Task Force Mission

Gathering Together

Ensure that everyone, regardless of mobility capacity, will be able to attend services and meetings at EUUC.

Living our Vision of a Just and Sustainable World

Add solar collectors and replace fossil-fuel powered equipment so that EUUC is powered without adding to global warming.

Nurturing the Spirit

Foster the joy of knowing we are living up to our values and inspiring us to fully support creating facilities that better support our values and mission.

News

9/30/2026

Kay Crider Coming

Right after Sunday services on October 11th, Kay Crider will be addressing us over Zoom in Chapman Hall.  Kay is our stewardship consultant who is coaching us on aligning our facilities with our values.

Kay’s presentation will start at 11:30 and will probably wrap up around 12:15. Kay will explain about the coming pledge drive to support our values-alignment work.  Put it on your calendar.

Limits We Will Run Into

This week, Germany announced that they will have stopped all fossil fuel burning by 2045.  That means no burning natural gas.  No burning gasoline.  No burning coal.  No diesel or propane.  This is the required future for everyone, as people have learned from recent events in Nepal, Morocco, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Texas.  By 2050, all EU countries will have stopped burning fossil fuels.

Here in Washington State, we will also eliminate fossil fuel burning by 2050, or nearly so.  We have legally committed to reducing our fossil fuel burning to 5% of our 1990 levels.

Current estimates are that, this year, Washington State will emit a total of about 94 Mt (million metric tonnes) of greenhouse gases.  Over the next four years, an average drop in fossil fuel burning of 15% per year is required by Washington State law.  After that, burning of gasoline and natural gas will have to drop even faster.

Natural gas will remain available to homeowners and businesses, but the 47% drop in supply is going to make prices go wild over the next four years.  It is not a moment too soon to get out of natural gas!

Sound Dampening

When we were having architects visit to make proposals, we got a visit from an Edmonds architect who has designed and built auditoriums.  As soon as he walked into Chapman Hall, he said, “Well this won’t work.”  The problem is the hard concrete floor reflects sound a lot.  The hard cinder block walls reflect sounds a lot too.  The sound dampening we’ve installed is a start, but not enough.

The problem with sound reflections is that the sound of someone saying, “tea” gets to you, then a tiny moment later it gets to you again, and then again, and again.  The result is a very quick ‘t-t-t-t-ee-ee”.  It’s like making a sharp line in a picture fuzzy.  The fuzzy line is harder to see.  The fuzzy words in Chapman Hall are hard to hear.

I’ve been getting emails from members and folks have been speaking to me about the sound in Chapman Hall, and in the Narthex.  People tell me they can’t participate in coffee hour because they can’t hear what anyone is saying.  I know that’s true, because I can’t hear anything in the Narthex.  If you tell me something there and I smile at you, that’s because I don’t have a clue what you said.

The best sound experience I have been aware of was the Tillicum Café in Seattle.  They were so keen on sound dampening, they covered their ceiling with sound dampening tiles and covered the underside of each table with sound dampening material.  For someone like me, that was a dream. The last time I was in, the sound dampening under the tables was gone and it was harder to hear, but for a while there, it was lovely.

In my dreams we will completely cover our exposed ceilings and our walls that are out of reach with sound damping, and put carpet in Chapman Hall.

Architect Visiting on Oct 4

This coming Sunday, October 4^th, our architect, HKP, is sending one of their partners, Julie Blazek, to see how our spaces work for us now.  She will arrive before the service to watch people enter, watch the kids get to their classrooms, and watch coffee hour and the transformation of Chapman Hall to a dining area.  She might stick around to watch us clean it all up again.  Her goal is to learn how we’re doing with the facilities as they are now.

Prioritization on Oct 9

On October 9^th, Friday of next week, HKP will meet with representatives of all of our programs and activities.  We’ll be sure that every use of our facilities is spoken for.  The questions are things like how important is getting natural gas out of our heating?  How important is it to get more seating?  How important is it to arrange for more spaces for RE?

Our dreams are wonderful and rich.  Our finances cannot pay for everything we can dream of, so HKP will help us prioritize.  That’s what they will be preparing for on the 9^th.

9/21/2026

Last Friday (the 18^th), the Aligning-Our-Facilities Task Force met at EUUC with the architect and engineers for HVAC, fire safety, mechanical, structural, and civil engineering.  The primary topic was what was expected from the architect, HKP, and when; and what was expected from the engineers and when.

The engineers showed up early and stayed afterward to start evaluating our facilities.

The civil engineer suggested the bamboo forest to the West of our parking lot will likely spread onto our property.

Previously, Charley Beltman and I had a heat pump installer visit.  That installer suggested we might have a commercial-sized heat pump to heat Chapman Hall, the Narthex, and the entryway, and then residential-sized heat pumps to heat the smaller rooms of R.E. and the offices. I asked the HVAC engineer, Ola Jarvegren, about this.

Ola said residential units would be cheaper to install, especially at ground level.  They would be easier to get repaired and maintain, because there are a lot of companies that maintain residential and only a few that maintain commercial.

Ola was concerned we would not want to have residential units at ground level, because our members might think residential units were unsightly.

On Sunday, I showed the EUUC members who showed up for the monthly update these mockups of outdoor heat pump units:

That last picture includes a conception of what solar could look like.  The heat pump compressor in that picture is in an alcove outside a room that contains one of the natural gas furnaces that we’re taking out.  The alcove and the room behind it currently have no purpose other than housing the natural gas furnace.

At Sunday’s meeting, David Marlow pointed out that we can build enclosures around the units if we want a different look. Here is what the outdoor units might look like with screens.

The members at the meeting shared that they had no problem with the look of outdoor heat pump units.

Resistance Heating

I asked Opa about resistance heating to allow us to heat Chapman Hall quickly.  Opa said he would look into that, but resistance heating is banned by most building codes these days.  Even if we could install resistance, Opa doubted we would want to take on the fire risk.

Opa shared that, in a tall space like Chapman Hall, for every foot you go up, you have to heat the top of the room an addition 1 degree.  To have the air at the seats 72°, we would have to heat the air against the ceiling to 90°, unless we installed a really big fan.  He wondered whether we were open to a really big fan.

He explained that the fan would be silent (not mess up our moments of quiet) and would move slowly.  It would move the air down slowly enough that there would be no noticeable draft or breeze.

Cynthia Grace pointed out that there is a concern about adding electrical equipment near the A/V wires.  There is a risk that you’ll end up with a disruptive hum (a 60-cycle hum).  We would have to get guarantees from the manufacturer that the fan would be actually silent, move slowly, and not interfere with the A/V equipment.

If you have been in the Waterfront center in Edmonds, you may have looked up above the coffee shop and seen the kind of fan that Opa was suggesting.  Here is the one in the Waterfront Center:

On Sunday, I shared this mockup of what such a fan would look like in Chapman Hall.

I asked the members at Sunday’s meeting about this, and the general attitude was that this seemed OK.  I will share with Opa that we think it’s OK by us, as long as it is silent, doesn’t create noticeable drafts, moves slowly, and doesn’t interfere with nearby electrical A/V equipment.

The last thing we did in our meeting at EUUC on Sunday was consider priorities and goals.  Our dreams will be greater than our resources.  We will not be able to do everything we could dream of.  I asked everyone to consider 11 goals.  Each person was asked to put two sticky tags on the goals that were the most important to them.  Here are the results.

21 members put up tags.

The top objective, stopping greenhouse gas emissions, got 11 tags.

The second highest priority was capacity: having enough room in Chapman Hall so newcomers feel welcome.  That got 8 tags.

Sunday’s service was a good example of that capacity challenge.  I helped two newcomers enter at 10:04.  When we went into Chapman Hall, we saw very few open seats, and no seats that would allow a couple to sit together.  Eventually, we realized there was room for two next to Walt Leberg.

In Sunday’s meeting, folks explained that there was room in the front row.  The front row does not work for newcomers.  Imagine going to a new congregation with its unusual religion, and they tell you to sit in the front row.  I wouldn’t go back.

