124 House committee Update

Following direction from the congregation at the last Membership Meeting, the Journey Board of Administration created a "House Committee" to gain a better understanding of what would be necessary to "prep" the house for possible ministry use.  The "House Committee" met Thursday evening, February 5, in the Community Room to begin the process of getting a handle on the work that would have to be done, and the costs involved, to get the house next door up to a point where it could be used for a ministry activity by Journey.  As a starting point, the committee walked over to the house to do a "walk-through" and inspect, observe and document the scope of work involved before sitting down to discuss and plan the path forward.

Upon attempting to enter the structure, the Committee unfortunately discovered evidence of substantial water damage inside the home.  It became immediately obvious to the team that there was at least one, and perhaps multiple, water pipes that had frozen and burst and were leaking into the dwelling.  The team spent the next two hours investigating to assess the extent of the damage and locate the source of the leak(s).

In the interest of time and brevity, the findings of the committee won't be detailed here - just a summary.

We found one burst pipe on the second floor in a small closet area that was not fully insulated (baseboard hot water pipe - the pipe itself was fully wrapped in insulation) .  There may well be other leaks elsewhere in the home that we were not able to locate.  After attempting unsuccessfully to shut off the water to the zone feeding this line, the decision was made to turn off the water supply to the entire house to prevent more water from leaking into the structure.  There was already substantial standing water in the basement level of the home.  The boiler was turned off as well.

There is massive internal damage to the ceilings (now lying on the floors), the walls, the floors themselves, insulation and the structural elements of the home (floor joists).  To renovate the building at this point would require "stripping it down to the studs" and starting over.  It is the considered and unanimous judgment of the committee members that the house is not economically "salvageable" at this point, and Journey should not pursue any use of the structure.  

These findings were presented to the Board of Administration at the February meeting, with the recommendation that no further work on renovation be done, and Journey proceed with demolition activity in the Spring.  After discussion, the Board concurred with this recommendation, and the decision was made to commence demolition activities as soon as weather permits.

-Mark Lockwood

Representative of the House Committee and Chair of Board of Spiritual Care