What has been going on in the background

As I sit here waiting for this mornings loads of ferret laundry to finish, and the hot water to heat up so I can take a shower and become a road warrior, I have been thinking.

Dangerous isn’t it? LOL! A statement a very dear friend of mine keeps echoing in my head. She made the statement after I posted that we are looking for a new, active Board of Directors. What is the comment you ask? “I read the Director’s Corner, I am glad to see you back in the saddle again.”

You see, I never had been out of the saddle, nor have I given up on the building. I have been plugging along, against the current, but still plugging along, slowly, networking as best I can with the limited number of people I know.

Oh, I can hear you now. “LIMITED? You know lots of people.” Not really, think about how I spend most of my time, it is either doing ferret laundry, cleaning litter boxes, driving to and from the vet, or my oncologist, sitting at Petco doing PR work, or of late, sitting and waiting for the tow truck or flat bed. (Old Blue, the Lumina APV with 252,000 miles bled to death in the driveway awhile ago, brakes, tranny, power steering fluid, all within two days, the Grey Ghost, 93 Taurus wagon with 190,000 miles on it, developed an electrical short, and is literally falling apart – rusted parts and pieces are falling off).

The good news in all of this, a friend’s son works for an architect, and his friend who deals with contractors have the blue prints, there are a few tweaks I was wondering about, that they will look at to see if it is possible and if they will comply with the city of Parma’s building codes. You cannot write for Capital Improvement Grants without a budget or projected start and finish date (learned that the hard way, Lord I do dislike those turn down letters).

Then I called Cleveland Lumber, on Madison Avenue. Cleveland Lumber has been around forever, and is a family business. Unbelievably they are competing with the big boys, Lowes and Home Depot. They are very customer oriented, customer service oriented, just a great place to shop for home improvement or building needs.

Now I spoke with Vince the owner. I am looking for ways to cut cost and keep the best quality we can. The conversation went like this, “Vince, it is Jean, you know formally from United Garage Door? Now just the crazy ferret lady,” He laughs, “Yes Jean, I do remember you, what is up?” “Well,” I reply, “the shelter owns property, and we want to build a new building, we desperately need it.” “Ok.” He replies. “I had this idea, rather than having the builders purchase the building supplies them selves, I was wondering if Cleveland Lumber carries all of the items and things needed to build a building, and I wanted to know if the shelter made a deposit on account, of like $50,000.00 can we purchase all the supplies from Cleveland Lumber, you guys deliver the supplies to site, you can let me know when we need to add funds to the account for the building, and I would have a better track of what is ordered, used, and the supplies won’t get a mark up from the builders.”

Ok, I know builders need to make money, but I am trying to find a way to get the best for the money. The head contractor faxes the list to Cleveland Lumber, they deliver, the builders have what they need delivered as they need it and the building is built. The shelter saves a bit of money from a small mark up, and saves the sales tax.

Vince says, “Sure, we can do that for you, we can even donate some of the supplies.” That made me go YES!!

You ask, well how much is some? My reply, even if they donate 2% of the needed supplies that is 2% less the shelter has to raise. 2% of $50,000.00 is $1000.00. In my world that is A LOT of money to save.

Add to that if the funds are transferred into the shelter’s Pay Pal account, and we use that to make the deposit at Cleveland Lumber, we get 1% cash back from purchases, which means on $50,000.00 that is another $500.00!!

Therefore, to sum up this little post, I was never out of the saddle, just plodding along. That is why the shelter desperately needs a WORKING Board of Directors.

So remember, September 15, 2 PM to 5 PM, Panora Bread, on Tiedemann Road, Brooklyn, Ohio. Find out what is needed, and how you can help, remember, beverages are on me!