Benefit Concert: A Spiritual Crossroads

Tickets

Child ticket $6.00General ticket $13.50Premium ticket $21.00

A very positive part of the project is that the city of New Brunswick has begun repairing the faces and hands of the “Town Clock.”

As we step into the new year, two special events are on the January calendar. First, on Jan 19th, the Board of City Market, the association of businesses and organizations that advocates for New Brunswick and works for improvements, will have their monthly meeting at First Reformed Church. As a member of the board, Pastor Hartmut has been invited to present the preservation project to the group. Sherri Novack has given him technical help with the PowerPoint presentation, and the whole Fund-raising Committee will prepare breakfast.

At the coffee hour on Jan 23rd, we as a congregation will say “thank-you” to a group of individuals who have helped the church substantially the last few years with everything from legal assistance to advice about fund-raising. We hope that many will be on hand to recognize these folks for their gifts of time, enthusiasm, and expertise.

In addition, much of the beginning construction required coordination with Pine Grove Nursery School. As construction began, the school went through the last stages of state and city inspection and code review. You can probably imagine what this meant for the inspectors, but also for the staff of the school and our church, who tried to comply with every need.

How long will the construction last? It cannot be phrased shorter than in the language of one of our performance reports:

“Education Building soffits: Targeted substantial completion date September 30, 2010. Structural repairs in church attic and steeple; exterior steeple restoration: Targeted substantial completion date December 15, 2010”

This means that the current projects might be finished by Christmas. The current phase, however, will continue, and there will be more construction until the summer of 2013.

Throughout the year, a mixed group of graduate and undergraduate had worked on this Preservation Plan.

You might remember that 75% of the corresponding Preservation Plan for our buildings was funded with $50,000 planning grant from the NJ Historic Trust. This gives you an idea how expensive these kinds of plans are – even if the Preservation Plan for our cemetery is substantially shorter. Now the students presented their findings to a public audience in a very involved PowerPoint presentation. They started by delineating the existing conditions of the cemetery. The results were compiled in a digital database, easy to store, expand and share with others in years to come. It includes pictures of our grave stones – an irreplaceable documentation of the current status quo.

Following this, the plan entailed treatment recommendations, beginning with a chart of priorities and concluding with a cost estimate for restoration. Finally, there were the treatment reports. Again, at no cost to the church, the students had cleaned 46 grave markers with an architectural antimicrobial. They had also repaired two grave markers that had broken apart.

It was an evening of interesting speeches, much appreciation for our history, and a good fruit punch in the end. A great thank-you goes to Erie Beemsterboer who presented Christine Miller Cruiess with one of her beautiful handmade quilts. We also thank Ethel Salamone, Joan Fekete and Pastor Susan for the wonderful reception afterwards.

Christine Miller Cruiess, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers, will be leading a field school in the Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies Program (CHAPS). The goal of the field school is two-fold. First, the students will conduct a conditions assessment that will inform a Preservation Plan for the cemetery, following the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office’s Historic Structure Reports and Preservation Plans. The preservation plan for the site will be heavily informed by students’ work during the Spring 2010 term, the pre-requisite course for the field school. During the Spring 2010 term, the students completed archival research on the cemetery and those interred there, research into the materials in the cemetery, research into different conservation methods and techniques that conform to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, and a survey form and glossary to document the current conditions of each individual grave marker in the cemetery. The preservation plan will build upon the students’ previous work and create a prioritized treatment plan for the treatment of the entire cemetery site.

The second goal of the course will be comprised on a pilot implementation program where students will gain hands-on experience completing conservation treatments. The students will be supervised by two conservators who have extensive experience in outdoor monument and cemetery conservation (resumes available upon request). In summary, the proposed conservation treatments will include:

• Cleaning grave markers with D/2 (available from Cathedral Stone), an architectural antimicrobial.
• Repairing breaks in sandstone and marble markers using a structural epoxy.
• Repointing cracks and joints in grave markers using a lime-based mortar for marble markers and using a Jahn Patching mortar (available from Cathedral Stone) for repairing sandstone markers.
• Injection grouting delaminations in sandstone using a grout with water, lime, silica micro-balloons, and a fine silica sand.
• Resetting markers with proper alignment.

All treatments will conform with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards.

One of the first of Julius’ projects was the building of a large mail box by the entrance door on 9 Bayard Street. Until then, mail delivered through the slot used to land on the floor. Sometimes, we lost a piece, and sometimes two. The new mailbox changed all that.

