2021 Annual Parish Meeting 2021-01-24 St. Thomas Orthodox Church
A Parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
Contents 2021 Agenda
2
2019 Minutes
2
Annual Reports
3
Rector
3
Parish Council Chairman
3
Treasurer 2020 Financial Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2021 Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 4 6
Cemetery Committee
7
Dinner Committee
7
Ladies’ Club
8
Maintenance Committee
8
Youth 12 Sunday School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SOYO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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2021 Agenda 1. Call to order and opening prayer: Fr. Peter 2. Approval of 2019 minutes 3. Election of new parish council members 4. Discussion of annual reports 5. Old business a) Endowment b) Archdiocesan assessment in arrears 6. New business 7. Announcement of new parish council 8. Closing prayer: Fr. Peter
2019 Minutes The 2019 annual parish meeting was held on December 8. A quorum was verified and Fr. Peter called the meeting to order with a prayer at 11:50 a.m. Fr. Peter introduced the constitutional amendments and explained each one. After his explanation, each amendment from the agenda (2a–d) was passed unanimously. New members of the parish council are George Stickney, Jr., Pete Steggerda, and Erica Ameen. There were no objections. Fr. Peter presented the annual reports and asked if there were any questions. There is no news on the endowment at the Archdiocese. There have been conversations between the Archdiocese and St. Thomas but nothing has been finalized. At this time, our assessments are in arrears. We will try to negotiate offsetting the arrears with the endowment. Fr. Peter ended the meeting with a prayer at 12:25 p.m. De Bottei
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Annual Reports Rector 2020 was a challenging year in which our parish council and I sought to shore up the foundations of the parish, both literally and figuratively. Despite the challenges presented to us by the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe we have been largely successful in doing so. We still have much work to do in 2021, but I believe we are headed in the right direction. During the year, while keeping to our regular schedule of Sunday Orthros and Divine Liturgies and twice-weekly Vespers, we also had one to three weekday Orthros and Divine Liturgies almost every week alternating between St. Thomas and Holy Trinity, even when we were restricted to having only those serving physically present in the church. In addition, we had • 0 baptisms • 1 chrismation • 1 wedding • 3 funerals In 2021, we will continue to do the best we can under the continuing restrictions placed on us by the pandemic and, God willing, be able to fully come together once again as a parish, face-to-face. Fr. Peter Cox
Parish Council Chairman It has been an honor to serve as chairman of the parish council this year. We begin 2021 focused on healing the foundations of the building in which we worship. COVID-19 has slowed the process but we have achieved much this past year and already have many plans for the coming year. Once we are past this pandemic, I hope we can begin healing the many broken relationships in our parish. George Stickney, Jr.
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Treasurer 2020 Financial Report
Table 1: Operating Income and Expenses Q2 Q3 Q4
Q1
YTD
Pledge Income Other Income
37 225.00 2464.82
26 290.08 339.31
16 397.70 829.14
17 252.43 2510.34
97 165.21 6143.61
Total Income Expenses
39 689.82 23 504.92
26 629.39 18 066.48
17 226.84 26 526.78
