More on the Radford Move to 1608 W Main Street

Today I finally finished getting everything out of my old office and giving it  a quick clean.  There was really no way to clean clean this place because it suffered from multiple problems, including mold and mildew on the walls.  The only reason I ended up with this as the main office was that we had set up a computer lab in the space on one side and our Youth Leadership program in the space on the other side. This meant we had a package deal for rent making the whole thing fairly inexpensive.  When we shut down the other two programs there was really no place available for me to move to that I could justify the expense for just my office. So I stayed despite the smell, lack of heat, bad wiring  (half the time the lights did not come on), truly screwed up telephone lines (half the time the phone didn't work) leaking ceiling, and hole in the floor.

The old office, aka the troll cave.

This picture made it look brighter than it actually was in that the door was open so there was enough light to get the picture.

Last fall I decided that this simply could not go on and started looking for something for myself.  I signed one lease but that wasn't working out and time dragged by while the owner of the property I had agreed to worked on something else.  Then, wow!!!  The little building that used to be a bank and currently  was a flower shop opened.  The rent for the whole building was $800.00.  We could have the whole building with off street parking.  If I closed the program at Willow Woods and moved the staff down from there, it would mean a net saving of $24 in rent plus only one utility bill, one phone bill, no cable cost, and all of us in one building, making for better supervision.  We had been talking about whether keeping the programs at Willow Woods going was cost effective. But, we also had an obligation to Willow Woods and its manager who had really supported us in the early days.  I took this to the executive of the board and the decision was to consolidate the offices and close Willow Woods. Although economically this was the best move, I did not feel good about abandoning Willow Woods and I dreaded telling Jennifer Collins, the manager.

I talked with her the week before May 1 which was not only the deadline to tell we were going but also when I was leaving for two weeks.She talked with the main office and we agreed to shrink the program back down to one apartment and they would pay the electric and the internet access. We would keep the food pantry and the computer lab there as well as adult education classes. YES.

The week of the 17th we got serious about moving. That Thursday the Willow Woods staff moved all of their offices down into a large common office area. The following Sunday with the help of Drew Dodson, a board member, Sam Hemsley, from the Pulaski staff, and my husband Chris, we got the bulk of \my office furniture moved.  Thank you, think you Drew, Sam and Chris.  All week I had been talking a car load of stuff whenever I went up or down main street. Then Friday and today Chris and I got out the last. I had kept a small computer stand and chair there since both the phone and internet were still accessible there.  

In the new space we have about 30 feet of large plate glass windows facing the street, ten foot ceilings, and lots of space. I have a two room suite with a largish "library" behind my office and then the office. 

As you can see I haven't even gotten the painters tape office the drawers.  Tomorrow for that while I wait for the Verizon man.  I have a wall of three windows  8' X 4' . No more troll cave.  Mr. Chapman,the new landlord and really nice man, is closing up the archway into my office with a locking door (15 lite) and a wall.  He's just about done with that. 

We have space for a conference table (anyone have a conference table and chairs they don't need?) and we are setting it up with a large dry erase  board and screen. We'll have a media cart with laptop and portable projector. Two baths. A utility room. A room for food storage with freezers and frigs. And, the large staff room.  What a huge difference.

You all better come see us and see how great this is.

Beans and Rice is on the move.

I've been off on vacation for two weeks and have come back to gearing up to move our main office and consolidate our Willow Woods offices all into one building.  We're moving to 1608 W. Main Street. The new building will be all our with off street parking behind the building. We all working like fiends to get this done by the first of the month.  More as we make the move and get our new container gardening project going.