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June 24th.
2009
SIX MONTHS LATER...
When the father of the bride quickly entered the
sanctuary I could tell something was not right. Initially his level of
anxiety bewildered me because this was only the rehearsal, and it had
not even started.
“Father Brian, there’s water coming through the ceiling back by the
drinking fountain!” Thus began a long and challenging six-month journey.
One which began with a leak that quickly turned into a down pour which
caused sheet rock to collapse, insulation to land everywhere, and carpet
to become completely soaked.
As the water was coming down through the ceiling I called our insurance
agent to determine what steps should be taken. “Do what you need to do
stop the damage – including getting a team of folks on the roof to
shovel snow and a carpet professional to extract the water” came his
response. Thanks particularly to some wonderful parishioners and the
great folks at Wayneco Construction we were able to stop the water
before further damage could take place.
Then something happened on the road from damage control to repair. The
contractor, step by step from the rooftop to the basement, accessed the
building for damages. From this came a good faith estimate for what
repairing the damages would cost including rectifying their initial
cause. Next in the process to restoration came the insurance appraisers
estimation of the damages. This is, as they say, where things went
straight down hill.
Simply stated, the appraiser felt the contractor’s numbers were
completely inflated. As is in my experience in all times of disagreement
I invited both parties to meet me at the church to see if we could come
to a meeting of the minds. Unfortunately, the exact opposite occurred.
Seeing resolution was not possible at this level, I then facilitated the
conversation at the next level in each organizations’ “food chain.” Yet
with all good intentions these negotiations broke down as well.
After a brief cooling off period for all parties involved, an entirely
new cast of characters was obtained. We scaled back from rectifying the
reason for the flooding and focused on the actual damages. We were
finally able to come to an agreement. Now, some six months later, I am
pleased to tell you that the damages to our ceiling are now fixed.
Lessons learned: heat tape, insurance companies only fix damages and do
not rectify actual design flaws, regardless of how hard you try to bring
a meeting of the minds sometimes it just doesn’t happen – move on to
plan b and did I mention heat tape!
Blessings,
The Rev. Brian N. Prior, Rector
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