Chair, FOMZI

Steering Committee

Last week I veered from reporting to editorializing, which is not really my job. The pros at the Herald Independent, however, made the distinction and accommodated me accordingly, which I appreciate.

Louise Sanders’ column on poetry and a particular piece that spoke to staying in the battle to make a difference complemented the message nicely, but I’ll try to stick to “just the facts, ma’am” for a while.

One fact that we’re happy to report is that the message did resonate with a number of Fairfield folks; and FOMZI is grateful for the phone calls and increase in expressions of local support that we’ve received this week.

Thanks, too, to those who have welcomed our neighborhood canvassers into their homes and shared both their hopes and their concerns with us. By and large, we’re finding a great deal of backing for the project as we envision it, educational in nature and sensitive to the surroundings.

This might be a good time to recap some of the things we’ve learned along the way about why, exactly, it’s a slow but worthwhile process. When we started just under four short months ago, two things were immediately in place: a group of people dedicated to making a serious effort to save Mt. Zion and a benefactor willing to put money into getting the project off the ground.

Once the usage vision was established, talks with Midlands Tech were an obvious next step. Tech has wanted a Fairfield presence and our research into what it could do for our area yielded nothing but educational and economic positives. We learned, though, that as a state-supported (and perennially under-funded) school, we’d have to make the building available to them; they would not be saving the building for us!

It was a bit of a surprise for some of us who didn’t realize how their campus expansion system necessarily works, but the economic impact figures we were seeing from other counties gave sense to the effort to bring them in.

Armed with a cause to save a building and a widely beneficial use for it, we moved on to the next stage: was the building reliably suitable for rehabilitation?

That learning curve has been immense, and I won’t dwell on the fine points except to say that few buildings have been more studied, more discussed or more analyzed in such a short span of time.

FOMZI was cautioned more than once that engineering tests and reports can take months to get and that getting them is just the first step. So we learned some patience and adjusted our timeline. This week, with the second report in and declaring the buildings more than fit for renovation, we move to the next step of getting estimates on the work needed and arriving at a plan for phases of the project, no doubt another patience-testing period for the eager-beavers among us. When we look back at what’s already been accomplished, though, including assembly of our support database, readying publicity materials, and getting to this point with the building itself, we can’t help but be pleased with the results thus far and optimistic about the future of Mt. Zion.

To borrow from Louise’s encouraging column, we do want to take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference, so we’ll stick with the battle, sans swords but fortified with your support.

Be sure to look for our video on saving Mt. Zion on Truvista’s local cable channel, as well as our support sign-up sheets in local businesses.

If you’d like us to show the video and tell our story at a local meeting or gathering, do contact us at 635-9811; and don’t forget to check on updates to our website, www.mtzioninstitute.com.