415 W. James has a shiny new sidewalk and repaired curb, with a side order of mulch.

This complex project (mandated by the City) was completed at the end of May 2024. It was coordinated expertly by our Alumni Corp. house maintenance officer, Phil Creeth, and our property manager, Nate Andros from Gatehouse Property Management.

In addition to replacing the concrete sidewalk, we needed to replace part of the curb and the gas line box, remove one tree from the curb, and trim the roots of another tree considerably. Because tree roots had grown into the sewer line, we needed to replace the sewer line as well. That required the plumbing contractor to dig a huge trench at the front of the house (see pix). And because we were having tree work done, we also took the opportunity to remove a dead tree from the backyard.

As I write this post, the last remaining piece is grading and reseeding the front lawn, which Gatehouse will address in June.

All told, the project costs will exceed $35k. This follows consecutive summers of large-scale improvements: partial roof replacement and full window replacement. The total outlay for these three projects is around $90k (!)

Expansive and expensive projects like these would not be possible without contributions from our generous alumni base. Thanks for all of the alumni support that made these projects possible.

We need your continued support to recoup the funds from these projects and keep the momentum going. So thanks in advance for contributing to this year’s fundraiser (coming soon to your inbox)!