Summary of the March 17 Parish Work Day

About 30 parishioners, some all day, some part of the day came to St. Nicholas Church eager to work and hopefully beat the rain. Well the Good Lord kept away the rain and we accomplished a huge amount of preparations for occupancy of the temporary school office and the demolition of the old school office building. We split into 3 groups.
Group 1 moved the landscape blocks to their new location at the hitch end of the office trailer. After this was accomplished they joined other workers taking apart the playground equipment. The basketball goal which was too close to the construction site was taken down and will be relocated to the lower parking lot in front of the church. All the swings and playground equipment were placed on pallets and secured by banding same. The pallets were moved on Sunday afternoon and transported to the storage barn. That same afternoon the playground area was leveled to fill the holes that were created by digging out the vertical supporting poles and braces with a mini excavator. These poles had a large chunk of concrete on each which was removed by breaking the concrete with a sledge hammer. Needless to say several took the challenge taking turns breaking the concrete, even a couple of the younger hardworking helpers that were students here at St. Nick took a turn. The concrete was hauled off site to a landfill needing solid fill.
Group 2 moved all the extra desks, chairs and tables out of the basement of the hall to a storage barn for safe keeping and use at a later date. When this was completed they joined the other groups.
Group 3 concentrated on the building of the ramp for the temporary office trailer. They split into 2 groups, one building the upper landing area and the second group building the lower deck where the ramp turned 180 degrees. Then the 2 platforms were joined together with sloped ramps. With precision all the ramps cross planks were cut to length and drilled to prevent splitting. Handrails were added using spindles. A concrete pad connecting the ramp to the sidewalk will be added when the weather breaks.
Lunch was pizza and chips provided by Pauline R. Most went home cold and tired.