Another project was the replacing of the wardrobe in Fellowship Hall. Without much ado, the frail old pieces ended in one of our many dumpsters, and Julius built us new ones. Later, you could see him lead a small team of volunteers rebuilding the walls of the pantry in the sexton’s house.

Then there was the plan for the new church library. Julius built the large windowsill, the conference table in the center, and the media center at the entrance to the room. He also built all the shelving in the room. Later, Julius built shelves and a wardrobe for the choir robes in the Robing Room.

Julius also organized much of our outside work when he coordinated the lawn mowing of our volunteers. And always, always, he has been seen with the wooden toolbox he stationed here at the church in order to fix this or that. Broken locks, chancel furniture, the frame for an air conditioning unit — you name it, Julius has done it all.

His efforts were crowned when he helped to get our preservation project underway. In order to expedite consistory discussions, he appeared at one of the meetings with a foam board filled with pictures that showed the extent to which our buildings had fallen into disrepair. As we all know, he came not a day too early.

Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves forced to replace the roof on the education building and to shore up its tower. Thanks to Julius, we had at least the structures in place to cope with these emergencies: Margaret Westfield as architect under contract, and a contractor and subcontractor to carry out the work without delay.

Now, Julius has passed on the baton — maybe not for all the particular projects, but for the chair personage of the Preservation Team. Caryn Aran is the new leader on board, and we welcome her with open arms.

When we finished the women’s bathroom, one could see Julius and Caryn work side by side — Elijah passing on his mantle to Elisha; you remember the story from 2 Kings 2.

We will recognize Julius’ service to the church and the passing of the baton to Caryn with a special coffee hour on Fathers’ Day, Jun 20th, after worship service. Please help us to make this a special day.

This month, Westfield Architects collected pre-qualification forms from the potential contractors involved with Phase I of our project. Following this, Westfield Architects called for references and sent them for approval by the New Jersey Historic Trust (NJHT).

As soon as the NJHT approves the bidder’s list, the bidding documents will be distributed. The bids are due in the second half of March. If all goes according to plan, our Consistory will vote on particular contractors in April. At the same time, our Preservation Team will want to coordinate our choice of contractors with neighboring Christ Episcopal Church. Cooperating in this way, we hope to be economically more efficient. Phase I construction is scheduled to begin during the second half of May. This is when the public will notice progress.

Since our grants from NJHT and from the City of New Brunswick will be paid by reimbursement, there will not be much news prior to the beginning of the construction. The exception is, of course, our reimbursement for previous construction under the NJHT grant. This depends now on recording an easement on our buildings with Middlesex County. NJHT is currently drafting this document, but Consistory will have to approve it before we can bring it to the county office.

There is some development regarding the state grant covering the cost of remediation for our former underground oil tank. The grant has been set aside by the Department of Environmental Protection, but requires review by the NJ Economic Development Authority who will have the final decision.

I can understand, however, when some of us might now feel that this grant be “a bite too big for us to swallow.” After all, we will have to match the grant 1:1 at a time when our resources have dwindled to a startling degree. Nevertheless, the image of “the bite too big” is inappropriate, and here are the reasons: 

The large construction costs of 2008 were not created by the Preservation Project but by emergency needs. We were able to manage this construction because we had the structures of the Preservation Plan in place (architect, companies, state certification, etc.) 

The grant award will now reimburse us for these construction costs in the stipulated amounts.  For all new preservation work, we have a window of several years to raise the remaining match. Our efforts are by no means over in this regard. In fact, our biggest challenge is not the challenge of having to raise more funds. Our biggest challenge is that we carry this huge preservation project as a group together; that we stand truly behind this project.

When pondering these things, please bear in mind that our church’s preservation needs and our church’s programs are two sides of the same medal and not two different things. Without preservation, a good part of our programs would fail as well, because we would no longer have a place on the map for them. We cannot run House of Manna, the Lunchtime Series or the Rotating Men’s Shelter without the grand space and central location our buildings offer. Similarly, our other ministries depend on our identity as it presents itself in our historic facilities at this very location. I am speaking of our work towards an open and affirming church, our ministry with people with developmental disabilities, and our interfaith dialogues.

Be this as it may, now is a time to celebrate and to thank God for this enormous blessing we have received.

There was a little celebration on the grant award on March 1st in Fellowship Hall. Pam and Ashley Gray provided a special coffee hour and, in addition, a huge cake that read “WOW ”.