The goal of sprucing up (new paint, new carpets, better lighting, etc) got 6 tags.

More space for R.E. got five tags.  All-gender bathrooms (probably single stall bathrooms) got 4.

ADA accessibility got 3 as did fire/earthquake safety.  Safety from crime/violence got one tag.

Parking got none, native plantings got none, and the car camp got none.  That doesn’t mean we don’t care about those things.  That just means they weren’t highest priorities of the 21 people there on Sunday.

Next Step: More Goal Clarification

Around the start of October, we will meet with just the architects (no engineers) to talk more about our goals.  On our end, we will include representatives for different activities of our facilities: the Facilities Team, R.E., Kitchen (First Sunday Lunch or Coffee), Religious Services (Minister?), Car Camp, Choir, A/V, Safety Team, Musicians, a parent, a senior, hearing impaired, Queer, Greeters, Ushers, the Board, Social Concerns Committees, Fiber Arts, and who else?  Rather than having too many people there, we’ll try to have representations double up.  For example, we will have one person who is both A/V and Safety, and another who is Facilities and hearing impaired.

That meeting will be only two hours.  HKP will send questions in advance and we’ll try to show up well prepared to make good use of the time.

What will the architects deliver in December?

In December, the architects are going to deliver something like a restaurant menu: a list of work we could have done and estimates of how much each item would cost.

Like the mockups I have provided here, the architects will provide images and descriptions to help us understand what each project would accomplish.

HKP will collaborate with us on picking what set of projects we will actually do, given what we can afford.

When we’re done, we will still have a list of projects and what they would have cost in 2027 that can guide the Facilities team for years to come.

— Nick

9/15/2026

HKP has finished getting contracts drawn up and signed and the engineers are onboard.  On Friday (September 18), HKP and we are meeting at EUUC to fill out more details about what we are expecting HKP to deliver to us and when.  HKP will be making sure their engineers know what HKP needs from them and when HKP needs it.

The engineers are KPFF, Lund Opsahl, and FSi.  They will be providing evaluations of our current facilities in terms of structural issues, mechanical, sustainability, and civil engineering.

I’ve been talking with people about how we will be heating, and I have gotten overwhelmed by the variety of options.  We could go with ducted heating and a centralized heater, or mini-splits and multiple compressors around the building, or mixtures of those.  We can use only heat pumps or we can include some resistance electric heating.  And how much we need will depend on how well we can insulate.  I don’t know what is possible with our concrete block construction and our skinny windows in RE.  Concrete blocks wick heat out of a building, so some insulation might help, either between the rooms and the blocks or between the blocks and the outside.  But where does that insulation go on the skinny RE windows?  Are we going to add an inch of insulation around the inside of each window and make them two inches skinnier?  I’m looking forward to hearing what HKP and the engineers come up with.

Signage

With our new bathrooms, we’ll need new signage.  I saw this in a sandwich shop in Boise last week.  Nice for an Idaho sandwich shop.

I’ve seen signs like this too, which I like:

History of Plans

We have hard copies of plans for EUUC going back to the original conceptual drawings from 1964.  We got those hard copies scanned and shared them with HKP.  Our buildings were originally designed by Frank Moffat.  His architectural firm is still in business in Bellevue, but they seem to have evolved into more of an engineering firm and not so much architecture anymore.  Here are a few of his plans.

What EUUC might have looked like as you drove in the driveway.  You can see Chapman Hall on the right:

Here is Moffat’s initial conception of the floorplan: what the rooms looked like looking down on them:

Moffat’s plans give me the impression that EUUC would be a center for religious education with a small sanctuary tacked on: more space for kids than for grown ups.  In 1964, the baby-boom kids were two to ten years old.

9/7/2026

The architect, HKP, is now sub-contracting with their engineers to get our facilities reviewed.  As part of their proposal to do our work, they collected bids from contractors, so they are not starting from scratch.  Now they are getting back to their engineers to finalize their contracts to get the work done.

8/30/2026

8/26/2026

Architect

We have signed a contract with HKP to do the first phase of our remodeling/upgrading work.  They will work with a bunch of engineering firms to find out what our facilities are now and what can be done.

Our Heating Furnaces

I was asked about the strategy of replacing all of our natural gas furnaces now.  The question was about what it would cost.  What are we paying to stop our greenhouse gas pollution?

We will know a lot more about costs after this first phase of HKP’s work.  They have contracted with an estimator who will provide high-reliability estimates of costs sometime around December.  Until they do their work, I can only roughly estimate what things will cost.  Here is an analysis of financial costs and greenhouse gas impacts based on what I could find easily online.  The cost estimates of the professional estimators that are based on the engineers’ review of EUUC could be much higher or much lower.  Please do not be disappointed.  It is what it is.

Here is what I see:

• We have eight natural gas furnaces with different ages:
  • 32 years old: 3
  • 15 years old: 4
  • 14 years old: 1

• Estimates of the lifespans of our current furnaces are 15 to 20 years.  For cost modeling, I’m using the mid-point, 17.5 years.
• The 32-year-old furnaces should be replaced as soon as possible. We will likely replace them next summer; in 2027.
• There is likely a significant discount for replacing all 8 furnaces together, rather than 3 now and 5 later.
• Guidelines are that an 8,300 square foot building like ours in the Seattle area needs less than 420,000 BTU of heating capacity.  We have 665,800 BTUs of capacity (if all the furnaces are working to capacity).
  • We might be over supplied.
  • We might be under-insulated.
  • It is very likely that the 32-year-old furnaces no longer provide the BTU’s they did when they were new.
  • Typical heating needs for 8,300 square feet are probably not based on in-slab ductwork.  We may be wasting a lot of energy warming up our slab and the ground below it.
  • If HKP gets us very well insulated, we might need much less than 420,000 BTU, which would save us on HVAC equipment costs.
• Natural gas costs will rise between 2027 and 2045 (the expected lifetime of any new natural gas furnaces installed in 2027).  The rises may be very dramatic.
  • The Washington State Climate Commitment Act dials down how much natural gas and gasoline can be legally burned in Washington State by a constant amount each year (about 4% of current consumption) for the next 25 years.  By 2045, less than 20% of the current consumption will be legally allowed.  We don’t know how that will affect prices.  Even if 80% of buildings and cars are switched over to electricity, natural gas prices will rise dramatically as 20% of the current customers are required to pay to maintain the same natural gas infrastructure.
  • If fewer than 80% of consumers switch to electricity, the ratio of supply to demand will lead to extremely high prices, and lead to a risk that natural gas will be rationed or otherwise limited.  We cannot guarantee that future EUUC’ers will be able to heat with gas, even if they wanted to.
• Washington State building code requires heat pumps for new commercial (non-residential) construction.
• Our current heating releases 25 tons of CO₂ each year
• Releasing tons of CO₂ is about as ethical as driving around with a cracked engine and releasing a cloud of black oil smoke.
• Actual dollar costs of heat pump installation depend on the site and the designs.
  • Installing heat pumps on our roofs would probably be more expensive than on ground-level pads.  For example, a 10-ton heat pump (120,000 BTU) weighs about 0.75 tons.
  • We will know in November what our options are, based on what our roofs can support.  We don’t know that now.
• Our furnaces that are less than 32 years old are Goodmans, almost the lowest quality brand available.
  • Installing highest-quality HVAC minimizes our maintenance work and operating costs.
• I believe that, if we can, EUUC would like to be able to be a hot weather shelter in coming heat waves.  That requires AC.  Heat pumps include AC.

Our Current HVAC

We have eight natural gas furnaces.  Lex Lowe got information on them together.  Here’s what he found:

Here’s the deal with natural gas furnace lifetimes:

“Most gas furnaces last 15 to 20 years, and performance often declines as the system gets older.  Some systems run longer, but it is more common to see higher repair needs and performance problems as the furnace ages” (https://filterbuy.com/resources/furnaces/furnace-knowledge/how-long-does-a-gas-furnace-last-lifespan-replacement-signs-extend-life/).

