Temporary Occupancy for Reception Hall; Phase 4 to Begin

Temporary Occupancy for Reception Hall; Phase 4 to Begin

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, March 14th, we called for an inspection of the Reception Hall building. The county inspector passed the building and gave us a temporary occupancy permit. This permit allows us to start using the building immediately.

There are still a few days worth of cabinetry, tiling, and carpentry work, as well as the elevator to be approved. Hopefully, this will be completed within the next couple of weeks. Once the community ends our winter retreat we will move into the building and start using it.

We still have a significant amount of work to do with regard to finishing the entire project: this work will be done in Phase Four of the project. We need to complete Phase Four so the building permit can be “finaled,” which means that all required inspections have been satisfactorily completed. At present, there are some funds available to get started with Phase Four, but we will likely have to proceed in discrete stages until full funding becomes available.

Phase Four, the last phase of the project, involves landscaping the area between the new building and the existing Dhamma Hall. This includes removing the old house/kitchen, creating a turn-around with a radius big enough for a fire truck (called a hammer head “T”), new wheelchair accessible pathways and area drains to deal with rain water. We will also need to landscape and re-grade the area below the new Reception Hall. This includes improvements to paths and steps down to the parking lot. Work will also include continuing the trellis from the new Reception Hall to the old Dhamma Hall, building a covered deck and moving the bell tower.

We’d like to thank Bob Madlem for his excellent work as contractor. Bob had delayed his retirement to see this building through to completion. We appreciate Bob’s commitment, good work, good friendship and we wish him a happy retirement.