19 762.77 24 783.18
103 308.82 92 881.36
Net
16 184.90
8562.91
−9299.94
−5020.41
10 427.46
Table 2: Operating Account Beginning Balance (2020-01-01) Ending Balance (2020-12-31)
16 684.78 21 839.86
Net
5155.08
Table 3: In & Out Account Beginning Balance (2020-01-01) Ending Balance (2020-12-31)
0.00 0.00
Net
0.00
Table 4: Building Fund Account Beginning Balance (2020-01-01) Income Expenses Ending Balance (2020-12-31)
1 2
88 667.09 40 387.23 −52 041.62 77 012.70
Includes transfers between accounts and 2019 expenses Includes $9,000 from PPP loan and $19,590 from endowment interest
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2
1
Table 5: Savings Account Beginning Balance (2020-01-01) Ending Balance (2020-12-31) Net
24 561.25 29 207.50 4678.39
Actual expenses were 88% of budgeted expenses. Pete Steggerda
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2021 Budget Expenses
2020 Budget
2020 Actual
2021 Budget
401 Maintenance 402 Lawn & Snow 403 Education 404 Internet 405 Housekeeping 406 Trash Pick-up 407 Insurance (Church Property) 408 Utilities 409 General Supplies 410 Office Expense 411 Copier & Copier Expense 412 Benevolence
2500 1000 0 1400 2600 540 7000 10000 2000 1500 0 0
924 670 662 1783 0 402 6778 8400 1771 2188 1649 3110
1000 1000 200 2000 2600 500 7000 8000 1600 1600 2000 6000
Sub-total
28540
28337
34050
431 Priest Base Salary 432 Priest Cell Phone 433 Priest Health Insurance 434 Priest Life Insurance 435 Priest Prof. Exp.3 436 Priest IRA Contribution 437 Priest Medical Expense 438 Priest Auto and Insurance Allowance 439 Priest SS & Medicare Allowance 440 Priest Housing Allowance
24000 600 9600 1620 5400 2400 2000 3420 2295 12000
24000 600 9600 945 587 1400 1333 3420 2295 12000
27600 600 9600 1620 1000 2400 2000 3420 2400 12600
Sub-total
63335
56180
63240
0 9626 0
0 9626 900
0 9600 900
101501
94143
107790
450 Archdiocese 451 Archdiocesan Assessment 460 DOWAMA Total
Pete Steggerda
3
Includes travel
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Cemetery Committee Table 7: St. Thomas Cemetery Endowment Fund— Siouxland Federal Credit Union Beginning Balance (2019-10-31) Deposits Expenses Dividends Ending Balance (2020-11-30)
10 690.34 2750.00 −9662.82 25.80 3803.32
Table 8: St. Thomas Cemetery Endowment Fund— Stifel Financial Services Beginning Balance (2019-10-31) Ending Balance (2020-11-30) Dividends Earned & Unrealized Market Gain
108 096.09 130 023.91 15 400.45 Frank Brienzo Ron Carlson Nick Corey Patrick Corey
Dinner Committee In mid-March, the Siouxland Soup Kitchen posted on Facebook asking for help. George Stickney, Jr., saw the post and, with the approval of all of the parish council, he took items to them. We donated all of our to-go containers (tin, Styrofoam, and bowls/lids) and many of our pantry items. Our donation amounted to somewhere in between $300–350 but the important part was that we were able to quickly fill a need in our community. With October approaching and COVID-19 cases still on the rise, we decided to postpone the dinner. This was done with much consideration and not lightly. We had considered a drive-through-only dinner but, in order to control the flow of traffic, we would have needed permits from the city council. Ultimately, the final decision to postpone was made to ensure the safety and well-being of our parish family and our community. Our dinner is scheduled for September, 2021. Our prayer is that, by that time, things in life will be a little more “normal” and we can get together in the kitchen to share with our community our fun, our food, and, most importantly, our faith. Erica Ameen George Stickney, Jr.