“When is it time to replace? … It may be time to call a professional contractor to help you make a change if… Your furnace or boiler is more than 15 years old.  Consider replacing” (https://www.energystar.gov/saveathome/heating-cooling/replace).

“Once a furnace reaches the 15-year mark, efficiency often begins to decline noticeably.  You may start to experience: Uneven heating… More frequent repairs… Higher monthly heating bills” (https://www.ssihvac.com/old-furnace-what-furnace-lifespan-tells-you/).

I have seen one of the 32-year-old Trane furnaces.  It is rusting away and has developed holes.

Here is a summary of how much it would cost to buy, install, and run replacements that provide at least 420,000 BTU for 17.5 years.  The calculations behind this table are available in an accompanying workbook.

Notes

• An excel workbook with calculations for this table is available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JP2_Zj_DUiGvTJ4Hgvvy9RjooaMlin0h
• For comparability, the options are all Trane products.
• As far as I can tell, these options are the high-reliability Trane product lines.
• The RunTru is only heating.  The RT-series Gas/Electric Package includes AC.
• The prices are from HVACDirect.com.
• The installation estimates are what I could find easily online for Snohomish County.  The estimates are supposed to include likely discounts for quantity and costs of upgrading electrical systems as needed.
• The operating costs are based on therms of natural gas or kWh of electricity estimates I could find easily online.
• The CO₂ emissions of the two electric options are due to 5% of the electricity from SNOPUD being generated with fossil fuels.  As SNOPUD eliminates their remaining CO₂ emissions by 2050, their emissions per kWh will go down.  I’m using their average expected emissions per kWh over the 17.5 years.
• SNOPUD is currently charging commercial customers 8.6 cents per kWh.
• PSE is currently charging $1.48 per therm.  No one really knows how much natural gas prices will go up with the Climate Commitment Act. PSE estimates that rates will go up an average of 3% over inflation each year (https://www.pse.com/-/media/PDFs/IRP/2023/gas/chapters/04_IRP23_Ch4_Final.pdf; https://www.pse.com/en/press-release/details/PSE-files-three-year-electric-and-natural-gas-rate-plan).  My calculations here are based on average cost increases of 3% over inflation and 17.5 years of expected operations.
• Purchasing an installation of resistance heating would cost more than $100,000 less than heat pumps.  A financial analysis for home heating would include income from investing that $100,000. This modeling does not attempt to balance the options by including interest on $100,000 because I don’t think people would contribute to a $100,000 investment fund for future electricity expenses.
• If we add solar, our electricity costs will be much lower than shown in the table, and the two all-electric options will be much less expensive.

Ductwork

We should replace our ductwork.  For resistance heating and heat pumps, that is a smaller job, because many locations can be served without ductwork.  For natural gas furnaces, we would have to add new ductwork everywhere.

Our buildings rely on slab-on-grade foundations.  That is, a slab of concrete is poured onto a flat graded dirt surface, and everything else sits on that.  We have what is called “in-slab ductwork”.  In-slab ductwork was popular from 1950 to 1980.  By 1980, the downsides to in-slab were becoming apparent and folks stopped building with in-slab.  The downsides are:

• Cracks bring moisture to the ducts and the ducts start corroding, which may include rusting away.  If this happens, you can’t tell, because you can’t see the ducts.
• You can’t replace in-slab ductwork without jack-hammering the slab and replacing it too.
• If the water table is gets above the height of the ductwork (as it is sometimes at EUUC), the water gets through cracks and fills up the duct work, as has happened in the RE wing.  (That is the reason for the moisture-handling equipment in RE-5 and RE-6.)
• You waste energy heating the slab and the ground below it unless the ductwork is super-well insulated, which ours likely is not.
• You can’t open a section for maintenance or replacement.

The result is that folks haven’t wanted to work with in-slab ductwork for 45 years now.

Conclusions

It is very unlikely that it makes sense financially to run the younger natural gas furnaces any longer. It certainly makes no sense from a carbon emissions point of view. The younger Goodman furnaces will be very near their expected lifetimes when we replace them and volume discounts will probably save us money compared to replacing furnaces in two waves.

We should go with heat pumps. Ideally, we will have solar to bring our HVAC costs down even further. We’ll learn more from the architect.

I hope we can insulate better so we can be comfortable with fewer heat pumps.

In December, we will have much more reliable estimates based on professional estimator work.

8/18/2026

On Sunday (the 16th), about 20 members met in RE-5 to talk about the Aligning-Our-Facilities-With-Our-Values project. Lots of important ideas and issues were brought up. The next check-in meeting will be Sunday, September 20th, at 11:30 in RE-5.  You are invited to join in to hear how things are going.

8/12/2026

On Aug. 9, last Sunday, the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation of the Aligning-Our-Facilities task force to hire HKP to help us better align our facilities with our values.

Here is what we shared with the board about why we recommended HKP.

Why We’re Doing This

We EUUC members value welcoming everyone, and yet the bathroom doors from the hall outside RE 1 & 2 are too heavy for someone in a wheelchair to open them and get through by themselves, and you can’t safely depend on a rollator from your car to Chapman Hall.

We care deeply about the climate, and yet we are burning natural gas in our heating systems and releasing global warming pollution — 25 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

We want everyone who needs us to find a spiritual community home at EUUC, and yet our Sunday services are so crowded we often don’t have room for a new family of four to sit together if they arrive a couple of minutes late.

Architect Contract Recommendation

The Aligning Task Force conducted a thorough and deliberate selection process to identify the architectural firm best suited for our Aligning Our Facilities with Our Values project.

We sent Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to twelve architectural firms, many of them recommended by knowledgeable members and friends of the congregation.

Four firms submitted proposals, and after reviewing them, conducting site visits, and holding interviews and discussions, the Task Force narrowed the field to two finalists: HKP and SCR.

We then spent two additional weeks gathering client references, conducting online research, and meeting again with HKP and emailing with SCR.

Following careful deliberation, the Task Force reached a unanimous consensus on the architectural firm we are recommending for Board approval.

The Aligning Task Force recommends the EUUC Board of Trustees hire HKP to provide the architectural designs and build management of the Aligning-Our-Facilities project. 

Justification: Why We Recommend HKP

• HKP demonstrates their ability to support our accessibility renovations by having successful experience with renovations, including ADA accessibility renovations for the Edmonds School District.
• HKP demonstrated their reliability, good service, and commitment to diversity and equity by having served the Swinomish Tribe so well that the Tribe has returned to HKP multiple times for new projects. They are a women owned firm with a JUST certification and a more diverse staff than any of the other architects who submitted proposals.
• HKP shows its expertise in sustainability by being led by Julie Blazek, a LEED accredited architect and Certified Passive House Consultant, who serves on the board of directors of Passive House Northwest.
• HKP demonstrates its ability to create beautiful buildings and renovations on its Projects web page that includes a Swinomish Tribe Community center, the Mount Vernon library, the Mount Vernon High School, and Oak Harbor Head Start.
• HKP demonstrated their ability to communicate effectively with EUUC members by sending the proposal that was easiest for us to review.
• HKP showed they were ready to support us well, by responding quickly and providing plenty of support in the architect-selection process, including lining up engineers and obtaining bids for needed work as part of their application process.
• HKP demonstrated their commitment to learning what EUUC needs by meeting with EUUC members twice in the proposal process; listening attentively and consulting collaboratively with EUUC members, even two members with hearing disabilities (Nick & Lex); explaining they would come to watch how Sunday services work in early September; and explaining that, if they design spaces for car campers, they want to talk with car campers.
• HKP’s hourly rates are slightly lower than the other full-service firm that made a proposal, likely because they are headquartered in Mount Vernon rather than downtown Seattle.
• HKP proposed to provide more expert consulting and more hours than the other full-service architectural firm. Because EUUC does not have people who have both extensive construction/architecture experience and available time, EUUC should rely on more extensive service.
• HKP will provide a full design-build service that includes supporting EUUC selection of a contractor and supervising and collaborating with the contractor. HKP explained they would find three contracting candidates and help in EUUC’s selection of which contractor to work with to make sure that the contractor works well with EUUC and with HKP.  Dan Ford’s interview with the Stanwood Historical Society revealed that HKP lined up all but one of the sub-contractors for that project.
• HKP demonstrates they share EUUC’s commitment to creating a just and sustainable world by volunteering with food banks, Habitat for Humanity, and local clean-up events.

