Since the generous grant for $5000 was approved by Niles Rotary July 24, 2015, for the repair of the buttresses on the Little Church at St. James’, progress has seen fits and starts. We sent a heartfelt “Thank You” letter to Niles Rotary Club on August 24, 2015. We solidified our plans to replace the wooden buttresses with steel buttresses after first pulling in the walls with a cable system that would be removed after the buttress repair/replacement.
Of the two contractors we found that said they would like to bid on the project, neither one submitted a bid. Other contractors said they were too busy to bid the project. As of November 1, 2015, the contractors were told the bid was no longer open, partly due to the busy contractor situation and the fact that we did not want them working outside in the rainy weather.
About the same time we discovered original the plans for the moving of the church in 1955 which showed that the buttresses were to be sheeted with plywood on both sides of each buttress. Inspection showed that the sheeting was not done.
Consultation with the engineer resulted in rethinking the process from using steel buttresses to replacing the wooden buttresses and making it a more simple repair which would utilize the plywood sheeting on the wooden buttresses as specified in the 1955 plans. At the same time our engineer told us further consultation would be on pro bono basis. Plans were modified to reflect the changes. The revised plans were shown to the City of Fremont on June 2, 2016. It was determined that the repair would not need a permit. In addition, the repair process will now leave the building in a closer-to-original condition than the process utilizing steel buttresses.
As of June 9, 2016, two contractors indicated they would like to bid the project and have been given sets of plans. Additional contractors have been contacted. We expect that the cost estimated with the steel buttresses will be reduced and still we plan to use the generous $5000 Niles Rotary grant towards the repair.
~Bruce Roberts, Little Church Committee