By Chad Hershberger

We often say, “No news is good news.” That’s true in most cases, but for those of us involved in construction projects—not so much.

Because we experienced cold temperatures here in Central Pennsylvania in February, we had to pause construction on our new Maple Village Bathhouse. The ground was just too frozen to put in the plumbing that will be key to the bathhouse! There was about 18 inches of frost in the ground and the plumbing contractor was having issues moving dirt to lay pipe.

So, we paused. We want this project to be a good one and so it was the prudent thing to do. At our bi-weekly construction meeting on Thursday, the contractor said the tarps and blankets will come off this week and we will access the next steps.

Sometimes it’s good to take a pause. I find that on days when I feel overwhelmed in the office, a short break to take a walk around camp helps me to rejuvenate and gives me a new perspective. It was exciting to see all the progress for six weeks as the project began. It is hard to wait. But when the new bathhouse is done, I think we will be pleased with the results and know that everything was done to the best of our construction workers’ ability in the best possible circumstances.

That doesn’t mean nothing has taken place. We are in the process of picking colors for the interior walls, floor colors, and colors for the partitions in some of the bathrooms. We decided to do an epoxy floor. It is an add-on but we feel that it will provide a better surface for durability and cleaning. We have also worked on getting samples for the windows and for the door that will create two sides to the bathhouse. So, even though workers have not been here, we’ve been making progress.

You can keep updated on the latest on our social media. Also, if you’d like to contribute to our efforts, you can do so here! Our Alumni Staff portion of the campaign just kicked off, so we hope to see our totals continue to rise in the coming months as we get closer to that two million dollar goal!