TRINITY CHURCH
ANNUAL REPORT - 2021
BUILDINGS & GROUNDS
SERVICE GROUPS
Facilities
Our Direction: In 2024, the Facilities Team focused on the goal of moving toward managing our physical assets in a way that integrates day-to-day maintenance and repairs with long-term planning for future needs.
We are being called to simultaneously look at the urgent tasks at hand and look forward to Trinity’s future. Below are the efforts completed and started during the 2024 calendar year.
Day-to-Day Maintenance and repairs completed in 2024
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Roofs, Gutters and Downspouts: The contract with our roofing contractor has now been in place for over a year. A decision was made to increase inspections from twice a year to four times annually after some gutter blockages occurred between inspections. Our contractor has also made recommendations to mitigate some ongoing gutter and downspout problem areas. This includes adding gutter screens to exposed gutters and adding a couple of downspouts to handle increased volume of water associated with severe weather events. The contractor inspected the roof post hurricane and identified minimal damage, which was repaired. Still under active review is the possibility of flashing repair of the east facing tower wall junction with the north facing Nave roof.
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Stormwater Drains: The effort continues to identify long-term solutions to our drainage issues. Final recommendations should be completed by the end of the year. The major areas in need of resolution are the interior downspouts from the Bell Tower, the street level drainage of the three downspouts from the north facing Nave roof, ground level drainage from two downspouts in the Redwood Chapel Garden, and the Schuford Garden drainage. A temporary drain was added to the downspout just east of the Aston St. Nave entrance.
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Sacristy Renovations: The renovation of the Clergy and Working Sacristies as well as the hallway between them was begun in 2023 and completed in 2024. This included refinishing floors in the Clergy Sacristy and replacing the flooring in the Working Sacristy, installing new lighting, new cabinets, drawers and countertops, new plumbing, new windows, plastering repairs and painting of the walls and ceiling, a safe for silver, remodeling the closets, and installation of an HVAC system in both. In the hallway, exposed conduits and florescent lighting were removed and cove lighting was installed along with plastering and painting.
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Safety and Security: The church has begun a movement toward electronic control of most exterior doors in the church campus. To date, the electronic locking system has been installed on six doors. One additional door should be completed before the end of the year. This system allows for significantly enhanced management and control of access and security for the church campus. Not only can access be granted remotely, all access is now tracked through the system. The system also enables remote locking.
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Accessibility: The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant door was installed and is operational. The door allows wheel chair access on ground level. This allows individuals access to the elevator without traversing a ramp. The only area of the church campus that is not accessible by wheel chair is Godly Play. This door also is part of the electronic locking system. All doors that received electronic locks were also rehung, and emergency exit devices were installed bringing them up to code.
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Windows: Two windows were replaced during the Sacristy renovation. There are several specialty windows (non-stained glass) that need repair. Most of these are located in the undercroft and the Bell Tower. This will be included in future budget estimates. ​
Work on Long-Term Campus Sustainability in 2024
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Facilities Archives: A large trove of blueprints and facilities drawings have been provided to the NC Room of Pack Memorial Library. The library staff is in the process of determining which documents they want to keep and preserve. Any documents they choose to retain in their collection will be digitized and the digital copy provided to Trinity.
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New Resources: We continue to participate in various Episcopal Parish Network events. ​​
What’s Next: Initial 2025 Priorities (Plans and budgets in the works)
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HVAC Systems: The air conditioning system that services the Apse has failed and will require replacement. This effort should be accomplished in 2025.
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Roofs, Gutters and Downspouts: An assessment is underway to determine if any gutters/downspouts need to be enlarged and/or additional downspouts added. The remaining gutters that are not protected by screens will be proposed in 2025. Any approved recommendations will be proposed and undertaken in 2025.
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Stormwater: This is likely the main focus in 2025 for Facilities. Once estimates are in hand, recommendations will be made to undertake this critical maintenance and renovation to the church campus.
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Safety, Security and Accessibility: Now that the electronic locking system is in place, the remaining keyed access doors will be rekeyed to limit access by a physical key.
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Accessibility: There is a continual assessment of the 20 exterior doors in the church campus. There are two doors that need near-term attention. The double doors from the Memorial Garden to the hallway to Tuton Hall are problematic and likely need near-term attention. A plan will be created with the hope that repair/renovation will start prior to year end 2025.
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Windows: It is anticipated that the church can begin repairing a few specialty windows each year over the next several years to address identified issues.
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Planning: A long-term plan that attempts to identify needed repairs, maintenance, upgrades and renovation has been drafted. It includes a preliminary prioritization scheme.
What’s Next?
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2024 has seen significant improvements, renovations and upgrades to the facilities. The focus in 2025 will be to address required maintenance and, hopefully, make significant updates and improvements to our stormwater drainage. This year’s team includes Ralph Simpson, David Hensley, Adrian Vassallo, Tom Williams, Richard Wrightson, and Glenn Childes. Scott White also actively participates.
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As a reminder from the 2023 Annual Report; every dollar of deferred maintenance will likely cost us four dollars in the future.
