After four months and eight days without heat, the campus is warming up tonight. The new gas-fired high-efficiency boiler (and adjacent equipment) has been installed, adjusted, tested, re-adjusted and finally fired up for use. The project cost, approximately $150,000, was funded entirely from the church’s Facility Maintenance Budget, made possible by the stewardship and careful planning of First Church staff and elders over the last several years. The project was completed by Air Systems & Controls Inc., whose project foreman was responsible for keeping the old boiler running, more than two decades longer than its intended service life. They were assisted in this effort by Diablo Boiler and Demolition With Hazards. Together, this team executed a difficult project in a very old building, during a pandemic resurgence, and amidst a global supply chain meltdown, assisting First Church staff and volunteers in the largest capital project undertaken since installation of the Rosales Opus 16 pipe organ in 1993.

The Buildings & Grounds and Finance Committees will be considering new major capital projects over the course of 2022. First Church is now home to seventeen organizations, in addition to the congregation. The expanded presence of these organizations at our campus is what enables building maintenance issues to be addressed proactively.

Anyone with interest in planning the next campus projects – big or small – is invited to contact Chris Weber for information about the Buildings & Grounds Committee meetings.