Building Committee Update

By Kevin Brown

In 2009 the Building Committee was charged by the Board to clear the possible future building site, get a wetlands delineation, determine if we can connect to Hartford sewer and water, and to make process recommendations to construct a new building. We have completed the following:

Site Clearing
We cleared the site adjacent to the Meeting House parking lot of fallen trees, concrete, and other debris. The site has been rough-graded and will be planted with a conservation mix this spring and then mowed annually. This site is the proposed future building site.

Wetland Delineation
We hired Pathways Consulting to complete a wetland delineation study of the proposed building site. The delineation is now complete with a final scaled drawing and flags placed on the site to show the wetland boundary. The wetland boundary comes much closer to the parking lot than we originally thought, likely due to the site having been filled in years past. While we may be able to secure
a variance to build further from the parking lot there is standing water just under the surface in some locations that we will need to consider. The location of the wetlands may also make it more difficult to install a standard septic system.

Hartford Sewer and Water Availability
The Assistant Director of the Hartford Public Works indicated in a phone conversation that there should be no problem hooking into their system even though our property is in Norwich. There is more than sufficient capacity for both utilities—available along Palmer Court. While nothing is guaranteed until a permit is requested, they indicated there was a 90-95 percent chance of approval. This is good news as it will give our congregation options on how to deal with both sewer and water.

When the Building Committee met on January 25th we also passed the following motion concerning LEED Certification:

Motion: The Building Committee, the Board and our architect should pay close attention to the six major areas of “Green Construction” (sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design process) in the hope and expectation that the process will lead eventually to an appropriate level of LEED certification (as certified, silver, gold or platinum)

The Building Committee is now gathering information to decide the best process to follow as we proceed in selecting an architect and the many issues that will follow if the congregation decides to build. The Building Committee feels it is extremely important to keep everyone informed as to what we are doing, and why, with ample time for input from the congregation before any major decisions are made.

To this end, we are scheduled to visit the UU Plymouth congregation on February 21st. They are a congregation similar in size to ours and have recently completed constructing a sanctuary. We will be asking questions about how their process worked and for lessons learned along the way. On March 8 we will have a phone conversation with a UU congregation in Ohio asking similar questions. With these additional visits and other information gathered by the Building Committee, we will next present the Board with a recommended process, outlining how to proceed and how we will communicate to the congregation as we do so. Because there is a wealth of expertise in our congregation, I encourage input from everyone as we begin to move forward.