It’s been a dream for a long time to have a ramp to the lower level of the IMC. I recently found building renovation plans from right after IMC purchased the post office building that show the ramp to the lower level. (There’s also a ramp leading up to the sunroom!).
2020 Delays, As You Might Have Guessed
Thanks to the support of our State Representative Carol Ammons, we received a line item allocation in 2019 to build the ramp and we started getting bids in early 2020. But then some things happened that have put the project back a couple of years; there was a pandemic and a global racial justice uprising, and our AC broke. In spite of all of this, by 2021, the facilities committee had aligned on a north-side ramp and we began getting quotes. Estimates were coming in around $60,000 and I wish we had a time machine to go back and grab that price!
Here we are in 2023 and we’re excited to finally be able to focus on building our ramp. I’m so grateful for the ongoing support from State Representative Carol Ammons as well as support from City of Urbana TIF funds. We’re on track to get the project done by the end of 2023 but I wanted to share two additional twists that explain why we are asking for your support to fund this project.
2023 Ramp Cost Increases
First of all, if you have heard that construction materials have gone up in price, it’s not a rumor! Materials and labor costs have gone up.
Secondly, there is this pesky issue of a lamppost. It sits just on the edge of where we want to build a ramp; it was so close that we hoped we could just let it be. But lampposts are like trees; they have roots that feed them and allow them to shine. So in the end, we’ll need to move the lamppost to the tune of an additional $10,000. We had fun making a silly video about wobbling it out of the way, though!
https://youtube.com/shorts/gBe0RAbUXeI
The costs for this project have ballooned but so has your support. So thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! If you’d still like to donate, you can visit www.ucimc.org/access
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