BRATTLEBORO 1/24/2014 – Over the course of two very long (13+ hour) days, a dedicated team of Entergy employees completed two much-needed projects at Morningside Shelter. As part of Morningside’s Project: Re-Vamp – Design for Dignity initiative, Entergy foot the bill for materials and recruited their skilled employees as volunteers to complete the projects.
On December 13, a crew of six Entergy employees, led by Project Manager Brian Tietze (with technical assistance from GPI Construction), completed a safety repair to the Shelter’s main staircase. The stair treads, which are traversed by hundreds of feet each day, had begun to split and the surfaces had become slippery. The bannister on the staircase had been patched a number of times, and although it had never been in violation of safety codes, Tietze noticed the potential safety hazard in the low height of the railing and made it a priority to raise it to a sounder height.
Morningside Shelter is entering its 35th year operating the 29-bed shelter out of the old farmhouse on Royal Road (formerly Morningside Drive) in Brattleboro. The house is believed to have been built in the 1880s, and last year housed 120 unduplicated people – roughly a third of whom are children.
“That’s a lot of wear and tear on our facility,” commented Morningside’s Executive Director Josh Davis. “We do regular maintenance – for instance when a family moves out, we can do a quick turn-around paint job before the next family moves in – but we’re always challenged to complete projects while the house is at full occupancy. The Entergy crew did an amazing job – even working in the snow at times due to limited space inside – and we’re so grateful for their donation of time and talents.”
Safety improvements to the stairway and bannister were just the beginning of this multi-day project completed on the volunteers’ days off from work. On January 10, the crew returned to renovate the upstairs bathroom. The bathroom was a health and safety concern due to an improperly laid tile floor that had cracked in dozens of places. Upon pulling up the tile, the team found that cracks had allowed moisture to saturate the top layer of subfloor underneath. The project required replacement of the subfloor, and provided an education on repair to old houses.
“You never know how they might have installed this thing 125 years ago!” warned Tietze, as he prepared his team to take up the soggy subfloor. Luckily, the beams beneath were solid, and the new floor is far sturdier than before. As part of the bathroom renovation, Morningside received a brand new toilet, new tile floor with a dry and secure subfloor, and new durable baseboards.
Entergy has also provided Morningside Shelter with stackable chairs and miscellaneous other furniture for the Shelter and its offices. The chairs are a huge improvement from the tattered and broken chairs residents had been using to gather around the kitchen table.
Morningside Shelter would like to thank Entergy and each of the Entergy volunteers, as well as Billy Gilbert (who installed the new toilet) and GPI Construction (who completed the detail work on the bannister in addition to providing technical assistance to both projects); and Jan Bennett, Entergy retiree and regular Morningside Shelter volunteer, who provided lunch for the hungry crew!
To see photos of both projects in progress visit Morningside Shelter’s Facebook page. To learn more about how you can support Project: Re-Vamp Morningside Shelter – Design for Dignity, visit www.MorningsideShelter.org.
Joshua Davis, Executive Director, Morningside Shelter jdavis@morningsideshelter.org | 802.257.0066 x102
