January 2020 Newsletter
&
New Building Update

A lot has happened at MakeICT over the past year, but the big news was our purchase of the former Booth Elementary school at 5920 E. Mount Vernon. I know it seems like forever since we closed on the property, but while nothing appears to be happening, much has been going on behind the scenes. We've made appearances at the East Mount Vernon Neighborhood Association, the Neighborhood Advisory Board, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. We've received unanimous approval from the last two bodies, as well as endorsements from our City Councilman. We've re-platted the land, and we've been working on the building changes to obtain our Certificate of Occupancy -- ADA compliant bathrooms and entrances, heat for the East-West hallway rooms, and emergency lighting. Our zoning received final approval on January 7th by the City Council, so we are now zoned for exactly what we do. The plat was on this morning's Consent Agenda for the City Council, so we are now officially Lot 1, Section 1, of the Makerspace Addition on maps that show real estate info.

I've challenged our awesome volunteer work crews to shoot for finishing the heating, electrical, and plumbing work for our Certificate of Occupancy by February 1st -- a huge challenge! If we can get all of these tasks accomplished by then, we'll finally be in a position to actually start moving to our newer, much bigger building. While we will be close, we probably won't quite have everything done. But once we have our CO, the actual moving of equipment won't take so long.
 

We currently have volunteers coming in to work on the new building each Wednesday, but now that things are happening, we have someone at the new building every weekday from noon to six at least, so if you can volunteer some time for us, just show up and we'll find you a job!

There are many, many volunteers who have contributed their time, effort, and expertise to helping us get ready for our big move. As you can imagine, coordinating such an effort is a challenge for any organization, but much more so for a 100% volunteer group. Just keeping track of the massive number of details involved is daunting. While we are so busy juggling all of these things, there is no way to properly recognize and thank everyone who has given of themselves. There are a few examples in this newsletter, but aside from those folks I happened to have photos for, I cannot do justice to our awesome members and volunteers. From auction item photographers to construction supervisors, cleaning crew to tradespeople, please know that your efforts are both noticed and appreciated, and WE WILL be celebrating all that you've done once we've moved into the new building and can recognize and thank you properly!