First Baptist Church
of Hamilton, New York

Founded in 1796, First Baptist is an American Baptist church with an ecumenical congregation. First is the "Mother Church" of Colgate University.

Report of the Trustees (2009)

Ephraim Woods, Chair

Board of Trustees: Ephraim Woods III (chair), Cindy Harper (recording secretary), Gladys Jaquay (invested funds), Phil Bisselle, David Rebuck, Joe Glaze (pastor, ex officio), John Morris (interim pastor, ex officio), and Rob Schutt (treasurer, ex officio)

Following the excitement and commotion of the Fellowship Hall renovation and the installation of new carpet in 2008, this past year has been a relatively quiet one in the life of our church building.  One of our ongoing projects is the conversion of our fire alarm system from Simplex-Grinnell to Time Warner Security, which should occur in February.  After another season of false alarms, a few unsatisfying visits by service technicians, and a long dispute over a service bill, the trustees decided to seek an alternative to Simplex-Grinnell.  We have decided to convert our system to Time Warner in hopes of receiving better service and customer care.  They have made some recommendations that will help us cut down on false alarms, and they offer a service contract, which, unlike Simplex-Grinnell, actually covers the cost of service!  If Time Warner turns out to be just as bad, the Trustees will be looking for volunteers from the congregation to sleep at the church and ring a bell if they smell smoke.

Another ongoing project is the maintenance of our boilers.  Martin Bonsie, who monitors our boilers regularly, recently discovered a leak in one of the steam lines that passes underneath the church.  We are currently taking steps to fix the leak, which should result in better performance of the boiler.  We are also investigating the possibility of insulating the steam pipes in the basement area to mitigate the substantial heat loss that occurs there.   We are also gathering some information about converting from steam to hot water.  Such a change would be very expensive and only viable if the steam pipes continue to present problems.

The parsonage has been without a lessee for several months this past year.  We haven’t attempted to rent it during our pastoral search so that it would be available for the new pastor.  We now know that the Smiths do not plan to use the parsonage, so we are making preparations to rent it once again.  The windows were replaced in December as part of these preparations.  As usual, 100% of the rent will go toward Reverend Smith's housing allowance.  The trustees thank Santiago Reyes for house sitting the parsonage for the last few months. 

Several members of the congregation have brought to our attention the incorrect time on one face of our clock tower.  We have a proposal for upgrading some of the clock equipment; however it is also very expensive (~$5000).  We are currently trying to correct the time while we evaluate what measures are necessary to maintain the clock.

Our organ has undergone some substantial improvements this year, and the trustees would like to recognize Dr. Chris Warren for providing all of the financial support necessary for these improvements.  We are grateful for Chris’s commitment to maintaining the organ and enhancing our services with organ music.

The board of trustees currently meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.  We encourage the congregation to contribute their thoughts and suggestions about the management of the church building and our other assets.

Respectfully submitted,

Ephraim Woods III                

First Baptist Church
27 Broad Street
PO Box 73
Hamilton, New York 13346
315-824-2780