Rebuilding of Four Entrances to Met United 

Rebuilding of Four Entrances to Met United (2016 – 2018)

During an Elders’ meeting in 2016, I presented a report regarding the conditions of the four main entrances to the Church as well as the east side entrance and wooden ramp. My proposal to the Elders included two ways of approaching this project. The first suggestion was to obtain and award a contract to a construction company. The alternative was for the Property Committee to be their own construction group.

I told the Elders in 2016 that I was more than confident I could successfully, with my committee’s confidence in my leadership, undertake this project. I was so happy that the Elders gave me the go-ahead to do the work. The first entrance was rebuilt in October 2016. It took two summers (2017 and 2018) to get the 4 entrances completed. The rebuilds were a huge success. The work was beautifully crafted and, most importantly, saved the Church thousands of dollars by us being our own general contractor. During this period (2016-2017), Inga, my wife, was not well with her second bout of lymphoma and I was not 100% myself. However, I am eternally grateful to my engineering friend, Doug Buckley, who did a marvelous job setting vital grades in 2012 and serving as Acting Supervisor for all phases of outside work. While I’m not mentioning names of all those involved, I do want to name the important people of the Property Committee whose contributions were an important part of our success: the late James Baker, Dr. Al Herrington, and John Lee. Dr. Herrington kept financial control of Met United’s building funds. Ron Koudys was always available with sound advice and, of course, was responsible for the beautiful labyrinth that sits between the two north entrances to the Church. Also, Ron and the Koudys family provided funds for the spotlights on the four sides of the tower. (We also recognize the contribution of Deb Clemens for looking after the annual budgets for several years for the Property Committee.)