March 18, 2025 The Vestry of St. John’s Church, Elizabeth City Parish, was called to order on March 18, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. by Rev. Lisa Erdeljon. Present were Darden Barrett – Senior Warden, Bettyrene Pope – Junior Warden, Ellen Griffith – Registrar, Scott Curtis, Bob Harper, Anne Rutherford, Andrew Mackey, Ron Kindley via Phone, Rev Lisa Erdeljon, and Linda Curtis – Treasurer. Brad Norris was absent. The meeting opened at 6:31 p.m. with a prayer. Ascertainment of Quorum: A quorum was present. Approval of Minutes: A motion was made by Scott Curtis to approve the minutes from the February 22 meeting as written and the March 3 Emergency Meeting as amended. Seconded by Bob Harper. The motion was approved unanimously. Approval of Agenda: A motion was made by Bettyrene Pope to approve the agenda as written. Seconded by Ellen Griffith. The motion was approved unanimously. Treasurer’s Report, Linda Curtis: We have received some full year pledges, so income in February is higher than budgeted, YTD is about even with budgeted. The rector’s salary is now showing housing and SECA split out. Higher bookkeeping cost in February is from taxes being done in January, communications is from 2 months of Adobe being paid due to timing of payments. The upstairs thermostat was replaced and the vestry retreat are both showing in February.
As of March 17, Hudson is current with the Hoffman House lease payments. $20,000 was moved from the Nickerson Trust to the Outreach Account for their operating budget. Charitable Trust made a donation to the Lil Free Pantry. Night’s Welcome was paid in February as well.
CDs came due in January and were moved to a Money Market account. Also we have $50,000 that we should move to a higher interest account. A motion was made by Darden Barrett to approve the CDs from January that were moved into the Money Market account. Seconded by Anne Rutherford. The motion was approved unanimously. A motion was made by Darden Barrett to approve moving $50,000 from the Operating Bank Account to a CD in the best interest of the church as determined by Linda. Seconded by Anne Rutherford. The motion was approved unanimously. Senior Warden’s Report, Darden Barrett: Thanks to everyone who attended the Emergency Meeting.
Junior Warden’s Report, Bettyrene Pope: Hudson has paid the back rent owed. We had a Fire Inspection and there is nothing major. A couple minor issues that are all in the process of being corrected.
Rector’s Report, Rev. Lisa Erdeljon
Personal: Lisa is off March 27-19 and April 3-5, Ellen and Bettyrene will man the office so it doesn’t have to be closed on those days.
Worship: Holy Week is quickly approaching and the schedule of events has been announced. We had 49 people at the Ash Wednesday Noon service. The Wednesday evening service was moved to Thursday night due to inclement weather and had a low turnout. From Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday attendance, 5:30 seems to be the best time for evening activities.
Project Reports
Parochial Report: The Parochial Report as prepared by Lisa and Patrick was presented and discussed.
A motion was made by Darden Barrett to approve the Parochial Report as amended. Seconded by Scott Curtis. The motion was approved unanimously.
| Name | Owner | Others | Status | Status Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name Tags | Bill Beach | Patrick Crandol | Progressing | Patrick & Bill are actively working on this. |
| Playground Mulch | Bettyrene Pope | David Bishop | Has to be playground grade mulch, due to safety risks. Will try hard to get it done by Easter. | |
| Playground Bench | Ellen Griffith | Phase 1 Completed | Bench is outside and chained to the fence. Will make it more permanent once mulch is done. We are working on a second bench as well. | |
| Energy Audit | Charlie Edmonson Bill Beach Linda Curtis | Stalled | When Lisa asked about it nobody knew what was going on. Lisa will have someone take this over. | |
| Security System | Bettyrene Pope | Patrick | Progressing | We need to switch Parish House to the same security company as the church building. Bettyrene would like to update the entire security system, including cameras and keypads. Costs $13,327. |
A motion was made by Darden Barrett for Bettyrene Pope to formally request to the Edward & Mary B Williams Trust for the trust to cover the cost to update the Security System in the Parish House. Seconded by Anne Rutherford. The motion was approved unanimously.
| Project Name | Owner | Others | Status | Status Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leveling Choir Loft | Jay Hogg | Deborah | Per Jay, leveling the choir loft needs to be done when the organ can be out of commission, as it will not be accessible during construction. The best time might be when they redo the church floors. | |
| Serving Organ | Deborah Carr | Organ needs a major serving, as it is moaning during Sunday Services | ||
| Refinishing Church Floors | Jay Hogg | Paused | This requires not using the Sanctuary for months, looking into scheduling this for 2026. | |
| Fluorescent Lights to LED | Patrick Crandol | Bettyrene Pope | Awaiting Decision | Patrick has the ability to do this during his work day, just needs the go ahead and someone to cover the phones. Bettyrene and Ellen offered to cover the office so Patrick could do this. |
| Office Space Usage | Lisa | Progressing | Curate will be in the office next to Lisa. Church has office furniture to use. Deborah will be moving to Mark’s old office. | |
| Changing Tables | Lisa | Bettyrene | Progressing | Working on where to place them within Parish House and Church buildings. |
| Safe Church | Lisa | Ellen Griffith Patrick Crandol Andrew Mackey | Awaiting Start | Safe Church will include all aspects of keeping the church safe and not just as it relates to children being supervised. |
| Stove Maintenance | Bettyrene Pope | Patrick Crandol | Bettyrene will have it looked at when they come out for the hood vent that was flagged on fire marshall inspection. | |
| Cleaning Kitchen Floors | Bettyrene Pope | Patrick Crandol | The kitchen floors need to be steam cleaned, the grout is actually white. | |
| Repairing Railing Outside Church | Bettyrene Pope | Jay Hogg Patrick | Progressing | |
| Door Closers in Parish House | Bettyrene Pope | Some of the door closers in the Parish House need to be replaced | ||
| Thermostat is Worship Space | Bettyrene Pope | Deborah Carr Jay Hogg Patrick Crandol | Paused | The thermostat is currently in the Sacristy. The air return determines what the thermostat is reading as current temperature, not the thermostat itself. |
New Projects:
| Project Name | Owner | Others | Status | Status Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exterior Lighting | Bettyrene Pope | New | The exterior lighting on the Church building needs to be updated. Bettyrene to work on this. | |
| MSG – Trash Clean Up | Bob Harper | Proposed | The Men’s Study Group would like to do a trash cleanup around St. John’s. Lisa advised that this is a no go due to the homeless population around the church. Items that look like trash might belong to someone or have drug residue on them. It’s best to leave it for the cemetery grounds crew to clean up. | |
| Website | Patrick Crandol | Patrick will be handling the website updates going forward. other projects have had priority. |
A motion was made by Scott Curtis to go into a closed session for personnel updates at 8:34. Seconded by Anne Rutherford. The motion was approved unanimously.
A motion was made by Scott Curtis to end the closed session 8:56. Seconded by Anne Rutherford. The motion was approved unanimously.
A motion was made by Anne Rutherford to adjourn the meeting at 8:57. Seconded by Bob Harper. The motion was approved unanimously.
A closing prayer was provided by Rev. Lisa Erdeljon.