It’s time to make room for a growing family. It’s time to make room for the expanding vision that God is giving us. This is advancement and this is growth. It is time to build our house.
Q - Will there be tax receipts given for donations towards the building expansion?
A - All donations given towards the capital campaign for our building expansion are fully tax receiptable. All receipts are tabulated at the end of the fiscal year and are usually available at the beginning of February.
Q - Who is involved in making these important decisions about project scope and finances?
A - We are blessed to have some very qualified, conscientious people who are spending many hours to pull together the expertise for our building project. The main decision-making group is the Board of Deacons (Ray Snoei, Bob McCulloch, Terry Martin, Wayne Hampton, Mark Goobie, Jason Willis and Kevin van der Wier). The Board of Deacons has appointed two other working subcommittees to inform/recommend them in this process. The Future Building Finance Committee is made up of Ray Kalvaitis, Jason Willis, Kevin van der Wier, Cathy Brown and Matt Tapley. The Building Oversight Committee is comprised of Wayne Hampton, Brian Treble, Rodica Anton, Vince Cutruzzola, Matt Tapley and Cathy Brown. These people have incredible resources at their disposal. They represent Diverse vocations that include a town planner, president of a financial investment firm, successful business men, electrical engineer, and electrical estimator.
Q: We voted on the 4.5 mil building project, but we have not voted on the actual starting or completion of the project. When does that happen?
A: 98% of the members at Lakemount gave the leadership the green light to go forward with a $4.5M expansion project. There has been lots of background work to get us to the place where we could present plans to the congregation at the launch of our capital campaign. When we know how much money comes in through the capital campaign, then leadership can make some qualified decisions regarding debt load and actual size of the building project. When we have done that, we'll bring a motion to the members - which is a large, binding document regarding the mortgage that we will acquire. The Capital Campaign is what is directing the timing and scope of our project right now. The next vote from members is not about timing – which we understand to be mandated as quickly as possible, but about the size/scale of the project and the loan that we will acquire to make it happen.
Q: Will there be proper accommodation for families with babies and for nursing moms?
A: We are very aware of the grace-filled patience shown by young parents in our current facility. Our plans (at this time) include having a nursing mom's room that is at the back of the auditorium with one-way glass - so young moms feel like they are part of the service and don't miss the momentum as they nurse. Fussing toddlers may fall in a different category. If the funds allow, we will have a couple of video feeds in the lobby - so parents can walk with their kids and still see the service.
Q: What if we don’t hit the financial pledge target?
A: If we don’t meet our pledge target in the capital campaign, we will make decisions to redefine the plan that was originally submitted to the church. Leadership will not saddle Lakemount with oppressive debt that will smother the ongoing work and call that is on our church. We will accept the level of faith-filled commitment that our people respond with - and work with that mandate to accomplish the most that is possible within those parameters.
Q: The new church will hold 1200 + 300 children and we will have 267 parking spots. How will we handle the extra parking that is needed?
A: The new church sanctuary will hold about 900 at the start - but most auditoriums feel 'full' at about 80% - so we can assume that there will be around 800 in the building when it feels ‘comfortably full'. The balcony will be boarded in and used for classrooms until the further need for expansion occurs. Right now, we have an average of 550 (including kids) attending Lakemount on Sundays. We have 267 parking spaces allocated on our site plan. The engineer who does parking studies said that according to what he's seen, we'll have between a 2.7 - 3.2 to 1 parking ratio. We have a long-standing agreement with Fatima - who has approximately 90 more spaces. We are hoping that there can be easy access to the Fatima parking - which we'll be working towards. When we have 800 people here, the ratio of close parking (including Fatima availability) is 2.24 to 1. We are also talking to Fifth Wheel about an extra lot they are not using. We will be asking all Sunday ministry people to park off site and we'll be providing a shuttle to that lot. There are further expansion plans as we grow - but for now, those arrangements should be sufficient.