The Hub

Wapato is excited to have purchased the building previously owned by Long’s Tire Man. Our vision is to create a space that will be useful not only for our church’s needs (Sunday school classrooms, offices, etc.), but will also be a center of activity for the Gaston community. We desire to be a place that serves the community through the Food Bank, youth activities, family & life programs, technology resources and much more. This project will happen in phases over a span of time, but we are eager to start renovations and move toward these goals.  

Meet the Construction Team
Rob Dixon-Overall Project Manager: robert.dixon1965@yahoo.com
Laura Fordyce-Design and Permitting Support and Supervision: clfordyce07@yahoo.com
Tom Jordan-Construction Contracting/Supervision: jtjordan5@frontier.com
John Sissoyev-Long-term Maintenance and Practical Care

Current Projects

Phase One is complete - we will proceed to complete building out the project as funds are available.

Design Input – Laura Fordyce has crafted plans enabling us to do our best to meet an array of needs, both in the congregation and the community.

Technology Grants – Joel Mulkey is in process of researching available grants to help us reach the need for computers and internet access in Gaston.

Food Bank Grants- Lori Reed is looking into funds that will help pay for the portion of construction that will service the Food Bank.

January 28, 2017
First phase is complete, we have moved into the Hub! Currently, we will be using the space to house the Food Bank (Thursdays 5-7pm) and for 3 Children's Church classes on Sundays. As we have the funds, we will continue to build out the space.

WAPATO HUB CONSTRUCTION PROJECT UPDATE-January 31, 2016

Background:
As God continued to grow over the ministry at Wapato over the last couple years, the inadequacy of the annex we rent across the street, as well as the Knights of Pythias (Knights) eventually wanting to have back the office space we rent from them upstairs, compelled us to look for different facilities.
It was a process of about two years with a lot of divergent opinions on what we should do and why. The exciting thing was that the entire eldership team came to agreement that we should commit ourselves to reaching and serving the Gaston community through buying property right here, right next door to where we currently meet in the Knights building. This was more significant as a spiritual direction decision than just a need for facilities decision. It was a decision to not try to get a nicer place for us to only meet our needs, but to provide something unique to specifically reach the Gaston community as well as our immediate needs as a church family.
When we met about one year ago as a congregation to vote whether to get a loan and buy the Tireman facility next door for parking and to turn it into the Hub, the vote was overwhelmingly positive. It was announced as being almost unanimous. We subsequently learned that the one person who had voted no misunderstood the vote and sought out one of the elders to tell them they were in favor too. That means we had a unanimous vote in favor.
That's remarkable; I've never experienced that level of unity in a church before. It is even more remarkable when you realize that before voting the specific request of the eldership was: ”Do not vote in favor of this unless you are committed to increasing your giving by 10%.” That was not commit yourself to tithing 10%, it was where ever you're at in your current giving, add 10% more to it going forward. So if your normal monthly giving is $100 a month, up it to $110 a month. If your normal monthly giving is $1000 a month, up it to $1100 a month.  And still we had a unanimous vote to go forward. 

Another objective was to hit the proper balance point of having enough money to pay for ministry staff and ministry needs while obtaining adequate physical space and not shortchange one or the other. Buying the Tireman building, cleaning it up and building it out as we have funds available hit that balance. The Hub is the name we have chosen for the old Tireman building once it is refurbished. Since the building is located at the intersection of Main and Front Streets we hope it becomes a Hub of activity and focus for the Gaston community.
Moving Forward:
The near-future plan is to continue to rent and use the bottom of the Knights building for our worship center where we are now. If we need more worship space as we grow, we will go to two Sunday services unless some other unique situation presents itself. The first phase of the Hub currently under construction will replace the annex we rent across the street, office spaces we rent upstairs, and provide secure dry storage.
As you have heard from Greg's budget presentation this morning it looks like everyone has stepped to the plate and honored the commitment to increase their giving by 10%. Please continue because we received approved construction permits just this week.
From this point forward we estimate the cost to be about $75,000-$90,000 for the first phase which gets us out of the annex and out of the offices and the associated rent we pay for them, plus some great dry storage area, but not too much else.
We can roll right into building Phase 2 (See attached floor plans) very easily as the money is available. But at our current income rate, Phase 2 is 1-3 years down the road. Currently, we are not planning a large fundraiser or pledge program, we’re just asking everyone to maintain their normal level of general hilarious giving to the church and if they want to give more specifically for the Hub, mark it for the Building Fund.
The core Hub construction team consist of Tom Jordan, Terry Wymore, Laura Fordyce, Troy Wise, Jeremy Woodgate, Darrell McCathron, John Sissoyev, and myself.
If you have questions, concerns, don’t understand why or how we are or are not doing something, have a recommendation for us, please contact any of us at any time. Please do not hold back if you think your question is dumb or if you don't want to be complaining. We would much rather hear concerns and address them, maybe we are missing something.
Now that we have our permits to begin there will be opportunities to save money through volunteers for specific tasks. So far the volunteer work you have all done has saved us approximately $20,000.
Where possible and when we have been aware, we are using contractors for the work who are part of the Wapato family. So if you are in one of the trades and we don't know about you, please tell someone on the Hub construction committee who you are.
Respectfully Submitted,
Rob Dixon

