A great big thank you to the 13 members who volunteered for the Spring Clean up Day on Saturday May 12th from 9AM to noon with the last few finishing up at 2:30 PM. 

            Thank you to Lori Plazek for coordinating the efforts of the 5 people working inside to wash windows, sanctuary chairs, nursery toys, chandeliers and general deep cleaning, dusting and vacuuming.

Outside Project Completed by a crew of eight:

1. Main Entrance - replaced dead climbing rose bush, installed trellis for climbing rose, pulled weeds, planted annuals and spread colored mulch.

2. Parking Lot Islands - pulled weeds and spread colored mulch.

3. Under large Sunday school classroom window - replaced dead fern plants, pulled weeds, graded dirt and installed colored mulch.

4. Under Kitchen Window - pulled weeds and planted ferns in the corner.

5. North Entrance - Installed landscape edging to continue from east side and up to sidewalk.  Installed a concrete block platform for the grill.  Covered the grass, bishop weeds and lily of the valley in this area with landscape fabric. 

Projects done after Spring Clean up:

1. Purchased perennials and bushes with additional donations of Wayne’s Daughter  certificates (total of $120 donated). 

2. Planted flowers on the west side of north entrance. 

3. Dave Brown has been coordinating the building of new storage shed with Franklin High School Construction class.  The shed was completed and Dave and his wife Justine have painted the new shed to match the church.

4. Dave installed shelving and brackets to hang hoses and tools.

Projects Planned for June:

1. Replace dead bushes on west side, north of main entrance.  Jodee to get a bid for stump removal.  Push stone away for stump grinding (Sunday June 3rd after church?) and plant new bushes (Sunday June 10th after church?).

2. Add crushed stone to build a ramp to enter the new shed.

3. Clean out old shed and move items to the new shed.

4. Tear down old shed.

5. Paint, carpet and rearrange furniture in the church office.

Projects deferred till later:

1. Spread sand under concrete block platform for grill for final leveling and filling cracks.

2. Create a seating area east of grill, by north entrance.  (Possible donation of park bench or other nice seating and/or table?)

3. Spread free mulch under kitchen window, on east and north side of sanctuary and on islands on west side of parking lot.

The large lawn mower is on its last legs and is no longer able to be repaired.  The session has decided to purchase a new mower when the current one no longer starts.  Nancy Lalla works for Briggs and Stratton and is checking into the best price for a riding lawn mower with a 60-inch wide cutting path.  Currently only Dave Brown and Bill Marsh are trained and willing to operate the large riding mower.  This takes 4-5 hours a week PLUS 2-3 hours to use the walk behind mower in small areas and around the trees as well as weed whacking.  Please consider calling Dave or Bill if you’re willing to help.  It would be a big help to do the finish work if you’re afraid to run the big mower (as I am).  Maybe we can have a training session for the new mower when we get it to have a larger mowing crew.

The B&G committee is currently a group of two who’d like to be a group of six.  Our next meeting is Tuesday June 19th at 6:30.  You could visit and see if you’re interested.  If you’re not sure you’re willing to commit to joining the committee, how about helping us with some projects we can’t seem to get to? 

1. Research if, and where, and how much, for larger letters for the sign on Rawson to make it easier for passing motorists to read. 

2. We no longer can purchase paper towel for the bathroom towel dispensers from Sam’s Club.  We’d like someone to find another source for the towels or investigate if we need to purchase new towel dispensers and how much they’d cost and where to purchase paper towels in the future.  Remember we like the most cost effective options best.

3. Anything you notice we’ve missed doing.

Thank you from B&G members Jodee Plazek and Scott Paulson.  Feel free to contact us.