Church Fire

[slamjet]

Well, let this be a lesson to cut back the shrubs and trees around your structures.  There was a small brush fire that burned up a hill then burned the roof of the Glassell Park church building (news linky1, news linky2).  The tree's were not trimmed back so branches grew under the eves and over the roof of the building, thus, carrying the brush fire to the structure. 

 

Two Spanish wards from the East L.A. Stake are displaced.  They've been moved into the Wilson Building in Glendale, CA (in my Stake) where there are already two wards and one group so it's going to be a bustling place for a couple of years.  I'm the Stake Tech Guy so I'll be working with the FM folks and the wards to get them set up and welcomed into their temporary home.

 

Edited July 13, 2015 by slamjet

[priesthoodpower]

Holy smoke!!

[Palerider]

I am amazed the the FM group allowed them to grow like that. Interesting

[slamjet]

I am amazed the the FM group allowed them to grow like that. Interesting

 

Don't get me started on our FM group.

[priesthoodpower]

I think its the shrinking budgets that keep their hands tied.

 

We used to have 3 full time maintenance workers to cover 7 chapels in our region. Now we have zero.

They contract out all the major work and have the members do all the cleaning.

[Palerider]

Don't get me started on our FM group.

Don't get me started on ours ..... Ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Str8Shooter]

Don't get me started on our FM group.

We have the church, and the church is true, and then there's the FM group.

I don't know where the breakdown is. It might be the FM group, it might be the stake. All I know is that a lot of the repairs and maintenance on our building is of poor quality, if it even gets done at all.

For example, on the interior of an exterior wall in our building the brick and morter is spalling (chunks falling off) from water damage because the gutter is insufficient and the drains are plugged. It's been like this for YEARS and has washed away the soil from the foundation. It's to the point now where a 4X6 part of the wall is going to have to be repointed, which I doubt will ever happen.

grrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! It's a place of worship for crying out loud!

[Str8Shooter]

I think its the shrinking budgets that keep their hands tied.

 

We used to have 3 full time maintenance workers to cover 7 chapels in our region. Now we have zero.

They contract out all the major work and have the members do all the cleaning.

And the quality of some of the contract work is terrible.

[Palerider]

Some of the work the members do is terrible .... Such as not showing up .... Not doing a good job etc.

[slamjet]

The biggest problem is that they go for the absolute lowest bids.  Many times I've seen work done that is shoddy, half-a... I mean, half-baked and once not done because the contractor ran out of money and walked off the job.  I've spoken with a couple of contractors who got frustrated because they gave good, solid bids, but where undercut and had to watch as the work was horribly done.

 

Although in one building I was the rep for, there were three big repairs that sat for years.  What I did was to ask that the repairs be put into the next year's budget then follow up before years end.  I had to wait but the repairs did get done within the first four months of the new year.

[Palerider]

I was laid off in February of this year from my job. I have since sort of semi-retired. However I still work. I work for a member who has a wood shop. He does custom made cabinets and will do remodeling jobs. He has made several bids for work in the church and has gotten the work. Just since I have been working with him we have installed cabinets in young women's rooms in other stakes nearby our area.

[Str8Shooter]

Some of the work the members do is terrible .... Such as not showing up .... Not doing a good job etc.

 

LOL!  Touche!  At least at FM they can terminate someone for not showing up.

 

I always smile when I see older buildings that the members built.  They have a lot more......love...built into them.  :-)

[Str8Shooter]

The biggest problem is that they go for the absolute lowest bids.  Many times I've seen work done that is shoddy, half-a... I mean, half-baked and once not done because the contractor ran out of money and walked off the job.  I've spoken with a couple of contractors who got frustrated because they gave good, solid bids, but where undercut and had to watch as the work was horribly done.

 

Although in one building I was the rep for, there were three big repairs that sat for years.  What I did was to ask that the repairs be put into the next year's budget then follow up before years end.  I had to wait but the repairs did get done within the first four months of the new year.