Next Steps

HKP will send EUUC a contract for their services.

Soon: If the Board approves the contract, phase 1 of the architectural/construction work will begin.

HKP work at this stage includes lining up the contractor for the construction.  The contractor will provide light consulting on feasibility and costs of possible plans.

10/15: Deadline for Architect Deliverable: Preliminary plans for small ($1.5M), medium, and large ($3M) cost scenarios

10/15 – 12/1: Kay Crider does a Financial Feasibility Study to more precisely estimate how much EUUC members will pledge for this work.

End of November: Second contract signed with HKP

12/1: Deadline for Kay Crider’s report

12/1: HKP Starts on Second deliverable: revising architectural plans in light of EUUC financial capacity; creating final plans.

1/18/2027: Deadline for near final plans with clearer cost estimates of major construction work

1/18: Launch of Capital Campaign: congregation-wide fundraising campaign

3/15: Capital Campaign wrap-up with firm conclusions about pledges (to be delivered in 2027-2029.

3/15 – 4/1: Ministerial candidates visit after capital campaign pledges have been collected.

3/15: HKP Makes adjustments to plans if necessary in light of pledge totals

Construction starts with HKP guidance

7/22/2026

In a post below is a list of architects we sent requests for proposals to.

Three visited EUUC as part of preparing their proposals.  Two of those applied: HKP and Velocipede.  Lex Lowe, Dan Ford, and I met Luke Golesh at his office in Pike Place Market, and Golesh applied.  SCR asked whether they needed to have a site visit before applying.  We said they did not, and SCR did apply.

All the proposals are available on Circle.  The proposals are not for general sharing online.  I put them on Circle, because Circle is private to EUUC.  Do not copy them elsewhere.

If you do not have a Circle account, reach out to circle.admin@euuc.org.

We committed to choosing an architect by August 10^th.

Dan Ford and Missy Hancock are calling references.  Zoe Coolbaugh checked for red flags online.

If you have any thoughts about which architect we should work with email anyone on the Aligning-our-facilities task force: Missy Hancock, Lex Lowe, Dan Ford, Tom Balderston, David Marlow, Zoe Coolbaugh, Rob Trahm, Rachel Maxwell, or Nick Maxwell (me).  Or catch us on Sunday.

MONTHLY OPEN MEETINGS

Last Sunday we had a wonderful meeting in RE-5 at 11:30 to share which architects had applied and get feedback.

Greg Long pointed out that we should start the monthly meetings 10 minutes after the service ends (whenever the service ends) and should announce the meetings in the pulpit announcements.  For future monthly open meetings, we will do that.  The general feeling of folks in the meeting was that we should be sure that we’ll get enough support from the architect we hire, keeping in mind that we do not have construction or architecture experience among our congregation (at least not folks who have let me know they are here).

The next open meeting is August 16th: 10 minutes after the service ends in Room RE-5.  It will be announced in the TWAE and in pulpit announcements.

6/25/2026

It’s been a busy month.  Things are moving along.

At the congregational meeting last month, we voted to support the Aligning-Our-Facilities-with-Our-Values task force hiring an architect to support us in creating plans for what we, as a congregation, want to do for our mission.  (That task force name is a mouthful, and we’re changing it.  See below.)

Monthly Meetings You Are Invited To!

We have put in a request for a room for a monthly meeting from 11:30 to 12:30 on the third Sunday of each month from July through March.  You are invited!  Starts July 19.

Come hear what has been happening so far in the work of aligning our facilities with our values. Members of the project task force will share our progress and what is coming up next.

Come share what you think about where we’re headed and what your hopes are for the EUUC facilities.  Let’s talk together about our future.

Request for Architect Proposals

We collected from the congregation recommendations of architects to reach out to for proposals.  Our RFP was sent to 12 architectural firms with a proposal deadline of July 10th.  We have heard back from 8 who might make proposals.  Two have lined up site visits, and two want to schedule site visits next week.

Here are eight who are interested so far:

Julie Blazek of HKP visited Wednesday.  That was great.  Among other things, they pointed out that we do not have sprinklers and they have ideas for the room divider in RE 1 & 2 for a divider that would block sound.

Decision Coming

We will be reviewing proposals after July 10 and announcing a decision by August 10.

There is a meeting that everyone is invited to at 11:30 on Sunday, July 19th.  I’ll share the proposals with everyone who comes to that meeting.

Issues that will be important to us

Here are some of the factors that will be important to us as we consider proposals:

• Good to work with: The congregation will not feel railroaded.  Proposals will fit within the financial guidelines we provide.  The architect will accept the congregation’s priorities as the priorities of the project, rather than drift into their own priorities.  Congregational priorities will not disappear in the process.  Congregational members from marginalized or dis-empowered communities will be respected and well heard.  The architect will understand who we UU’s are, and will not think we are Evangelicals or Catholics.
• Beautiful design: The architect will support changes to Chapman Hall and elsewhere that will make things more spiritually uplifting.  They will design changes to the outside that signal our values while making current members and newcomers happy and full of joy in arriving for services.
• Reliable: The architect will not generate cost over-runs with mistakes like mismeasuring, or failing to consider something like whether there is a wetlands, or failing to get appropriate permitting.
• Will bring in needed expertise: The architect will line up an ADA review, an HVAC sustainability consultant, or a structural engineer to review how our earthquake retrofitting has aged: whoever is needed.

Volunteering and the Creative Visioning Task Force

The current work is all about hiring an architect.  In January, we hope to share with the congregation the plans that the architect came up with and explore with everyone how much we each want to support this mission-aligning work.  In January, Rachel Maxwell will be lining up folks to reach out to families for conversations about how committed we are.  At that time, it will be very helpful if you want to volunteer to join in on that community work.

For the current architect work, there are 9 of us on the Aligning Our Facilities task force:

•       Nick Maxwell
•       Rachel Maxwell
•       Dan Ford
•       Missy Hancock
•       Rob Trahms
•       Tom Balderston
•       David Marlow
•       Alex Lowe
•       Zoe Coolbaugh

Missy is an artist.  Tom is a sustainability and weatherization consultant.  David is a design engineer.  Alex and Rob are on the Facilities team.  Zoe has experience with ADA retrofits.  Dan and Rob are very skilled at project management.  Rachel has experience in financial modeling for projects like this.  Nick is certified in climate action planning and greenhouse gas emissions inventory taking.

Feel free to chat about all this with any of us on any Sunday.

What is coming next, and when

Architect proposals due: 7/10/2026

Phase 1 contract awarded: 8/10

Phase 1 deliverable: Preliminary plans with cost approximations, but not cost estimates based on bids: 10/15

Financial feasibility study completed by our capital campaign consultant, Kay Crider: 12/1

Phase 2 Contract signed: 12/1

Phase 2 deliverable: Near-final plans with more reliable cost estimates: 1/18/2027

Capital campaign launched: 1/18

Capital campaign completed: 3/15/2027

Ministerial Search Candidating weekend: April 2027

Construction begins: March or April

Task Force Name

We are comfortable that this project is “the Aligning Our Facilities with Our Values project”, but “the aligning our facilities with our values task force” is awkward.

We are changing the name of our task force to “the Creative Visioning Task Force,” at least for this stage when we’re working on collaborating with an architect to create a vision of what could be done—a vision of what we all can pledge to support.

Whew!

That’s a lot going on!

As always this year (and last), these are hard times.  Be sure to support your fellow congregants in these hard times.

