TLDR: September 28th marked the end of the public phase of our Strong Roots, Building the Future Campaign. Read below for important information about the campaign and upcoming construction.
The public phase of our Strong Roots, Building the Future Campaign has come to an end. What this means is not that the campaign is over, but rather that we will not solicit Capital Campaign funds publicly in church or through our communications. There is still an informal process that will continue at a more individual level. Namely, we have several families who have promised pledges but are awaiting for the sale of homes and the settlement of businesses before they pledge. We will pursue these pledges on a family-to-family basis. If you have not yet pledged and would like to have a conversation, please contact us and we will schedule some time to talk.
Before I give you an update on the projects the campaign will fund, let me take the time to publicly acknowledge the work that Laura Gunn and John Foudy, and their teams, did for this campaign. This was a long and busy process and both John and Laura did a great job. Thank you very much, we could not have done this without you.
The set of projects this campaign sought to address are as follows:
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A young family-friendly courtyard with age-appropriate playgrounds, a fenced set of walkways, rocking chairs, and a new gardening plan for the area.
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A new commercial kitchen in the area formerly occupied by the choirs in the Lennard Administration Building. This would necessitate the construction of a new choir room in the Bentley Education Center.
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Necessary upgrades and rehabilitation of our Sanctuary, specifically, a larger sacristy and a designated space for Petal Pushers; a new dressing room for acolytes, LEMs, and clergy; an expansion of the choir loft; the restoration of all pews and the addition of pew cushions; the replacement of all carpeted floors; and the creation of a designated space for the telecommunications team.
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The creation of a set of long driveways to reorient campus to the traffic light on Stuebner Airline Road to improve the visibility of our campus from this busy road.
The original goal for our campaign was 3 million dollars from the congregation, with an expected loan of up to 1 million dollars from the Diocese and Amegy Bank (approximately half a million from each source), bringing the total budget to 4 million dollars. Throughout the entire process, we promised the congregation that if we did not raise the total budget, or if the pricing from the construction company came in at above 4 million dollars, the Project Managers and Rector would present a plan to Vestry to reduce the scope of the projects until we arrive at a manageable budget. It has always been important to the Vestry and the Rector that we don’t saddle the church with ministry-crippling debt.
As of the end of the public phase of the campaign, we have raised 2.1 million dollars. Thank you all for your generosity and love for Saint Dunstan’s. Adding what we hope to add in additional pledges from the families mentioned above, we expect to collect between $2.25 to $2.3 million dollars. What this means is that we will have to adjust scope to achieve as many of our goals as possible with the money we have pledged. The following is the list of decisions we have made over the last three weeks to reduce scope:
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We walked all grounds and buildings with the Architects and made decisions that would reduce the total price tag:
- The Courtyard: This project is almost completed below budget and in record time. The removal of the old playgrounds, fixing of the old fences, and the building of beds for community gardening in that space remain to be accomplished. We decided to remove these items from the architectural designs to reduce paying fees for a project we can handle in-house. Our Senior Warden has created a Gardening Committee that will advice on this project in the near future.
- The Kitchen: We built a new choir room in the BEC at a very affordable price. The Project Managers (Rod Johnson and Cat Jones Penco) and the Rector have met with our Architects and made changes that will reduce the price of the kitchen. We reduced the need for demolition of existing closets and decided to incorporate them into the new design. We chose two professional grade under-counter dishwashing machines, rather than an expensive conveyor-belt-style dishwasher. We decided on a more affordable flooring solution and reduced the size of the isle. Together, the changes we made will result in several hundred thousand dollars in savings.
- The Sanctuary: We wanted marble-style flooring throughout the space with carpet runners and sound mufflers to facilitate sound. We changed this to carpeting, saving us tens of thousands of dollars in flooring, runners, and sound mufflers. We wanted to completely demolish the wall that separates the choir to the sacristy and all furniture in the sacristy in order to add space for the choir. Doing this would have required that we relocate all the air-conditioning equipment that rests above the sacristy. This would have resulted in costly labor. We will not remove the whole wall but make an 8 feet by 7 feet entrance into the wall, go about halfway into the room, and build a wall dividing the space in two areas. This will give the choir an extra row of sitting and will create a closet in the second half of the room for storage. The best part of this plan is that we will not have to relocate air-conditioning systems. Finally, we simplified our original designs for dressing rooms for acolytes, LEMs, and Clergy.
- Re-orienting the entrance to the light: The biggest change to this project is in the vendor we will select to build this set of driveways. Please read below.
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We decided to change the construction company we had originally engaged to build these projects, choosing instead local contractors which our Project Managers and Architects can oversee. This alone will save us on costly overhead. Let me give you an example. The large commercial builder we had engaged bid the building of the choir room in the BEC for $177,000 dollars. We chose a small local construction company that charged us $32,000, if we found a professional outfit to move the rolling music library. We contracted the original installers of the library which relocated it to the new space for approximately $8,000. What this means is that we were able to build a beautiful choir room for $40,000, which included the installation of the library, saving us $137,000. We plan to do the same with each of the other projects: Get two local bids to compare to the bid we already have, choose the most appropriate option, have our PMs oversee the project, and use designs we have already contracted our architects to develop.
To finish this blog, let me forecast some dates for the rest of the construction. We have decided to seek 3 Harris County permits because the permitting for the reorientation of the campus had the potential to delay the rest of the construction by five to six months. We are in the process of filing permits for the sanctuary and the kitchen first. I expect us to begin construction of our new kitchen by early November of this year. It will be an 8 to 12 week build out, which means that we will bless the new space early in 2026. Soon after that, we will begin the restoration of the sanctuary. The biggest piece of that work is the restoration of the pews, which may take as long as four months. Our target is to have the sanctuary completed by VBS week in June. The last piece will be the reorientation of the entrance to the traffic light, and since that permit will take at least six months to obtain, we will file it in early 2026. We hope to start that project in early September of 2026 and have it completed by Christmas of next year. We are getting close to accomplishing our dreams!
We are trying very hard to get all of our projects built for under $2.3 million, which may result in no debt. If we are unable to do so, we will secure Diocesan funding first (2% fixed for 30 years) before we go the commercial banking route. Please keep us in your prayers and feel free to send us any questions you may have.
May our Lord continue to bless you,
Fr. Roman+