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Ladies’ Club Father Peter, Brothers and Sisters In Christ, It has been a year like no other. We were able to have two meetings this year. We did have Father speak to us about the saints that were coming up for the month when we had our meetings. We did pay our yearly dues to the NAB along with giving $l,000 to the NAB project. We were not able to have any fund raiser this year. We did get donations for making Holy Bread for people. Since they will be working on our church foundation issue, we will not be able to have a Fatiyah sale this year or at least in the near future. Hopefully, we will be able to have a project to contribute additional funds for the NAB project. God has plans that the building gets fixed since we are all going through the COVID-19 pandemic. We pray that this year we will be able to have meetings and social gatherings; however, we need to stay safe for now and social distance. We pray God will get things back to normal and 2021 will be a good year. God’s blessings. Judy Stevens
Maintenance Committee The members of the maintenance committee are Father Peter, Deana Bottei, George Stickney, Sr., Nick Corey and Mike Jacobs. I was asked to chair the committee on or about July 8, 2020. I wish to acknowledge the able and tireless efforts of De Bottei who preceded me as the chair. She continues to clean the church on a weekly basis. All the other committee members have similarly made significant contributions to the efforts of the committee and those efforts are likewise appreciated. The following is a list of tasks (in no particular order) which have been identified and/or undertaken in 2020. These projects have been funded in large measure through the Building Fund. This was established by the parish council using the proceeds received from the sale of the parish house. 1. Nina’s Nursery was painted and updated. We do have a $6,800.00 bid from Mpire Heating & Cooling to add an air handler and air conditioning to Nina’s Nursery. No action has been taken on that bid. 2. We entered into a Preventative Maintenance Agreement with Mpire for the HVAC system at a cost of $4,600.00 per year. Mpire is to provide quarterly filter changeouts on all equipment, seasonal changeover of chiller and boilers, cleaning of condensers and operational checks of all mechanical equipment. On December 30, it was discovered that the heat exchanger on one of the boilers was clogged beyond repair. Ac-
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cording to Mpire, the other boiler, which was supposed to provide redundancy (i.e., backup), is undersized for our building. The committee is investigating our options. 3. Mpire’s work in re-doing all of the drip trays for the radiators has been delayed due to COVID but, hopefully, will resume and be completed soon. They also submitted a bid of $1,260.00 to replace the heating unit in the southeast stairwell adjacent to the men’s restroom with a hanging downflow hydronic heater. It was deemed too expensive and not a priority at this time. 4. Thanks to Frank Brienzo and Dee Skaff for arranging to have the front door stripped and re-finished. This has greatly improved the appearance of the front of the church. 5. Also, thanks to Frank for having the cemetery chapel cleaned up and re-finished. 6. Again, thanks to Frank for having the weeds in the parking lot on the west side of Jones Street sprayed by Jay-Lan. 7. Thanks to Nick Corey for having the retaining wall that prevents the west parking lot from falling into the Lutheran church parking lot rebuilt, fortified and repaired. 8. Thanks to Matt Ameen for cleaning out the vegetation, gravel and debris in the trench drain in the main parking lot. This was necessary to make sure that the winter snow and ice melt will flow to the alley and not place any additional undue stress on the lot and the retaining wall. 9. The sign out front was fixed so that it could be accessed and updated. 10. The damage done to the access ramp to the front porch was repaired. 11. All new locks and keys were obtained at a cost of $1,273.97. 12. Coughlin Landscaping cleaned out and trimmed the overgrown shrubbery on the north and south sides of the church. This was at a cost of $3,390.00 which was a lot of money. It was deemed necessary for two reasons: (1) to get the shrubbery away from the brick and mortar of the building and; (2) to improve the outward appearance of the church. It is now incumbent upon the members of the church to properly maintain the landscaping and shrubbery to avoid the expense of hiring this out in the future. 13. Sarah’s Stitches re-upholstered the pews with commercial grade padding and fabric at a cost of $8,998.70. This was financed for the most part from donations received in memory of Esther McDaniels. Jack from Sarah’s Stitches said we should be satisfied with the 17 years we enjoyed from the previous re-upholstering. It was done with residential grade fabric because of the budget the church had at the time. He emphasized the need to exercise appropriate precautions in the future with this new fabric. Even commercial grade fabric will not stand up to candle wax.