– Nick

5/26/2026

On Friday, we had a Zoom meeting about aligning our facilities with a values.  On Sunday, we met in members in Chapman hall right after the service.  Here are the materials that were shared at those meetings:

What Happens Next

 Rachel made a wonderful graphic showing our timeline and what’s coming next

In March 2027, we wrap up our Capital Campaign.  That is when we make our pledges to financially support aligning our facilities with our values and mission.  That means we will be done with the soul searching and discernment about how much we will support this work before possible ministers consider whether to come to EUUC.

Who is on the aligning-our-facilities team?

Nick Maxwell

Rachel Maxwell

Dan Ford

Missy Hancock

Lex Lowe (on the EUUC facilities team)

Gail Smith

Rob Trahms (on the EUUC facilities team)

David Marlow

Tom Balderston (helping with building sustainability and not attending committee meetings)

Gary McCaig (helping with the RFP)

The team includes expertise in:

• Green building
• Design
• Construction
• Engineering
• Fundraising
• Project management

More about the January Survey

There is a report on how we answered the survey available online here.

Comments & New Suggestions Shared in the Comments Sections of the Survey

• Let’s have more seating in the coffee-area Narthex.
• Let’s add acoustic tiles on the ceiling of the coffee-area Narthex.
• Let’s replace the treacherous concrete steps on the south side of the building near the offices with an ADA accessible path up to the parking.
• Let’s fix the stink in RE.

There is still time for more suggestions.  The acoustic tile idea is a great example: we didn’t hear about it during last year’s workshops about aligning our facilities, but it’s such an undeniably good idea that it’s not a problem to have it appear at this stage.  At this point, we’re probably past a good time to bring up an idea like adding a jobs-training facility for homeless people.  Big deal projects like that will probably have to wait until another year.

How we answered questions related to each priority

105 members filled out the survey.  Below are summaries of how we responded for ideas that got more than 50% of the congregation reporting either “Must do” or “Good idea”, or over 10% answering “Must do”.  The “I don’t care about this” answers are not shown.

ADA Accessibility

Eliminating Carbon Emissions & Adding Solar

Native Plants

Sanctuary

Refresh / Update

Car Campers

Summary of what we want for EUUC

In order from most important to us to less important

1. Be Accessible to All

We (that’s us, the congregation of EUUC) believe in welcoming everyone without mobility barriers or architecture that excludes any group. We believe in welcoming our trans and non-binary community and being as ADA accessible as we can be within environmental and financial constraints. That starts with an ADA review inside and outside.

2. Stop Fossil Fuels

We believe in doing our part to protect the global climate by eliminating our carbon emissions and installing solar panels.

3. Plant Natives

We believe in having native plants in our landscaping.

4. Make Space for Everyone in the Sanctuary

We want to upgrade our sanctuary: build a more permanent space for the AV team, increase seating in our sanctuary so that everyone who comes on Sunday morning feels there is room for them including improving sound/hearing.

5. Spruce Everything Up

We want to refresh and update all our spaces — repaint the outside and inside, update the bathrooms, and replace carpets.

6. Serve Our Car Campers with Better Facilities

We want to include what might appropriately be done to help our car campers.

4/2/2026

Over the winter, a survey about Aligning Our Facilities with Our Values was filled out by 105 congregation members. On the survey, each person evaluated the 61 ideas that had been collected in workshops.

Summary of 5 major projects we want for EUUC

In order from most important to us to less important:

1. Be Accessible to All

We (that’s us, the congregation of EUUC) believe in welcoming everyone without mobility barriers or architecture that excludes any group. We believe in welcoming our trans and non-binary community and being as ADA accessible as we can be within environmental and financial constraints. That starts with an ADA review inside and outside.

2. Stop Fossil Fuels

We believe in doing our part to protect the global climate by eliminating our carbon emissions and installing solar panels.
Plant Natives. We believe in having native plants in our landscaping.

3. Make Space for Everyone in the Sanctuary

We want to upgrade our sanctuary: build a more permanent space for the AV team, increase seating in our sanctuary so that everyone who comes on Sunday morning feels there is room for them including improving sound/hearing.

4. Spruce Everything Up

We want to refresh and update all our spaces — repaint the outside and inside, update the bathrooms, and replace carpets.

5. Serve Our Car Campers with Better Facilities

We want to include what might appropriately be done to help our car campers.

Comments

Some important news ideas shared in comments:

• Replace the treacherous concrete steps on the south side of the building near the offices with an ADA accessible path up to the parking.
• Make sure we’re ready for our current congregational growth.
• More seating in the coffee-area Narthex.
• Acoustic tiles on the ceiling of the coffee-area Narthex.
• We can’t add indoor or other services for car campers without having the volunteers to support the new services.
• Avoid cutting down any more trees.

Questions/Suggestions

Send questions, suggestions, comments, or requests to Nick Maxwell. (His email is in Breeze.)

More Details

See more about how we answered the survey here

12/18/2025

61 Ideas for EUUC

On December 7th, many EUUC’ers met in Chapman Hall to share ideas about what we want for the EUUC facilities as we work to better align our facilities with our values.  On December 10th, more joined in over Zoom.  Altogether, we now have 61 ideas about what we want.

At this stage, we are still trying to collect ideas.  We will narrow things down later.

There is still time to share your idea that is not yet on this list.  Email me or Rachel Maxwell to share more ideas.

I really appreciate everyone who has joined in on this so far.  Already, I have learned a lot.  The bathrooms are cold!  It’s true, but I had not thought about it. We don’t have enough swings in the playground.  Kids are lining up to get a chance to swing.  RE is cold!  Chapman Hall is cold!  We, as a congregation, want to do more for the car campers.  These ideas are great.

NEXT STEP

The next step is that an online survey will be emailed to every member (and mailed to you if you ask for a hard copy).  The survey will ask for any other thoughts and ask you to share how important each of these ideas is to you.

Here’s the list so far:

Wheelchair/Rollator/helper accessible

Bathrooms & stalls
ADA review and revision of parking lot, including safety
Parking lot permeable paving (rather than gravel)
Wider ADA spaces in parking lot
More parking spaces that are accessible
Rollator/wheelchair accessible paths from 224th & from sidewalk on 222nd
ADA review & revisions of all routes in groundfloor of the building
Elevator/ADA access to loft

Sustainability

Heat pumps for HVAC everywhere
Heat pump hot water heaters
Solar on roof
Solar canopies in parking lot with EV chargng outlets
More and better-installed insulation everywhere it is sensible
Replace or revamp sanctuary chalice so it doesn’t burn oil
Avoid plastics everywhere including in laminating posters

Car camp

Bathroom space with sinks & flush toilets
Showers (also available to member bicyclers)
Indoor kitchen space
Indoor emergency shelter for cold snaps & heatwaves

Grounds

More swings – at least six more
Expanded/updated playground
New and more picnic tables
Clean/paint outside of building
Covered bicycle parking
Sign on 224th stating EUUC Stands
Outdoor Labyrinth
Food forest
Chapel in the woods
Outdoor meditation space
More native plants
Revise the memorial garden to better support use
Mural on outside of building

Indoors

Replace flooring everywhere except the Friarplace
New paint everywhere – warm colors
More art – especially multicultural & local art
CCTV on front door with option for alert in meeting rooms

Bathrooms

Heating in bathrooms
New toilets: taller; easier to flush; low-flow option
Grab bars in all stalls
Private Stalls & shared-gender sinks

Chapman Hall

Warm-feeling acoustical sound-absorbing covers over cinderblock
Balcony seating
Enhanced quiet room: children and adults (e.g., Tourettes)

Religious Exploration Rooms

With heat pump minisplits, replace watery sub-concrete HVAC vents in RE
Make RE 1&2 more warm feeling – lighting, art, other

Coffee area (“Narthex” and entry way)

Expand coffee area and add more seating
Open up the inner garden on Sundays, with inviting seating

Alterations to Support Community Use

Preschool
Afterschool programs
Community meeting rooms
Event hosting
Emergency shelter (cold weather, hot weather, blackouts after storms)
Apartment for emergency housing
Two-story replacement of cinderblock RE building with apartment(s) on second floor
Space for blood donation; vaccination; pop-up hair salon; meals on wheels

New Spaces

New fellowship hall for gathering, rather than having to reconfigure Chapman Hall
Meditation room
Blood donation room
Vaccination room
Food bank space
Dedicated AV space

11/10/2025

Congregation-Wide Meeting!