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Respectively submitted,
Cole Hedden
Creation Care
In its second year, and chaired by Monte Gaillard, the Creation Care Committee became the Creation Care and Grounds committee, taking responsibility for all major upkeep and decisions related to Trinity’s land.
Meeting about six times per year, the group’s mission is
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to foster a greater awareness and appreciation of all of God’s creation and its sacredness, so that we experience the love of God; and to allow love to move us to gratitude and to action on behalf of the more-than-human world.
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To create, nurture, and maintain the landscape surrounding Trinity Church, Asheville, North Carolina, with an acute sense of the genius loci (the spirit of the place) and for the betterment of the natural world.
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To set an example at Trinity that inspires and enables others to reconsider their own landscapes and lives.
In January, we hosted a lunch after church one Sunday for people interested in joining in the work. In February, we attended the Creation Care Alliance conference at Montreat. In March, we hosted a series of speakers in Sunday’s adult formation in the Undercroft focused on our local natural history, and we hosted a volunteer grounds clean-up day. Monte also enlisted a professional landscaping team to do total clean-up of the grounds leading up to Easter. In April, we hosted a screening of the documentary “Common Ground,” about regenerative farming. And we had our biggest event of the year, our Earth Day celebration in cooperation with the other Church St. churches. Led by Barbara Matthews and Susan Edwards, with help from the whole committee, the event was covered by local news. Children could create seed tapes and sprouting gardens, and could pet bunnies. Adults could find information on local sustainable food and farming, composting and recycling, climate advocacy, environmental stewardship, native plants and pollinators.
In June we had another volunteer grounds clean up day. The herb garden flourished this summer, thanks especially to the leadership of Melissa Harrelson, and the raised bed by the playground re-seeded itself with last summer’s flowers. Last year, Art Garst assisted Eagle Scout Jackson Israel in cleaning up a corner of the grounds and putting in a bench, and this year he continued to beautify that space.
We continued to compost and to increase our use of compostable goods rather than single-use plastics. Thanks to Julia Williams, we also started using local farm eggs for our Sunday breakfasts. Thanks to Lee Seabrook, we became a CSA pick-up site for Olivette Farms, and fifteen or twenty Trinity families participated.
After our summer break, we planned to resume meeting in September, but the hurricane derailed us. We have rescheduled a field trip to Hickory Nut Gap farms, and are hoping to reschedule a visit with the head of composting for the Biltmore Estate. We’re interested in incorporating the Anglican tradition of rogation day prayers into our 2025 practice, and in making more connections with local organizations.
After reviewing several bids, with the help of Jeff Cook, we have contracted with a new landscaping company to provide annual maintenance of the property at Trinity, Trinity Place, and the Annex, and we will continue to organize volunteers to care for the grounds on a regular basis. As we consider what to do with the land newly cleared by our fallen trees, we are hopeful that we may be able to put a pollinator garden in at the back of the parking lot.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Peterson and Monte Gaillard
Communications Team
Early in the year, the Communications Committee gathered and discussed a variety of topics, including streamlining our communications, social media policies, standards for reporting deaths to the parish, style guides, and website updates. We also discussed finding ways to minimize our paper waste so as to be better stewards.
We did begin using a more minimal paper bulletin at our 10:45 service to great success, and we have continually updated our website and communications policies.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, our plans to re-launch our Instagram presence with the help of parishioner K. Marie Frederiksen got briefly derailed. However, the hurricane provided the impetus for us to improve communication in other ways: regularly using text messaging through Realm to alert the whole congregation of time-sensitive and important news, and using a blog feature with a subscribe option on the website to disseminate the most important hurricane-related information.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Peterson
Trinity Art Guild
2024 was a busy spring for the Art Guild due to an incredibly generous offer from our Deacon Bob Zito and his wife Dana Cole to hold a fundraising event for Lake Logan/Camp Henry Scholarships at their beautiful new home in the Cliffs. Plans were made for an evening party on Thursday, May 30, with libations, delicious heavy hors d’oeuvres, and music by the fabulous group “Fireside”.
Tickets were sold on the church website for $100 per person. Due to the great generosity of Bob and Dana, who covered most of the costs, all proceeds ($10,000) went to Lake Logan/Camp Henry Scholarships. Bishop Jose attended, as did Laura Elliott, Executive Director of Lake Logan. Camp Counselors parked cars, and many Trinitarians enjoyed a lovely evening together while supporting a very good cause.
The Art Guild would like to thank Bob and Dana again for making this event possible.
The Art Guild will plan a meeting in early 2025 to make plans for 2025 after everyone has recovered from Hurricane Helene.
Lake Logan Volunteers
Lake Logan is a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. There is a Retreat Center open year-round, Camp Henry summer camp for children, youth and families, and an Outdoor School offering year-round outdoor education.
Thursday Volunteers assist in a variety of much-needed work. All skill-sets are truly welcome. In addition, Lake Logan hosts two Volunteer Weekends each year, in the spring and the fall. Countless members of Trinity come out weekly or whenever their schedules allow. We are so grateful for each one of you!
Respectively submitted,
Carlyn Pheil and Fred Fairhead, Coordinators