 

I wish the church would adopt the bidding process in which the highest bid and the lowest bid are automatically thrown out.  I am a big fan of that.

[Vort]

I wish the church would adopt the bidding process in which the highest bid and the lowest bid are automatically thrown out.  I am a big fan of that.

 

When we had to rebuild part of our house after a huge storm, we put in a deck. The lowest bid by far (two-thirds the price of the next-lowest bid) was for the obviously best deck plan, really artistic. We have been totally happy with our deck. For us, the lowest bid was definitely the best. So I'm not necessarily a fan of discarding the lowest bid just because it's the lowest. That presupposes that those who charge least do the worst work, which is an unworthy and cynical attitude.

[mordorbund]

Holy smoke!!

 

My avatar sees what you did there.

[Str8Shooter]

When we had to rebuild part of our house after a huge storm, we put in a deck. The lowest bid by far (two-thirds the price of the next-lowest bid) was for the obviously best deck plan, really artistic. We have been totally happy with our deck. For us, the lowest bid was definitely the best. So I'm not necessarily a fan of discarding the lowest bid just because it's the lowest. That presupposes that those who charge least do the worst work, which is an unworthy and cynical attitude.

 

When it comes to private contracting, I would always consider every bid for the very reason you mention.  Unfortunately, in the corporate/business world, the low bid (and high bid) often has something very wrong with it, especially if it deviates greatly from the company's estimated cost.  Sometimes it's honest mistakes.  Sometimes it's dishonesty.  Always awarding the job to the low bid also provides a perfect breeding ground for corruption.  The list goes on.  In nearly all cases, the solicitor comes out on the losing end.  

 

Sometimes the contractor loses.  I know a dirt company that went bankrupt from just one bid.  They missed an item in the bid, the city held them to the bid, and the company folded.

 

As for an unworthy and cynical attitude- yes, it may seem that way, but when a company has to go over dozens of high dollar bids with hundreds of bidders (I've seen a job that had over 400 bidders), going over every detail of every bid is just not possible let alone practical. Tossing out the high and low bid (and sometimes bids) is an efficient way to protect the solicitor and the bidder.

 

The last two low bid jobs on our church building netted appalling work.   

[priesthoodpower]

I own a gutter & roofing repair/installation company. I got called from the FM group in a neigboring city to bid on some gutter repair work, I wanted to say "hey thats my church" and proceed to give them a charity type bid, I decided to keep it professional and bid as I would on any other job because my time is very valuable to me. They never called me back.

 

The chapel that I attend needs major work on some parts of the roof, its been sitting like that for over 5 years. I estimate that the costs to repair it would be around $3000, I asked my stake president if I could do the work at no charge to the church. I would pay for the material and my labor would be free. I also asked if I could use the cost of material (estimated $1200) as a supplement to my yearly tith. He was all for the free work but said no to the part about supplementing my tithing. I dont understand, it would be a win win for everyone.

[slamjet]

Last night I dropped by the Wilson building to see how the networking was going, thinking I was going to have to pester someone to get the cabling done for the new clerks office for the Fletcher and Arroyo wards.  What I saw was one of the members finishing up running the cabling, quote, "so it get's done."  Well, at least I don't have to wait for the FM group to get it done.  Last time we needed cables to get run, it took over six months for it to be completed.  But I can't get too upset with the FM group because next to a couple of big projects in the area, they just got a burnt out building thrust on them that keeps getting damaged.  The latest is that it got vandalized (news linky).

 

In any case, there's a meeting tonight to discuss the transition so that we can finish getting the two wards settled into their new digs.  I was just informed last night that it looks like our stake will be taking over the tech job for the two wards so I have two more units worth of computer systems to care for.  Now I have to try to formulate how I'm going to get the two said computer systems into that small clerks office. 

 

It's pretty amazing how much we, as a stake, have been able to accomplish in just a week in absorbing two new wards into our care.