December 7th, the first Sunday in December, put it on your calendar: 12:30-2:00!

Right after the first-Sunday community lunch, we will meet in Chapman Hall to continue our discernment of how to align our facilities with our values.

We started talking about aligning our buildings and grounds with our values around the beginning of this year.

On December 7th, we will get to talk with one another face-to-face to make more progress on sharing our ideas and starting to clarify what we, as a congregation, believe would be best for our facilities.

On December 10th, there will be a Zoom meeting on the same topic.  If you can’t make the December 7th meeting, join in on Zoom on the 10th.

And that would not be your last chance to be heard!  From the in-person meeting and the Zoom meeting, the Aligning-Our-Facilities task force will create a survey of every EUUC member to get more comprehensive input on what needs doing.

Next Step

By January, the Aligning-Our-Facilities task force will summarize for the Board what the congregation told us.  Our next step after that is figuring out what each possibility would cost.  Then we get to the question of what we are all willing to chip in for EUUC.

Join In!

The Aligning-Our-Facilities task force needs more people.

The Task Force has two teams: a Stewardship Team and a Building Team.

The Building Team will take what the congregation comes up with for aligning our facilities, break it down into what work has to be done, figure out what we can do on our own, and what requires hiring contractors.  The Building Team will collect bids to find out how much the work will cost.  This will provide better information for final decisions about what to do: we’ll be able to add cost estimates to the projects.

Our congregational consultant, Kay Crider, recommends we include at least six people.  Kay Crider has a clear conception of what work each person on the Building Team would do.  She sees six different roles:

Big Picture Person

Kay’s idea for the Big Picture Person is that they are thinking about the whole process from today to finishing the work and paying the last contractor’s invoice.  The Big Picture Person makes sure we keep moving and moving in the right direction.

Convener of Authority & Respect

The Convenor is our public speaker.  They announce things in services, make presentations to groups, and lead meetings that the entire congregation has been invited to.  The Convenor can excite and engage people to discern what needs to be done and what would most nourish our spirits to see done.

Financial Whiz

The Finance Person gathers, analyzes, prepares, and reports financial information related to potential building options.  They have to be detail oriented.  We don’t want to think that some project is going to cost $100,000 only to find later that it will be $200,000.  It’s important that this person is not a doom-and-gloom person who feels that we can’t do anything, because we don’t have the money for it.  This is not the time for erring on the side of caution.  We don’t want to miss opportunities.

Construction Experts

Ideally, the Construction Experts have worked in construction, maybe either as site managers, architects, builders, or planners.  The Construction Experts provide insights into realistic but ambitious options to explore in the discernment process.  The Building Team also depends on the Construction Experts to guide the process of collecting bids.  Kay Crider believes that we can do well with just one Construction Expert, but collecting bids can be a hassle.  I’m hoping we can divide up the bid collection work among several folks.  Everyone on the Building Team can take responsibility for collecting bids, and at the same time, it probably would work well to have multiple Construction Experts.

Organizer & Team Administrator

The Admin will schedule and keep track of group meetings, agendas, and collate information gathered in the discernment process.  The Admin will work closely with the Big Picture person to make sure that what we said would get done has a due date and actually gets done.  The Admin will talk with folks in a kind way, reflecting our understanding that everyone is volunteering their time because of their love of EUUC and our values.

Tech Savvy Communicator

The Tech Savvy Communicator is like the Convenor, only for online communications.  The Communicator capitalizes on online resources to gather information, get feedback, and get the word out in posts to the blog, social media, and anywhere else they can think of.

DO ANY OF THESE ROLES CALL OUT TO YOU?  Do you imagine yourself doing the work of any of these roles?  If you would like to talk this over more, email me (Nick Maxwell).  If you already know you want to volunteer, let us know here.

11/3/2025

Next step in this process is finding out what we, as a congregation, want for our facilities.  This month and next, we will be exploring possible changes to our facilities.  We will figure out which changes pretty much all of us want, and which changes are more special to one or a few people.

All ideas are worth our consideration.  If you have an idea that everyone else thinks is ok but not a high priority, hold on to it.  Years ago, I suggested we have gender neutral bathrooms.  The initial response was, “Oh we have that bathroom by RE.  That’s the bathroom for trans people.”  Time past, and years later, the response was, “Sure.  How can we do that?”  So hold onto your ideas, even if others are not there with you yet.

In the coming months, everyone will have a chance to share what they see would be good.  There will be ideas that everyone or almost everyone wants to happen for the facilities.  We’ll get those together and see in 2026 what we can do about making them a reality.

My immediate next step is that I’m meeting with Rachel Maxwell and Kay Crider tomorrow (Tuesday) to talk about what events and work we’ll do to make sure we hear from everyone.

3/7/2025

A friend reached out to share that congregants did not know what projects “were on the short list” of the capital campaign to align our facilities with our values.

That makes sense.  There isn’t a short list yet.

So far, there is no long list.

The lists of projects don’t get decided by a committee or a person.  They are developed by the congregation.

I suggested that, when people express such concerns, it might work well to point people to the TWAE, where announcements of this project blog appear almost every week.

Ideas are listed here so we don’t lose track of them.

A bunch of new ideas came up during Aisha Hauser’s First Sunday seminar last week.  If you haven’t been coming to the First Sunday sessions, I strongly recommend you join in for the last two.  I’m afraid that the sessions have not been as well shared as they could have been, and it may be that most EUUC’ers don’t understand how crucial the sessions are for EUUC and for Unitarian Universalism.

NO BURNOUT

During her visit to EUUC weekend before last, Kay Crider referred over and over again to volunteer burnout.  A project like aligning our facilities with our mission is about as well designed to burn out volunteers and get people to quit the congregation as almost anything we do.

Let’s avoid that burnout.  Avoiding burnout requires dividing up the work so that no one ends up volunteered to do more than they want to do, and everyone can adjust what they are doing as things change in their lives.

NEXT STEP

As Kay Crider explained when she was here, the next step in the work of this project is to figure out what needs to be done, and line up volunteers for each part.

Here is what I see needs to be allocated to volunteers.  If you notice something is missing, let me know.  If something jumps out at you as what you would like to do, let me (or Charley, Rachel, Zoe, or Dan Ford) know.

Tasks

• Create and run a survey asking folks to make suggestions for how to better align our facilities with our values.
• Do more to let people know this aligning work is happening.
• Get bids and costs.
• Make a list of essential work that must be done (e.g., replacing aging furnace that is disintegrating on the West side of classrooms).
  • Notice the difference between must-do’s and might-do’s.
• Plan zoom meetings (two?) to collect more ideas.
  • When?
  • What happens?
  • Reserve zoom link
  • Attend/facilitate
  • Write up
• Plan congregational meeting after a Sunday service to collect more ideas and discuss ideas.
  • When?
  • What happens?
  • Line up volunteers for parts of the work
    • Facilitators
    • Childcare?
    • Write up results
    • Greeter
    • Put Chapman Hall back in order for service
  • Reserve Chapman Hall
  • Announcements
• Plan additional in-person small meeting (one? more?)
• Write up the results of surveys & meetings to share with congregation

2/27/2023

Back on January 28th, I listed our congregational “stands”.  (I’m sure we will replace that term with something less ablest.  “Covenants” or “Commitments”, maybe?)  Back then, I misread our website and omitted our commitment to reproductive healthcare justice.  Sorry about that!  I can imagine facility changes for supporting our commitment to reproductive justice.  We may soon find that we have a new congregational commitment to vaccination.  All commitments to medical treatment may lead us to hosting patients from other states.  We might want to host Seattle Visiting Nurses to provide COVID and flu vaccinations.  Who knows?  It’s up to us.

