by Jayme Trott, Co-Chair, Capital Campaign Committee

You may have heard rumors that we have finally received approval from the last required organization for the parking project to move forward. Actually, it is more like we have approval to move forward to get more approvals!

At the Hopewell Township Board meeting on September 27th, our “amended application” was approved, and will be “memorialized” at their October 25th Board meeting. At that point, a public notice goes out allowing anyone to appeal the Board’s decision in the following 45 days. Following that, they will issue a compliance review memo and we will need to produce final plans. Once they review our response to the compliance review memo and the final plans, they will sign off (estimated to be received mid- November). When it is officially signed, we may begin construction on our parking expansion project. In the meantime, we will be initiating work on the “tree side” of the driveway to improve drainage and therefore decrease the risk of cars getting stuck in mud.

The Capital Campaign/Project Steering Committee has sent Requests for Proposal to eight architectural firms. Four declined to provide proposals, two have provided proposals and we await two more. An active search for a firm that honors our 8th principle was included. We are extremely grateful for the hard work that Farzad Shadzik and Mary Acciani put into developing the RFP, showing potential architects around the building and helping us to assess the incoming proposals.