We are home!
On August 19th we will be walking our Torah from our Learning Center to our new Synagogue at 7800 NE 119th St. This joyous and wonderful event will mark the beginning of our future in our new home.
September 6th will be our official building dedication ceremony where we will hang our mezzuzah and officially become a congregation with a home.
The week ending 3/6/12
The week ending 2/7/12
- Parapet cap metal continuing
- Fire sprinkler piping complete in Social Hall
- Plumbing rough in mains in Social Hall
- Mechanical screen posts installed
- Tyvek membrane furring, foam insulation underway on Sanctuary fascade
- Insulation board, Dens Deck and TPO roofing over north end of admin wing
- Ply HVAC roof top duct complete over Admin
- HVAC duct rough underway in Social wing; spec’d insulation being used
- Interior framing and welding roof access platform in Sanctuary north soffit
- Henry’s WPB #2 in Sanctuary
- Courtyard storm drainage underway
The week ending 12/27/11
- our schedule is On Time!!
- most of the CMU pressure washed roof ply sheeting over the social hall
- kitchen entry and kitchen slabs poured
- glue laminated beams and roof framing in Admin wing
The week ending 12/20/11
- Steel columns complete
- Masonry walls complete
- Concrete poured in south wing
- Roof joist installation in social hall
- Grading Rock
- Wood ledger installed complete
- Installing storm drain on East side
The week ending 11/29/11
The week ending 11/15/11
- Erosion control measures continuing including placing straw and completion of a wattle trench adjacent to the hydro-seed.
- Interior footings backfilled and compacted Masons continuing work at the social hall; plan to add two courses of CMU block today in order to bring the wall to 13’-4” AFF. This will allow the installation of three wall block-outs to be completed.Sanctuary CMU is at Finished Floor. Admin / Education wing CMU is at 4’ AFF.
- Waterproofing ongoing at the interior faces of the Sanctuary and south building walls.
- Scaffolding installation ongoing at the east Sanctuary walls.
- Columbia PUD connected power on Friday (11/4). Temporary power now available. Generators no longer required.
- Electricians running conduit under-slab at the social hall. Masons continuing work in the south wing (Gridlines J to L).-Sanctuary CMU is at 12’ AFF.-Social Hall CMU is at 12’ AFF except at adjacent low roof locations where the wall has been built to the through wall flashing elevation of 13’-4” AFF (detail C1/A7.5).Contractor anticipates placing steel and grouting the walls early next week. CMU block wall built up to finished floor level
- Erosion control measures ongoing (more straw has been put down). Backfilling of the interior waterproofed CMU walls is ongoing. Waterproofing of the exterior walls stopped; not required by design.
- Scaffolding of the perimeter walls completed.
The week ending 11/1/11
- Stripping footing forms
- Foundation footing drains and gravel
- Excavating plumbing below grade DWV
- Masonry CMU underway
- Final grading for parking lot paving
- Temp electric in place
- Under-slab plumbing DWV lines complete
- Plumbing branch lines to be laid out
- CMU block wall built up to finished floor level
- Parking area grading and compaction continuing
- Cascade Electric pull power from north electrical vault to southern electrical vault to roadside power pole
- Light pole footers w/power roughed in
The week ending 10/18/11
- Retaining wall block delivered and stored on-site
- Compaction of gravel base for retaining wall complete
- Surveyor onsite surveying curb locations
- Bioswale areas sodded
- Hydroseed completed at west end of property
- Grading of southern most curb cut
- Grading of retention pond
- Building foundation formwork continues
The week ending 9/23/11
This week lots of great things are happening at the site. We now have electrical and phone service conduits. the formwork is in place for the concrete portion of the northerly and southerly bioswales. We have the building rock section for the parking lot, and they are setting batter boards for the buildings footings. It’s all starting to take shape!
The week of 9/16/11
The old road is gone the new road with curbs is complete. Grading continues and we now have two fire
Please welcome the newest member of our congregation!
If you attended our Groundbreaking on August 29th, then you will recognize this steer. He was fairly insistent about attending the event. As we were singing, the steer appeared on the patch of dirt where our sanctuary will be, and he refused to allow the sheriff’s deputies to round him up and get him back to his home on a neighboring farm. But there is far more to the story than just one insistent steer.
That steer was the last one belonging to Sam Visser.
Sam used to own all the land where our future synagogue will be as well as the land our church neighbor sits on and all the land the neighboring homes sit on. Sam grew up in Holland, and as a boy, his father Hiltje Visser made the decision to save the lives of a Jewish couple. They hid Samuel Von Frank and his wife in their home for two years and allowed them to survive. The Von Frank family has planted trees in Israel in their honor, and there is even a tree planted in their honor at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. When asked about his memories, Sam answered, “If a man came to you and said this couple needs help or they will be killed, could you say to someone, ‘No’?” Of course we know that so many said “no,” making those who said “yes” even more courageous in our eyes.
Sam and Helen Visser came to the United States in 1953 first to California for 15 years, then to Vancouver where they have operated a dairy farm.
Sam died three weeks before our groundbreaking, and as it says above, this was his last steer. The steer has been a calm unassuming animal by all reports up until that day. Earlier on the 29th he had gotten loose a couple of times and had been rounded up by various neighbors of our property. During our groundbreaking he broke through two fences to stand there with us, and anyone will tell you he was perfectly fine just standing there with us. However, he wasn’t interested in being sent away.
The steer was slated for sale and slaughter the next day. But a few very generous members of our congregation got together to buy him and house him. Many thanks to Marty Rifkin for organizing the sale and to the Ferguson family who have agreed to keep him with the goats as long as he agrees to stay behind the fence.
Look for information on a naming contest coming soon!
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who participated in our wonderful groundbreaking ceremony. So many people worked hard to make the evening come off without a hitch, the parking attendants, the set-up folks, the clean-up folks, everyone who planned, who spoke and who dug. Thank you, thank you. Keep a lookout for the backstory on the steer who crashed the party. This story is developing and we will let you know as we have more information.
Congregation Kol Ami’s new synagogue.