For another project I’m working on this week, I summarized our congregational commitments.  It might be helpful to share it here.

We [members of EUUC] talk about the differences in our religious beliefs.  We trust each other to consider honestly and responsibly what is good and what is true.  We have reached some conclusions we agree on.  We have covenanted to resist money’s corruption of U.S. elections; to resist white supremacy; to promote a low carbon economy; to advocate for reproductive health care, including abortion; and to promote acceptance, inclusion, and equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning people.

– Nick

2/26/2025

On Sunday, Kay Crider shared one approximate schedule for how we will do this project of better aligning our facilities with our mission and vision.  Her idea was that we would take most of 2025 to figure out what we want to do.  Do we want to replace our natural gas furnaces?  Do we want to install solar on the roof?  Do we want to show we welcome mobility-challenged teens?  And mobility-challenged grown ups?  Do we, as a congregation, feel that our facilities do not deserve any investment?  That’s a possibility too.

As ideas come to you about what ought to be done, email them to me, Nick Maxwell, and I’ll post them here.  This is not social media, so we’re not going to have toxic troll-fests writing nasty things.

Last week, Pam Iverson sent a proposal for making the giving garden on the west side of the parking lot accessible.  Pam wrote up her proposal and shared it with me, Charley, Zoe, and with Dan and Cynthia on the Board.  Pam’s proposal is below.

This is a very helpful proposal.  The Board might even decide to fund some of this right away.

Do not feel that you have to write up such a complete proposal.  For example, you could email me, “Add flaps on bathroom stall doors to cover up the peep crack.”  (Someday, if you’re curious, ask me about class and peep cracks in America.) That would work too.

Here’s what Pam sent:

Proposal to Expand/Enhance the EUUC Giving Garden

Goals:

• To produce crops that can be taken to local food banks
• To better use the space at EUUC for gardening (i.e., different crops in different places, taking advantage of light, water, etc. in conjunction with the plant’s needs)
• To introduce EUUC kids to healthy foods and where they come from
• To make an accessible garden
• To encourage stewardship for our land
• To provide activities for all ages, together and independently
• To provide activities that enhance people’s physical and mental health (research shows gardening improves the wellbeing of those with autism, depression, ADHD
• To increase the beauty of our grounds, including seating for gardening and other activities

Plans will:

• Increase the amount of food produced
• Make use of the different environments at EUUC with appropriate plants/interventions
• Lengthen the growing season
• Engage all ages
• Build community through activities in and about the garden
• Beautify EUUC grounds
• Provide people with limited mobility opportunities to be involved
• Introduce more members of our community to gardening and new plants
• Introduce pollinators tour grounds

Task that can be completed by members of the Congregation:

• Weed the garden and the playground.
• Patch landscaping cloth, especially under the playground.
• Add more bark.
• Make a root barrier along the fence line
• Chop a pathway along the fence line – this would:
  • Enable people to harvest blackberries in the area
  • Prevent plants from crowding and potentially damaging the fence line.
  • Allow the fence itself to be monitored and maintained.
• Straighten the logs along the parking lot so the garden footprint can be expanded.
• Prepare the space for the transfer of raspberries.

Plans:

• Our understanding is there is a plan to remove invasive plants from EUUC grounds. Include the area west of the garden for this undertaking.
• Expand the size of the garden.
• Salvage the quality soil in the garden as we prepare the area for pavers
• Lay a grid of PEX pipes (flexible, durable, will not freeze) for watering the garden and outlying planters (raspberries, new trees, and accessible beds).
• Create better edging for the beds.
• Make the garden more physically accessible (pavers between and around the beds, benches along the raised beds, wheelchair-friendly beds.) Thyme or other plants between the pavers.
• Fence in the garden (goat wire is an attractive material for this)
• Build several gates in the perimeter fence.
• Create a zonal watering system. Could timers be solar-powered??
• Plant additional blueberries to expand the time they can be harvested. We have an early variety — get middle and late-season varieties.
• Add more pollinators and perennial vegetables, e.g., rhubarb and kale.
• Move the shaded raspberries to a sunnier location, e.g., the east side of the shed.
• Make raised beds in the area where the shaded raspberries were. Plant salad greens there – they can be harvested for more of the year (using a greenhouse lid).
• Make wheelchair-accessible beds that could be placed over the storm drain/water rights of way. They can be moved if there is a need to access the pipes.
• Plant fruit trees to provide shade and fruit, e.g., by the picnic tables beside the playground. Tall figs are a good choice. Plan to prune annually, as fruit grows best on new wood.
• Learn if kumquats grow in this climate. If so, plant a kumquat tree (shade, crop).
• Make wood toppers for the fence, with rail tops which could support small garden boxes
• Encourage RE program to spend time in the garden. E.g., harvest brambleberries on slope south of old RE building. Container gardens for the children, e.g., for strawberries or salad greens. Ongoing conversations with Alanna will articulate plans and a timeline.
• Monthly garden gatherings – e.g., potlucks, invite relevant speakers.
• Consider planting in the parking lot dividers – rosemary??
• Plant sales to raise money for the garden.

Costs:

• We have not figured out itemized costs, but some things could be done over time.
• The biggest need is for more volunteers to help with both the creation and the maintenance of this garden. Perhaps food in exchange for worktime could help, e.g., pizza parties, potlucks, to honor volunteers.
• Fencing: Goat wire, wood for corner fence posts.
• Creation of trug beds and accessible beds – we have access to some raised beds we will need to assemble, also have access to good plywood, need additional supplies to create them.
• New perennial plants – blueberry bushes, rhubarb, new trees.
• New drip hoses, PVC or PEX pipes, landscaping cloth, timer system for watering the garden. This, and the fence, are the highest priorities.
• Can dedicated donations be made to EUUC for the garden (as is happening for the Car Camp, another project on our grounds)

Thank you, Pam!

– Nick

2/24/2025

A question came up in yesterday’s meeting about federal support for solar and energy efficiency improvements.  This would be support from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2022.  I have been watching both of those as part of my work for the last two years.  Neither of them were supporting non-profits until last year.  Last year, it became possible to participate in what was called, “Direct Pay”.  Direct Pay was like the Inflation Reduction Act for non-profits.  For taxpayers, the Inflation Reduction Act provided rebates that reduced their federal income taxes.  Non-profits don’t have such a thing.  Direct Pay filled in by promising to pay the non-profits what they would have gotten as a rebate if they were private citizens.

There were some concerning aspects to Direct Pay for EUUC:

• Direct Pay was supposed to support non-profits serving traditionally overburdened communities in census tracts whose citizens were at-risk or mostly overburdened.  EUUC does provide the car camp, but Edmonds and Esperance were not recognized as at-risk or overburdened geographies.
• The work that Direct Pay would help support had to be completed in one year and then documented and proposed to the federal government for support the following year.  That meant that, to obtain funds for work done in 2024, we would have had to get some sort of bridge loan to pay for the work, and then apply for Direct Pay in 2025.  (At least that’s what was presented at EPA seminars about Direct Pay.)  Guarantees of Direct Payment were not available, so the bridge loan had to be provided with the understanding that reimbursement might not be available later.

In January, the IRA and BIL were programs that Trump claimed to have shut down.  It may be that none of the possibilities of Direct Pay will not result in reimbursement.  If the Federal Government does not honor their suggestion that they might provide the reimbursement, it might be possible to sue the money out of them.  That seems unlikely, given that they never promised the money to begin with.  They only promised that you could apply for the money in 2025.

When will new money be available from the Federal Government?

Not until after Trump is no longer president with a very-supportive Congress and Supreme Court.

What else might be available?

Last year, with the help of EUUC, Washington State defended the Washington State Climate Commitment Act.  The Climate Commitment Act collects between $1 and $2 billion each year to fund the transition to renewable energy.  Washington State (specifically the Department of Commerce) is still working out how to use those funds.  Some projects have already been funded, but the planning is ongoing.  There is a good chance that Washington State will be leading supporter of renewable projects in the next 2 or 4 years.