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14. In June, 2020, we retained Steve Bruening of Draco Engineering for $1,500.00 to do a site evaluation and generate a report with recommendations. Steve has been an invaluable resource. He has made several return visits and responded to numerous emails and phone calls to assist the committee in its efforts to prioritize its work. 15. Steve concluded the overall condition of St. Thomas was “good” and that the “building has performed well for 70 years.” His main concerns were: (1) the parking lot retaining wall failure; (2) the masonry deterioration of the bell tower and; (3) the settling of the northeast corner of the “New Addition.” 16. At Steve’s recommendation we also enlisted the services of Certified Testing Services, Inc. In July, they did a “geotechnical exploration” (i.e., a soil sample) at a cost of $1,650.00 and in August they did a floor survey at a cost of $500.00. These were very useful, and Steve Bruening thought essential, in identifying the scope of the work necessary to address the northeast settling issue and to provide some insight into the retaining wall/parking lot issue. For example, after these tests both contractors bidding on the northeast corner settling issue, Thrasher, Inc. and Concrete Specialty, Inc., re-worked their estimates and scopes of work and substantially reduced their bids. 17. Thrasher’s original bid was $29,500.00 and Concrete Raising’s was $28,000.00. After the Certified Testing reports, their scopes of work were revised. The bid we ultimately accepted from Thrasher for the stabilization work to be done commencing on February 2, 2021, was $16,184.00. Please note this is intended to stabilize but not lift the northeast corner. The consultants and the contractors agreed trying to lift the northeast corner of this all-brick structure was too risky to the integrity of the brick and not necessary to cure the problem. Also please note, this bid does not account for replacing the tile floor along the east wall of the kitchen when Thrasher’s work is completed. That will be an added expense. 18. A major manifestation of this settling issue was a significant gap running basically the entire length of the vertical joint between the new addition and the old structure on the north exterior wall of the building. This gap has already been patched by Western Specialty Contractors at a cost of $2,700.00. (Western also did some miscellaneous tuck pointing across the north wall as a part of this expense). Both Western and Thrasher assured us that this repair of this vertical joint would withstand Thrasher’s stabilization efforts in February. 19. On July 30, 2020, Steve Bruening and a roofer named Lee Knop did a thorough interior inspection the Bell Tower. They went all the way up into the dome itself. This coincidentally was one day after a tremendous rain storm. The interior was dry. This was followed up by an exterior inspection performed by Steve Bruening and the crew of another roofer, Jerry Croxen. Jerry’s crew did the roof installation in 2007. They
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were satisfied that neither the roof nor the bell tower was allowing rain infiltration at that time. Nonetheless, it was obvious that the brick and mortar were severely deteriorated and needed attention to help prevent future water infiltration and to prevent the brick from becoming dislodged and falling to the porch. 20. None of the roofing contractors were interested in bidding on this bell tower repair. It is somewhat of a specialty in the concrete trade. Steve Bruening had experience with Western Specialty Contractors out of Omaha, NE. They proposed to rebuild the northwest corner of the bell tower; re-point the rest of it and then clean and seal it at a cost of $21,450.00. By all outward appearances, it appears they did a nice job although they have agreed to return to re-point some additional mortar joints further down the bell tower. I was assured there was simply a misunderstanding between the estimator and the crew that actually did the work. 21. While maneuvering their manlift to work on the bell tower, Western damaged the concrete panel making up the walkway from Jones Street to the east/west public sidewalk in front of the church. Although we already had a bid from Concrete Raising Services to even up and fill voids under some sidewalk sections including these, Western’s damage was such that they ended up busting out the entire panel and repouring it. As a result, we wound up with a brand new section of sidewalk. 22. It is obvious to all observers that in the back corner of the main parking lot, the retaining wall has failed with the middle of the wall severely bulging out while the concrete curb and fence at the top have tipped inward. Also, the pavement in this area has settled. The great unknown is just how much of the parking back to the south of this failed portion of the wall, has been undermined or has voids. The soil sample helped but the true extent can only be revealed once the concrete is removed and remedial efforts commence. We have bids ranging from Andreas Barboza $9,200.00 to Mpire Heating & Cooling $27,000.00 to L&L Builders $30,610.00. Coughlin Landscaping requested $2,500.00 to properly engineer the issue but estimated that to properly address the problem could easily cost in excess of $100,000.00. 23. All have agreed we should be able to survive at least one more winter. We are expecting another bid from Western Specialty Contractors in the coming weeks. 24. We have a bid from Concrete Specialty to patch the front porch at a cost of $700.00. Steve Bruening thinks this is adequate and more than one contractor concurred. We have had all kinds of opinions on what needs to be done to prevent suspected water infiltration into the basement, most noticeably on the back wall of the stage. Steve does not think this is caused by any major leaks. He attributes this to moisture efflorescence which is the natural movement of a certain amount of moisture through dirt and concrete which then turns to condensation when there is not proper ventilation. He advocated for a good patch of the cracks on the front porch and a good
