We want to let you know that we are in an urgent situation at Tahoma Zen Monastery. The buildings and infrastructure need repair and maintenance.
Due to a donation early this year we have been able to repair the leaking roofs on the Dining Hall and the Kitchen; we are deeply grateful for the timely gift that allows us to continue to hold sesshin at Tahoma.
We do have other critical needs that include upgrades to our well-based water supply; heating in the Dining Hall, the hot water supply for the Zendo, and electrical upgrades in Tending Clouds, the laundry room, and Chisan’s cottage. The electrical supply for these three buildings converges on the same supply panel, which is not sized to handle the load of all the buildings during sesshin. The Zendo hot water is currently supplied by a gas fired water heater that, now 30 years old is ready to retire. We hope to replace it this year with an electric hot water heater.
Our current well water system supplies about half of our daily usage during sesshin. Even though we rebuilt the well two years ago, including a new pump and well lining, we can’t get more water than the well is able to deliver. We have two possible solutions, and anticipate we will need approximately $10,000 to implement either one.
One option is to buy a second storage tank that will fill between sesshin and then supplement the current storage tank during sesshin. The second option is to obtain a water hookup to Cascadia Water company. We have applied to Cascadia over a year ago and they have not given us a definite answer. If we can get the hook-up we will need to trench from the road to the existing well-house, installing pipes, valves, monitors, and filters. If we cannot get a hook-up and add a storage tank, we will have the cost of the tank, some piping, and about the same amount of new filters, monitoring, and valves to complete the work. Our cost estimate for either approach is about the same.
A short-term solution for sesshin is to purchase a water delivery to fill our existing storage tank when it runs too low. We have used this approach three times over the past 18 months, so we can get through a sesshin.
Our capital maintenance and emergency fund is almost depleted and this note highlights only the significant work that we need to undertake to support sesshin. We have a long list of less critical work that we hope to undertake to keep the temple in good repair and usable for sesshin.
Your kind donations are critical to help us resolve these situations so we can continue to offer sesshin with our wonderful Dharma teacher, Shodo Harada Roshi.
You can contribute by clicking the Donate button:
Our deepest gratitude,
The Tahoma Zen Monastery Board of Directors
Priscilla Daichi Roshi; George Jisai Moseley; Victor Sogen Hori; Jan Chozen Bays; Thomas Yuho Kirchner; Betty Myosho Brown; Alan Gensho Florence