasks will still need to be completed after that date. These include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

         1. Kitchen work (done by the contractor - see below for more information)
         2. Installation of one air conditioning unit (Building Committee to buy the unit and hire a mechanical contractor separately.)
         3. Placement of a driveway leading from the north end of the parking lot to Route 85 that passes behind the Garage and Parish House (Building Committee to hire out a contractor separately.)
         4. Stone Wall to be added to the patio when funds become available

The kitchen will not be fully operational by June 8th due to the revisions we made to the layout mentioned in the March newsletter that include: 1) the change out from electric stoves to a propane commercial grade stove and 2) the change from a residential kitchen sink to a deep commercial stainless steel sink. The Committee felt these two changes were very important to make in order for the kitchen to be more functional. Although during the planning stage, we made some choices intended to keep costs at a minimum, when we discussed this further at the beginning of the year we realized that if we didn't put in the plumbing now for the gas stove and the code-required grease trap for the sink, it'd be very expensive to add at a later date.

To date, we have spent about $1.16 million on the building design and construction phases and the total project costs are estimated to be $1.40 million, which includes the additional cost for the kitchen changes, as well as one a/c unit and the driveway mentioned above.

If you have any questions as construction finishes up, please do not hesitate to speak with the Building Committee (Jim Kenniston and Brian Byrne (Co-Chairs), Joan Aldridge, Ned Ellis, Steve Weir, and Andy Mackay).