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seal of the porch between it and the front of the building (and repeated attention to those repairs on a periodic basis) as opposed to busting out the entire front porch and attempting to completely rebuild it. If this works, it needs to be followed up with a good cleaning of the stage wall and then leaving the doors and curtains to the stage open most of the time to allow for greater movement of the humidity and the air. 25. Concrete Raising assured us they would still be willing to do this work to patch and seal the front porch even though they did not get the northeast corner stabilization job, but said they were too busy to get to it in 2020. 26. We have had Mozak Furniture out to look at the flooring issues both upstairs and downstairs but have given those projects lower priority in light of the projects described above. Also, we would like to get the radiator drip tray replacements in place and make sure they work before spending money on new flooring in the sanctuary. Mike Jacobs
Youth This has been a hard year for everyone, but I think the youth have had more struggles than we are aware of, personally, in school, church, work, and home. They left school one Friday in March and didn’t go back for months. Their worlds got turned upside down and, like the rest of us, they had to adapt on their feet. No matter what, these kids have risen to the occasion and have been absolutely amazing.
Sunday School Sunday School unintentionally met for the last time in mid February. My son was sick, and then the retina in my good eye detached. The plan was to start Sunday School again after my surgery, but COVID-19 hit in the middle of all of that so we did not have another inperson class for Sunday School to end the second semester of the school year in Spring, 2020. Our hopes were high with having full classes to start the Fall 2020 semester and we purchased new curriculum for the Middle School/High School class. Unfortunately, when trying to confirm students for the school year, there were only a couple of maybes for the elementary age class so it was decided to just have the MS/HS class. Our first couple of classes had most of the kids (6–8) but the majority of classes have only had 4 students. We finished the first session in The Relationship Project and then started working on our Christmas “play.” Our last couple of classes in December were held via Zoom to be in compliance with the Governor’s ordinances. Our Christmas play was a short video that was shared on our social media pages. Our goals for the coming year is to increase class sizes, and to finish The Relationship Project. We will be beginning Session Two on January 10.
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SOYO We had a few Zoom check-ins during the spring to just talk and pray together. We held out hope for as long as possible but Camp St. Raphael was canceled for the summer and everyone was pretty heartbroken about it. CSR did an amazing job by still sending out shirts and doing some virtual camp sessions that teens were able to join in on. SOYO has been incredible with philanthropic efforts. Whenever a need has been seen, these teens have jumped at the opportunity to help. In July, the Siouxland Community Health Center made a Facebook post asking for help with supplies for their mobile shower unit. The teens decided to spend $200, and a couple of teens and I did the shopping and dropped off the supplies. In August, SOYO sent $200 to St. John Orthodox in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to help with the ongoing cleanup efforts after the derecho affected so many. For the last three months of the 2020 year, SOYO sponsored food/item drives benefiting a different charity each month. October was The Food Bank and 89 lbs. of food were donated. November was The Warming Shelter and over 40 pairs of socks, 9 lbs. of food, and other various items were delivered. December’s donations were directed to The Soup Kitchen/Erik’s Closet. Donations are still being collected at the time of this report so a final total will be made known soon. The first weekend in October, we participated in a DOWAMA SOYO virtual retreat. It included a guest speaker, breakout questions, and games. We ended our afternoon together with pizza and Great Vespers. November gave us the opportunity be creative at The Pickled Palette, and create our own pottery designs. Our goals for the next year will be to get as many kids to camp as possible. We will need to do some sort of fundraiser this coming year as well, since we have done so much with giving to those in need. In all, St. Thomas has amazing youth in our church. Do all you can to support them, love them, and encourage them. Erica Ameen
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