The Board of Trustees decided at a special meeting on January 27 to offer the parsonage for sale through a licensed real estate broker. While someone in the same building had offered to buy the parsonage, the Board felt that, if the apartment is to be sold, the only way to find out what it is really worth is to put it on the open market.
The vote to sell the parsonage immediately, rather than waiting until the new minister is settled, was 5 to 3 and came after a great deal of discussion of the pros and cons. In the end, a majority of the board felt that the benefits from an immediate sale outweighed the potential gains that might be made by waiting another 18 months or longer, such as being able to offer the parsonage to a prospective minister and getting a higher sale price by selling at a future date.
The anticipated benefits of the parsonage sale include:
The board has selected a real estate broker, after interviewing three highly qualified candidates, and will proceed to carry out the sale as soon as possible.
In the second part of the special meeting, the board discussed the implementation of the agreement with David Storey, Inc. to renovate and install the McKim organ in the Church. The McKim organ was given to the Church in February 2004. So far, $30,000 has been spent for relocating the McKim organ and for storage fees. The next phase of the renovation would require the Church to make three payments totaling $120,000 by April 1, 2005. Given the uncertainties that funds would be available to complete the organ renovation and installation (estimated to cost a total of more than $350,000), the fact that the Church is responsible under the agreement for ensuring that the Church building is properly prepared for the organ installation on the balcony, and that no work has been done yet to make such preparations for the building, the board decided to defer action on the organ renovation agreement until the funding and building issues are cleared.
The board then unanimously passed a resolution that affirmed the sentiment of the board of the importance of the organ in the life of the congregation and charged a task force to meet with consultants and begin assessment of feasibility of the McKim organ and other needed improvements in the building. This task force will take action to hire a consultant soon to help the church with these issues so that UNMC can move forward with the building improvements and the McKim organ project.