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St. A's Kitchen Cabinet Convenes by Donald Lloyd Now that a number of the much needed deferred maintenance items have either been addressed and completed or are in progress, it is time to address our long neglected and basically unusable kitchen located behind the stage in Pierson Hall. The kitchen, as constructed in 1967, was set up as an "institutional kitchen" for the purpose of serving luncheon meals daily to the St. A's school children and faculty. Since that use has long since been abandoned and the industrial strength appliances and layout have either ceased to function completely, or are at best highly unfriendly from a user perspective, we have decided to launch a project to create a renovated, more user friendly kitchen space. To that end, a "Kitchen Cabinet" has been formed to assess the existing kitchen and its contents and come up with a proposal to revise the area. The members of the Kitchen Cabinet are: Bill Amlotte, Christa Buswell, Marc Crocetti, Don Lloyd, Mary Lloyd, and Marla Murphy. Ken Lloyd, a certified kitchen designer working for PoggenPohl at the Pacific Design Center, has graciously agreed to act as a technical advisor to the committee and assist by preparing any necessary drawings required to complete the renovation once a final proposal is approved. The Kitchen Cabinet had its first meeting on Sunday, January 18th and established a set of criteria deemed appropriate for a revised kitchen to better serve the needs of our present parish community. Additionally, we discussed some possible space layouts for the present kitchen area. The design criteria established are as follows: The new kitchen area should be user friendly and more conducive to work flow that supports camaraderie among users from the parish community. The appliances should be "heavy duty" but consistent with the operational functions and features found in residential kitchens so that no special skills or knowledge are required for successful use. Where practical and possible, we should reuse as much of the existing equipment as we can to minimize the cost of the project. Where practical and possible, we should try to reuse the current location of existing utilities (water, drain, electrical, gas, etc.) to minimize remodeling costs. Since the size of the existing kitchen area is felt to be larger that our current use requirements, it would be desirable to incorporate a storage area for chairs and tables so that we can reclaim the current storage room as a classroom (its original intended use). Finally, we strongly feel that while the final decisions will need to be made by the Kitchen Cabinet from a practical perspective, we want to encourage open dialogue with the parish community during the planning and design phase of the project and provide the opportunity for input of ideas and comments. A preliminary layout drawing was prepared and presented at the Annual Parish Meeting held on January 25th and members of the Kitchen Cabinet were available to accept comments and answer questions at the conclusion of the formal meeting. The drawing is currently on display in the Narthex and as revisions are made, the current version will take its place. You are encouraged to review the drawing and provide any ideas and comments to one of the Kitchen Cabinet Members so that they are given proper consideration. It is our intent to move forward with finalizing the design and planning phase of the project as rapidly as reasonably possible so that we can finalize a budget and begin renovation activities soon.
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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