Louisville secures major grant for Legacy Build, needs volunteers
Now that The Fuller Center for Housing of Louisville has been approved for a $220,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati to help fund major renovations of 10 houses during the Millard Fuller Legacy Build, the greatest need is for volunteers to step up to the plate and register for the April 6-11, 2014, build.
Fuller Center of Louisville Executive Director Steve Marrillia said that the grant — which will be paid after the work is complete — represents nearly half the budget for the Legacy Build construction work. But while he expects a surge of volunteers when the holiday season is over, he would feel better if people went ahead and registered now so that he could focus on other aspects of planning for the build.
“The volunteers are the critical thing right now,” Marrillia said. “A lot of people don’t want to be first, and in the last couple of months it’ll start filling up pretty quickly. It would take a burden off if people went ahead and registered.”
Marrillia’s team in Louisville already has secured nine of the 10 vacant properties to be renovated during the build. That is in addition to two new home builds planned for the week.
“We’ve got nine houses, and we’re going through those and starting a list of what all needs to be done,” said Marrillia, who added that veteran Fuller Center house captains Tim DuBois and Charlie Thell will be coming in early January to further assess needs of each house. “We’ve got subcontractors going through and looking at the HVAC and electrical and plumbing stuff and trying to get some of that done before everybody gets here. I want to at least get the electricity on and see what we’ve got with water issues in the next four weeks.”
And he knows that the April build will be here in the blink of an eye.
“It’s been fun, but the time just keeps on flying by.”
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