So should we wait until someone offers us grants to do this work?

In my home, we put in a heat pump and solar nine years ago.  At the time, there was State funding to support that work.  From then up until last year, there was nothing much available for us.  My bet is that EUUC is in a similar situation.  If you want to wait until some government wants to chip in on renewable upgrades, I bet you’ll end up waiting a long time.  And it’s worth considering whether it makes the most ethical sense for us to use such funds when other communities and regions have fewer advantages than we have.

– Nick

2/23/2025

Today after the service and a wonderful Youth-Group lunch, we heard from our congregational consultant Kay Crider.  Kay shared that we are at the outset of a discernment process about making out facilities better support our mission, vision, and ethics.  In the next months, we will share a survey or two with everyone and have an in-person meeting for people to share what their dreams are for how EUUC could better support what we want to do and what we want to be in the world.  There will probably be zoom meetings as well: not everyone can make it to the site.

The discernment process will leave us with our vision for what we want to do.  The next step will be for Kay to come back and talk with people about how much they are willing to support the vision.  With that tentative commitment, we will review and revise our plans to fit our resources and then the actual fund raising will start.  Kay reports that it goes well to have the capital-campaign fund raising done at the same time as the annual stewardship campaign.  We can aim for doing a joint campaign in early 2026.

A benefit to collecting the funds in 2026, is that we’ve got everything wrapped up when our next settled minister shows up.  Kay reports it is really hard for a minister to juggle launching a new ministry at the same time as collecting pledges for a capital campaign.

2/9/2025

Last month, Charley Beltman and I accompanied Tom Balderston as he toured our facilities to see what our opportunities were for weatherization.  During the tour, I took some pictures to show what is happening above Chapman Hall.  There is a bit of an attic up there.  Here is what it looks like:

You can see that there is plenty of insulation up there.  The problem is how it is arranged.

Insulation works like a wall or roof for smoke.  Differences are that you can’t see heat as it flows up and that heat goes through other things like wallboard.  If your insulation is spread evenly everywhere, the heat can’t escape.  If you have insulation in one spot, and not in others, the heat will flow up and around the insulation, escaping out where the insulation is missing.

At one point, we had better spread insulation.  The insulation was never spread well (as you’ll see below), but things got worse as repairs were done.  There is a regular challenge that all home owners face: when a repair person fixes or updates electrical or plumbing, they have to pull the insulation out of the way.  Most repair people are not going to then put the insulation back, so they make a large hole for heat to escape out of, basically undoing all of the work putting in the insulation to begin with.  You can see that in the picture above with the bat of insulation upside down.

Here’s another picture probably over a light fixture.

And here is a large uncovered area.

Here is an area area with the sheet rock of the ceiling directly open to the air of the attic.

I mentioned above that the insulation was never well installed.  Here’s what went wrong.

Chapman Hall was built with paired ceiling joists.  Everywhere there is a joist, there is a two-inch gap and then another joist.  When the insulation was installed, it was not added to the gap between those joists.  The result is that the entire ceiling is a heat sieve: it slows the heat, but doesn’t hold as much in as you would expect, given how much insulation we bought.

Why does this matter for aligning our facilities with our values?  The better insulated we are, the less energy we spend heating our spaces.  That reduces the demand on our electricity utility.  Our utility is going to go through a tough transition from having cars and some heating handled by gasoline and natural gas to having everything run on electricity.  Not a big deal.  They know it’s coming and they have plenty of time to prepare, but our insulating makes things a bit easier for them.

AND CHEAPER for us.  We can buy less in the way of heat pumps and then we’ll buy less electricity.

So we probably want to fix the insulation.  That will take labor, but won’t require buying a ton more insulation.  We have a lot already.

– Nick

2/3/2025

This month and throughout 2025, we will be exploring what projects we want to do to align our facilities with what we believe in.

It can be easier to revise things than to start a first draft of a plan.  For that reason, the Aligning-our-facilities task force will provide a first draft of what might be done.  This first draft is the absolute opposite of written in stone.  It is what might be called a “discussion document”.   The expectation is that it will change, and maybe change completely.  It’s just to get the discussion going.

So far, the task force (Nick Maxwell, Charley Beltman, and Zoe Coolbaugh) has not created this first draft yet.

Here are some of the kinds of things that people have asked for.  They are the kinds of things that might go into such a first draft:

• Get heat pumps and get our natural gas turned off
• Solar panels
• Parking lot revisions to allow for someone who uses a rollator to park and get into Chapman Hall
  • Currently, we have concrete paths between the parking spaces, but there is no handicap-accessible ramp at the end of the paths, or between cars, and pushing a rollator on the gravel does not work.
• Accessible bathrooms
• Something to deal with the inaccessibility of the loft for people who cannot walk up stairs
• A charging outlet or two in the back parking lot for members and for car campers; charging outlets for employee parking (something every employer should be providing)
• Better car camper facilities
  • Maybe a small heated emergency space to allow campers to get indoors in extremely cold weather
• Complete double pane windows
• Fixing and adding to the insulation
• Revised toilet stalls to upgrade away from the American style of needing to be able to peek in on people in the the stalls
• Some solution to the problem of groups meeting in the evening in a room away from the doors and not wanting the doors unlocked and unattended

Are there projects you hope we will consider as we settle on how we want to better align our facilities with our values?  If so, let Nick, Charley, or Zoe know about it.

2/1/2025

In addition to our congregational stands, EUUC shares documentation about our values and mission in three webpages:

• Our Values
• Our Mission & Vision
• UU Principles and Sources

The “Our Values” page starts with this:

Our principles, values, and beliefs are deeply intertwined, with much of our focus centered on living our social justice values. We encourage sustainability in our congregation and our personal lives.  We have divested our investments in fossil fuels, and moved our financial accounts to a community bank. Our congregation welcomes people of all races, ethnicities, sexual identities, and abilities. We believe that by living our values, we can transform both ourselves and the world.

1/28/2025

EUUC is considering what to do as we prepare our facilities to better support our values and our mission.  This is a time for you to share what you hope for.

Our mission is:

Gathering Together,

Nurturing the Spirit,

Living Our Vision

of a Just and Sustainable World

Some of our values (but not all) are documented in our congregational stands:

• LGBTQ+ Justice & Equity
• Global Warming and Climate Justice
• Racial Justice
• Money In Politics/Democracy

We expect to take 2025 for discernment to explore our thinking and commitments, to support a capital campaign in 2026, and to update our facilities in 2026-2027.

This page is a log what is happening with updates on our progress.

1/26/2025

Nick Maxwell shared this report with the EUUC Board of Trustees.

The report provided a copy of the Task for Charge that was approved by the 2024 Board of Trustees, and this update on steps so far and next steps:

Steps so far

• So far, the task force includes Nick Maxwell (primarily focused on getting natural gas out of the building), Charley Beltman, and Zoe Coolbaugh (primarily focused on ADA).
• Charley and Nick met with Tom Balderston to review the facilities. Tom is a building energy auditor. Tom has volunteered to provide a set of recommendations about what should be done.
  • A highlight was that the insulation of the ceiling above Chapman Hall and probably elsewhere is set up for holding heat like a sieve for holding water – slots and open spaces are provided for the heat to flow around the insulation.
  • The transformer that serves EUUC will need to be replaced.
  • Some of our natural gas appliances are getting close to, or past, their recommended lifetimes.
• Charley and Nick met with Kay Crider, and Kay is scheduled to come help EUUC get launched on this work.
• It would be ideal to have someone with architectural experience on the team. Nick has reached out to Nancy Gladow to ask whether any of the new members are architects.

Next Steps

• Get this log that you’re looking at right now going, and start sending updates to the TWAE.
• Kay Crider is coming and meeting with many people the weekend of February 22nd.
  • Kay is a congregational consultant who helps congregations as they think about capital campaigns, mission, vision, leadership, or values.