Spokes March 21, 2017

Posted on Mar 21, 2017
 
 
SPOKES VOL. LXIII NO. 36                                                                                 March 21, 2017
 
 
We were greeted by Steve Larsen and Dan Liehr.
 
We opened the meeting with the “My Country ‘tis of Thee” and Art Ayers’ invocation.
 
Our guests this morning included our speaker, Bill Hunter, Becky Kark Jim McGraw and soon-to-be member Jerry Portman.
 
Music:
Jim Davis was our music leader this morning.  We actually sounded pretty good, singing a couple of favorites.  We began with “I Want a Girl” written in 1911 as a follow up to the popular “I’d Rather have a Girlie than an Automobile”.  We followed that with the 1910 hit “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”.  Our last song of the day was “That Rotary Wheel”.
 
Announcements
 
  • Thanks to the folks who helped with the Thursday nigh suppers.  Our last supper served 74 people, one of the largest turnouts for this dinner.
  • Don’t forget the District Conference on May 13th.  Our own Marty Graber will receive his national award at that time and we are hoping for a nice turnout of local Rotarians.  Our Rotary Hero will be honored the previous evening.  Both events are in Battle Creek.
  • We will be taking up a collection to help pay for Marty’s trip from Kenya to accept his award at the meeting next week.
  • Save the Date:  The South Haven Future dinner supporting LMC Scholarships and the SHPS Foundation is set for April 29th at Lakeshore Caio.
  • Robert Herrera and Jerry Portman have applied for membership.  Anyone with concerns should contact President Ayers.  Winning the 50/50 twice in three weeks is not a legitimate concern.
50/50
For the fourth week in a row we had a winner!  Ted Weber finally got back in the winner’s circle as he had the lucky ticket and then got lucky and drew the 4, winning a small pot.  Deb Davidson had the second lucky ticket, collecting the $2 prize.
 
Fines:
  • Dan Liehr introduced introduced his longtime friend and guest this morning, John McGraw.
  • There were many celebrations of March Madness for teams from Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin, and even praise for WMU, playing in the NCAA Hockey finals.
 
Becky Kark spent a few minutes talking about the 4th of July parade.  The Tribune and the Herald-Palladium have agreed to take over the management of the parade for the next few years and is asking for the continued help of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs to continue their help with the parade.  We would be doing the parade alignment this year.
 
Bill Hunter, Director of the South Haven Board of Public Utilities was our speaker this morning.  He was introduced by Larry Wittkop.
 
Bill reviewed the street work that is being done in the city at this time.Both the North Shore Drive project and the Monroe Street project are on schedule to be completed by June 30 or sooner.The Black River Street project is also on time, but is a much more complicated project as the area is all muck and huge supports must be imbedded in the ground before the pipes can be laid.
 
Work has started on the waste water plant’s first couple of projects and the nearby Black River Park will be completed later this spring.
 
Folks will also notice new traffic lights at Phoenix and Broadway and Alyworth and Phillips streets.
 
The rest of the Kalamazoo Street project is scheduled for this summer.
 
Currently work is moving forward on North Beach and adjoining streets with major work ano the beach side and mill and fill on the other streets in that subdivision.
 
Bill also talked about a couple of other projects, including a “Pump Track” for bicyclists near the police and fire complex.
 
President Ayers thanked Bill for his presentation and look forward to the completion of all of his projects!
 
We closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: Region IV Area Agency on Aging.
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Scott Mark and Jean Stein
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden