Reflecting Christ's Light from Our Doorsteps to the Ends of the Earth
On August 28, as part of our Gardener Worship Series, we prayed prayers of blessing over the plot of land that will soon become a garden full of pollinator-friendly plants. This garden is being planned and directed as a joint venture between ECC and the Eureka College Sustainability Class.
Eureka Christian Church’s building received an accessibility upgrade this week, in the form of a new handrail outside our sanctuary doors. This will be a help to people with mobility challenges, as well as a great addition in the snow and ice months.
After months and months of waiting (thanks, global supply chain!), we finally have our turquoise table set up at the front of the church, on our new patio. We will be having a blessing for its use in August after Rev Jennie is back from her sabbatical. In the meantime, please feel free to stop by and utilize it at any time. The team that has been working on the east lawn of the building really wants this space to be a place of gathering for the whole community, so the more it’s filled with people, the better.
On June 1, 2022 Steve Colburn, Steve Hodel, Jennifer Bass and Rev Robin Robinson met with Dr Katy Everett from Eureka College to begin planning for Eureka Christian’s new pollinator garden. It will be a partnership between the college and the church, with the prep, planting and maintenance a combination of efforts of EC students and the ECC congregation. The preparation of the plot will begin right away, and the planting will be done this fall after EC students are back on campus.
Once established this garden will be approximately 600 square feet of native plants that will help to feed bees and butterflies, as well as being a little patch of beauty on the southwest lawn of ECC, in front of the education building.
Our hope is that this will be an endeavor that can bring together our school and church communities while helping our environment too. If you’re interested in being part of this effort, please click here and provide your name and contact info. Thanks in advance for your support of this project.
W
e are continuing a major project to preserve the exterior of our church building. Using the services of the Restoration Division of Otto Baum, Inc, we expect to accomplish several objectives.
First, a foundation crack has been repaired on the west side of the Education Building. This will solidify the foundation at this point and prevent water from entering to rust the reinforcing rods.
Secondly, a number of cracked bricks will be replaced. The worst of these cracks and loose mortar are found on the Education Building. One such area is shown under repair in the photo.
Thirdly, the entire exterior will be cleaned. The bricks and limestone have accumulated a layer of dirt, some of which is an encrustation of lichens. See the photo of the cross after cleaning. Finally, the building will receive a coat of water repellant. This will prolong the beneficial effects of the repair and cleaning. This work will continue on into September, and will complete the process started about two years ago on some of the most critical areas.
Submitted by Steve Colburn
One of our Capital Campaign projects has as its primary goal the improvement of the thermal insulation of the Parish Hall building. By one estimate, we can expect to realize an annual savings in heating costs on the order of $3,000. A subcommittee consisting of Tom Price, Robin Robinson and Steve Colburn has been working on the detailed planning of this activity since June of this year. We have decided to split the project into two parts. We will do the first part beginning soon, with completion by early autumn. The second part will be done next summer. Selected for immediate work are the areas where the greatest heat loss is known to take place. This includes the east interior gable of the Parish Hall, as shown in the accompanying photo. The parts to be done next summer will include the main ceiling of the Parish Hall. There are two reasons for splitting the project. First, this is a complex undertaking. By doing some of the work next summer, the work will only minimally impact normal usage of the space by the congregation. Secondly, there are some design issues particular to the main hall ceiling area that will require some additional study.
Work Plan for week of Sept. 6
Starting September 4, we plan to begin removing celotex from the east gable (photo) and the west wall surrounding the stage. On Tues., Sept. 8, drywall will be applied to these areas. On Thursday, Sept.10, foam insulation will be applied, working from inside the attic, to the back side of the east gable drywall. Also that same day, foam will be applied to portions of the stage end walls, and to the ceiling of the front entry porch. 
Then, on Friday, the stage end walls and the entry ceiling will be covered with drywall, and all the drywall will be finished ready for paint. Once the new drywall is painted, existing wood trim will be put back in place.
We thank Mark Honeg for loaning a scaffolding set for use in this work.
As of 5:00 pm, Sept 7., both ends of the Parish Hall are ready for drywall. 
Thanks to John Gholson for helping. In the course of this work, we found two signatures inside the wall, probably made by workers. One is Bob Potts, and the other Johnnie Hartter, who was Annette Schurter’s brother. The Potts signature was dated 6/1935, the year the Parish Hall was built.
As of 5:00 pm Sept. 8, Kent Kamp and his helper Duke have finished hanging drywall on both ends of the Parish Hall. They will finish after the foam insulation is applied. Foam will be applied Thursday, Sept. 10.
A third signature, that of Ben Danhoff, was found above the stage. John Potts (EHS 1959) says that his Uncle Bob Potts graduated from Eureka High School in 1931 and worked as a carpenter for Dickensen Lumber Co. Some wood trim that was removed has J.M. Allen Lumber Company marked on the back side.
As of 5:00 pm, Thursday, Sept. 10, the foam insulation has been applied. Next, drywall will be installed over the insulation in the stage area and in the front foyer. Drywall work will resume Monday, Sept. 14.
As of 5:00 pm Monday, Sept. 14, the drywall crew has finished hanging almost all the drywall, and will start taping on Tuesday. Regarding the stage curtains, the current thinking is to put them in storage somewhere until the main hall ceiling is done next summer. This could change if we have a big stage production in the works, but if they are not needed for a while, it would save the work of taking them down again for the work next summer.
As of 5:00 pm Friday, Sept. 25, the drywall is finished and the white prime coat of paint is applied. Thanks to Robin Robinson and John Gholson for helping. On Saturday we will put on the finish coat of paint. tom Price will also be helping.
As of 5:00 pm, Thursday, October 1, the Parish Hall is cleaned and ready for the Saturday night square dance event. The tools and ladders on the stage will be put away. Thanks to the painting crew of last Saturday – Robin, Tom, Mark, and John. The trim went up this week, and we turned the Hall over to the custodial staff by mid day today.
On Friday, November 27, the job of rehanging the red stage curtains was finished. An improved suspension method was devised and installed. Before hanging, the curtains were dry cleaned and repaired. Thanks to Lorna and Ken Smith for taking charge of the cleaning and repair. Also, thanks to Eileen Baker and her sister Janet, and to John and Robbie Gholson for coming along at just the right time to help lift the weighty curtains up to their lofty destination. You will also notice that all the stuff on the stage, showing in the photo above, has been removed.
December 14, 2009 – Today the December AmerenCILCO bill arrived, with a monthly total of $1,811.48. Last year at the same time, we paid $2,850.71, or over $1,000 more. The new insulation must be working. At this rate we will pay for the Parish Hall work that we did this Fall before the winter is out. See graph below.
Check back soon. We will post the latest results each month.
Parish Hall Insulation Project Making Plans – Posted April 18, 2010
Winter is past and it is time to start planning for the next steps in the Parish Hall insulation work. The committee will be meeting in the week to come.
The main effort last year was to insulate in East gable end of the Parish Hall, which was accomplished, along with similar work on the West end and on the Stage. This insulation helped our heating bills, as shown in the graph below. This graph shows monthly AmerenCILCO bills through April. In the first four months of 2010, we have saved about $1,570 over the same period last year. This is in addition to the $1,000 saved in the December 2009 bill, for a total of over $2,500, so far.
We still have an opportunity to save more as we complete the insulation project. If you were watching, last winter, you would have noticed that the snow still melts off the Parish Hall roof before it should. The ceilings over the Quilting Room and the Vaulted Ceiling over the stairs is sheathed in the brown celotex material. This material is not airtight, and lets warm air infiltrate up through the glass fiber batting. We will replace the celotex with drywall, and replace the batting with the same foamed insulation we applied last Fall.
As we work out the details and dates for this work, we will keep you informed.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Primary activity this weekwas in the Parish Hall insulation project, one of the ongoing Capital Campaign funded projects. We are preparing several areas for foam insulation, starting with the Quilting Room and the rest of the attic at that end of the building. This week, John Gholson and I tore out the existing ceiling. Mike Davis and I upgraded the electrical wiring, and Tom Price and I spread the 6″ fiberglass batts that were removed in the attic of the Education Building. John did a final pass on cleanup. Early next week, Kent Kamp will come and hang drywall on the Quilting Room ceiling. After he has finished that, we will paint the ceiling, and hang the light fixtures. Then we can put the kitchen supplie
s back where they belong. We found the signature of one of the carpenters – Johnnie Hartter, dated January 3, 1936, on one of the rafters in the attic. He was Annette Schurter’s brother.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
We are finishing up the ceilings over the stage, back hall and attic over the kitchen and quilting room. When these areas are done, the remaining part will be the main Parish Hall ceiling.
August 20, 2010
Parish Hall Insulation Upgrade Project Status
The primary purpose of the Parish Hall work, sponsored under the current Capital Campaign, is to improve the thermal insulation in the ceiling of the Parish Hall. In the process, we are also replacing the original wall and ceiling covering with new.
As shown in the photo, the Parish Hall insulation and acoustic matt were removed during the week of August 9-13, and the 2 x 6 trim was taken down the week before. Many thanks to the following people who helped with this very hot and dirty work: Mike Davis, Jody Evans, John Gholson, Kevin Kalmer, Todd Lind, Tom Price, and Robin Robinson.
Current work involves running some new wiring, cleaning up, and getting ready to install the new foam insulation.
