Things continue to happen on the Buildings and Grounds front at UNMC. Recently we made some forward progress in clearing off some of the peeling paint in the front stairwell of the church, just off the front entryway.
In particular Paula Harrison tried out some "Peel Away" paint remover on a test patch, and discovered that it seems to be effective in removing the layer of paint that had been over the underlying concrete/plaster of the walls in that part of the church since time immemorial. Greg Wigle kindly donated a good-sized container of the chemical to our efforts. Greg made the comment along the way that those particular walls should probably never have been painted in the first place. The underlying concrete/plaster is apparently intended to be bare, so that it may "breathe" in an unimpeded fashion. The original material evidently was very similar to the pseudo cut-stone to be found elsewhere in the building (to get an idea to what I am referring look at the areas in back of the altar in the sanctuary). Clearing the paint off the walls in the stairwell, for example, will undoubtedly be a reasonably major undertaking. At the same time, the effectiveness of the "Peel Away" leaves us with hope that it will not be an endless task of chipping the paint off piece by piece. In addition to experimenting with the chemical treatment, members of the B&G team cleared off flakes of paint that had peeled off the inside walls in the stairwell, so that for the time being the floors in that part of the church are free of paint chip debris.
Mr. Kominski has recently repaired the front doors of the church so that they look much better and function much better than they have for some time. He has also installed casement window air conditioners in the second and third floor rooms that are directly over the minister's study. The third floor air conditioner is apparently going to require an increase in the power supply available to it through the wall outlet in that third floor room, but the second floor unit is a very new Maytag unit that is ready for use.
Work on the outside grounds of the church goes forward. The church now has a new, plastic [non-rusting] seed/fertilizer spreader.
Mr. Kominski is also going to be repairing the hinges to the gate from the courtyard out into the back alley. This will make the courtyard more useable for various church purposes.
Finally, feel free to try the new paper towel dispensers in the basement restrooms. We have new soap dispensers and hope to have them installed in the near future. That's about it for this month.
Jorn Dakin, Chair
Posted by Sue Mosher at October 4, 2004 09:00 AM