My Role in the 1988 CLO EUS Renos Mission
Been meaning to write this up. Well it came out of me tonight on WWP by accident I guess. Figured I ought to copy and paste it over here. Maybe I will add more details to the story over time, this is a brief synopsis of what I did in the Renos of CLO EUS:
1988 CLO EUS Renos Mission:
Renos mission personnel
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Laurie Englhardt
Dave Revel
Mike Finley
Ayel Lindemen, not S.O. (He was a plaster specialist)
Tom Wells, not S.O. (became purif I/C at NY Org)
Dina Sawani not S.O. (Palistinian who was seriously prejudice towards Jewish people)
My role in the Renos mission:
I was yanked off my flag rep training for the Chicago Org.
put on the renos mission in order to facilitate purchases and research for them.
I did these projects among others:
THE MARBLE FACADE: (Budgeted: $30,000.00)
For the front of the building: I picked Cremo Delicato marble from hundreds of samples. The LRH architect did not want any gray in the marble (those are "Psychiatrist" colors).
Cremo Delicato was the best I could get from the marble contractors from Farmingdale, Long Island. They were very slow in constructing the facade and were eventually replaced by another company that I had turned down because they offered me a 10% kickback bribe to get the job (approx. $3000.00). Turned out that they were Scientologists and Laurie was pissed that I had turned them down.
I did not know that the company that replaced my pick was Scientologist when I found them in the Yellow Pages as marble contractors.
I never told Laurie or anyone else I turned that company down because of the bribe offer. I never told anyone about any of the stuff
that was offered to me to get the job. All the contractors seemed to think it was just standard business practice in NY.
Eventually, in the end, the second company wasn't going to hit the target date either so it was an all hands from the crew, they put up plastic over the front of the building with the scaffolding and worked all night for a week maybe to finish the job. I wasn't allowed to do any of it, I was busted down to "TOOLS I/C" to hand tools to people out of a rented Ryder box truck they had parked in front of the building. They didn't like me much at that point.
The original marble contractors from Farmingdale, LI were Polish, so am I, when I went out there one night to finalize the deal and get the contracts signed after getting the ok from the renos mission we all sat at a custom designed marble table and drank Cognac toasts. Egads that stuff tasted horrid. The marble furniture they had was totally beautiful though. I happen to love marble. They were the 1 company that hadn't offered me any bribes, kickbacks or any bling bling so that was the company I had chosen due to that 1 reason, all the other contractors offered me something to get the job.
The local architect working on the project got me an invitation to a terrazzo demonstration that was really informative.
All the contractors I talked to tried to tell me that marble in NY deteriorates rapidly due to the acid rain. They all kept saying we needed to use granite instead. The mission said NO, THE LRH ARCHITECT HAS SPECIFIED MARBLE AND THAT IS WHAT IT WILL BE, AND NO GRAY!
Cremo Delicato is what they got with a reveal of some amber/pink colored marble behind the main facade. I bet it doesn't look so good 20 years of acid rain later. Beautiful marble, but not meant to be on a building facade!
THE FLAGS FOR THE BUILDING:
I also helped design and get a SCN flag for the building, there was no official "SCN" flag so I used the green and yellow colors and picked a design out of a book. I had trouble getting the flagpoles though and eventually Mike Finley drove to some place and got them.
THE MIMOGRAPH FILING CABINET SYSTEM: (Budgeted: $10,000.00)
I also got a mammoth rolling filing cabinet for the 3rd floor filing room, it was the hugest filing cabinet I have ever seen, you walk inside of it and move the shelves back and forth on tracks. The girl (Laurel) that worked for the company I got the filling cabinet sent me a Christmas card (I still have it in my boxes) She was very sweet.
BEDROOM FURNITURE:
I also picked out the bedroom furniture. When I went to measure the rooms they hadn't finished the trim work on the rooms so when the furniture arrived it was too big in some of the rooms and had to be cut to fit. Dina and I worked together to pick out the bedroom lamps and the valances for the curtains. I remember being sent to some area near the East Village section of NY that had nothing but store after store after store of Lighting showrooms. Those things scare the crap out of me, I have to constantly duck in lighting and ceiling fan stores or I wack my head on the bulbs or rotating fan blades.
MARBLE TILING: (Found on clearance sale from several marble sellers)
I also purchased all the marble tiling for the floors and bathrooms. Dina had to go check out some of the marble and when she found out the cabby was Jewish she started yelling at him in Arabic and swearing. He dumped her out of the cab and she had some story about how she got back to the org. Dina and I set the bathroom tiles on the floor outside each bathroom and tried to develop a pattern. We spent hours doing it, but in the end, the contractors just cemented them into the bathroom as they grabbed them with none of the patterns showing up.
THE FRONT AWNING:
Blue, looked like a boat when it arrived, brass poles.
I was a major fuckup about this stuff, never done that stuff before, but they did get it all to work eventually.
They housed a bunch of the staff and workers at a real dive of a hotel called; William Jefferson motel, or maybe Washington Jefferson motel a few blocks away from CLO EUS. I was in a room with a few others. They also eventually got a multifloor condo unit down on 5th avenue that you had to go through an entryway to get in. There were 30 - 40 people sleeping in there whenever I got there so I always wound up sleeping on the hardwood floored walkin closet.
I eventually started sleeping in this tiny room that was under the street of the NY ORG and had access through a tiny door in the book selling room in the basement which is how i would get in and out. There was also a street grating that led to the street right in front of the Org. The renos mission stored tools in there, and me I guess. I was alone in there but for all the nasty bugs and rats and other critters in there. Some huge centipede things crawled around in there. Oh and I bet that was asbestos lined insulation on the furnace ducting that led back into the org. It was nasty in there but better than the closet or the hotel. SEA ORG SUCKS!
Later I found a CLO Program with my name as a target to be posted in Security after the mission was over.
That was their mistake, I took great advantage to help me get out eventually.
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Post Renos CLO EUS Floor plan: http://forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=19923
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Originally Posted by Mest Lover