Design Update 7/2/15

Hello Wapato & Gaston Community -
It's time for a design update from your friendly Hub Construction Team! Since we've last presented a design update to you, we've gather lots of information and are ready to move forward in a particular direction.   It's been amazing to watch the Lord guide us - opening doors and ideas where we should go, and closing doors where it's not his will.
So in case you've haven't heard, here's the latest. We had some testing done on the building to find out that, though it was built to code in 1968, there's not much to the structure that helps us for current codes. If you want specifics on this, please contact a member of the construction team. But the short story is - we had the option to only go with one story in the current building (within our projected budge) or tear down the building and rebuild bigger/better to have the option of two stories in the future ($500-700,000). This led us to conclude that we should build out the current space as one story (with some limited storage above the classroom areas) and if we need, in the future, build a 2-story structure in the side yard area that could potentially tie into a new, 2-story building (that would replace the current structure) really far down the road if needs and resources arise.
With this plan in mind, we set out to design a one-story layout for the current space that would meet our needs and do our best to make everyone happy. Knowing that 'making everyone happy' is a fairly impossible goal - we serve a big God and it seems he has lead us through revision after revision to a plan that seems to do a pretty good job of meeting needs and pleasing the masses.
A few points to ponder as you look over the latest design:
   The Gym/Multi-purpose will serve as one or two classrooms on Sunday mornings for the older    children's church kids.   It will also serve as a useable space on Thursdays for the Food Bank.
   We don't have a 'tech center' designated, as a pile of laptops could easily be set out in the    dividable classroom and provide the community with many more resources in a small amount of    storage space.
   The Shower Room would be for instances of youth events, a church group that needed a place    to stay on a road trip, or an occasional community member in need.
This plan will still need to be run through a licensed architect, and we realize we might not have thought of everything (please speak up if you see any issues!), so the end result will most likely have some tweaks to it. But we feel confident that we are heading in the right direction and look forward to continuing this process.
Thank you!    Laura

June 14, 2015
Wapato Family,
Two Sundays ago, May 31st, we presented the congregation with two options based on the structural findings of our existing building.
Option 1 is to remodel the inside of the existing building and plan for only one story (and some limited storage) within the shell of the existing building. The current $65,000 in the building fund should pay for design, permitting, fees, roof repair, and phase 1 of the ground level construction. Phase 1 would be very minimal improvements, but would get us in the building and out of paying rent on the annex. But finishing the one-story build out would be in multiple phases over the next 3-5 years as funds allow.
Option 2 is to tear down the existing building (saving the floor and concrete retaining wall) and rebuild from scratch a wood-framed shell that could house up to 2 stories in the future. We would build out the first floor now and the second floor when needed in the future. This would require a very significant fund raising event, securing very large grants, or borrowing $550,000-$750,000 initially and possibly and additional $150,000-$250,000 more in the far future to finish out the second floor.
We listened to the congregational feedback given, had extensive conversations, discussed and received direction from the elders and have appreciated everyone's input. We need to choose an option to go forward.
Recommended Plan of Action:
Go with Option 1. But plan in 3 major Stages.
Stage 1 (1-5 years): Design and construct a 1-story layout for our existing building that meets our current needs and expands on the facilities we're currently functioning in (this could take 2-5 phases to build out, but hopefully only 2-3 phases and require 3-5 years.
Stage 2 (5-10 years): When we come across grants or gifts from our body and/or the community, and our needs push us to need more space, we design a new 2-story addition on to the North end of the lot (this is approx 30'x40').
Stage 3 (10-15 years): If, years down the road, we continue to grow and find we need a better/bigger facility to handle the ministries the Lord is giving us we tear down & replace our current building with one that could tie into our Stage 2 and be a 2-story structure also.
We believe this is the best way to move forward with all the feedback given. It both allows us to get moving right now and use what we have, get out from paying rent on both the annex and the offices ($800/month) as well as leave the doors wide open for the Lord to explode our numbers and ministry opportunities and bless us in the area of funding if He wants us to go that direction. This process would also keep us out of any additional debt, as it would be a 'go-as-we-grow' process.
Even though all of us will not agree completely on all aspects of how to move forward, we all need to settle on a direction that we can all support. We plan to go ahead with Option 1, BUT If you feel strongly about our course of action, please speak up, please contact one of the Hub Construction Team members. How we go through this building process as a church family is as important as the end result of the construction project itself.

Thank you, The Hub Construction Team