Caring For Our Building

The Property team shares what they have been up to.

The HPCUMC Property Team, currently led by Jerry Hounchell, is responsible for ensuring that our facilities are clean, safe, and fully functional. We receive and handle a wide variety of requests for maintenance and enhancements, not only for the Hyde Park building, but also for the parsonage and The Warehouse. Sometimes we can accomplish the requests with the help of our facilities management partner (TDG), and sometimes we need to hire contractors.

We’d like to highlight 3 of our recent projects. The stained-glass windows in our chapel have been refurbished. During an insurance appraisal, we discovered that the leaded glass had expanded and contracted over the years, causing the glass to warp and bow. We contracted with Bigelow Glass of Findlay Ohio to refurbish those windows. Stabilizing bars have been added to prevent future warping. In addition, we had Bigelow remove our faded plastic storm windows and replace them with clear glass storm windows. Now, the windows look spectacular from both inside and outside!

All of the sanctuary pews (except balcony) have been taken off-site, repaired, and refinished. We hired a local company to perform this work – Bothe Cabinetry & Countertops. We were so pleased with their workmanship, we also used Bothe to refinish our communion table.

Following a burst pipe and flood in the 2nd floor music room, we inspected the condition of all our fan-coil units in the 1927 building. The Property Team decided to replace them all. Units were ordered, and TDG brought in a team of workers install 14 new fan-coil units. The old units had fans that were turned on or off manually, but the new units are thermostatically controlled. This should save energy and provide more consistent room temperatures.