Custodial Services at Grace

We have said farewell to the ‘Steve Kay Cleaning Services’ team at Grace United Methodist Church. This outside company has served to clean the church for the last 16 years. Now, though, we attempt something new. We are going to try and hire our own custodian to do the work here at Grace. Some members have shared with me that ‘the old is new again.’ We once had exactly this situation previous to a cleaning service. We think this change will be good for the church for a number of reasons. One is that, by having our own hired custodian, we’ll be able to ask them to prepare space for us throughout the building. Need a table and chairs set up for a meeting after church? Ask the custodian! Need a space to be prepared for a presentation? Again, our custodian can do it! In the past we’ve always asked whoever was using the space to set up and tear down themselves. That meant sometimes we were asking a group of older women to set up and take down chairs themselves. That just didn’t seem like the right thing to do, so we are excited for this change.

Another good reason for this change is for some of the basic maintenance in the church building. You may have noticed some items and areas of the church have been neglected. Though our Trustees are doing several things to make critical upgrades, such as installing new doors and preparing work to be done on the steeple, many of the smaller tasks that could have been done by a custodian have been left undone. This transition from a cleaning service back to a custodian will allow those smaller projects to be completed.

Perhaps the best part of this change is that we are saving the church money! Between the added expenses for special projects and the fees for administration through an outside company, the cost for a cleaning service is higher than having a hired staff person. This is one small thing the church is doing to improve services, and make sure every dollar you give to the church is used as wisely as possible for the Kingdom of God. If you’d like to contact our new custodian you can email Nelson Perez at custodian@gumc.org. God bless!

In Christ,
Pastor Brian Neville