THE ROTARY CLUB OF EVERETT
The Meeting of May 17, 2016 #43 (5152) was called to order by President, Deborah Wright, who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Thought for the Day was presented by Zak Parpia and then followed by
Jesse O'Brien to introduce Visiting Rotarians but he had no Rotarians to introduce. After searching the room he was able to introduce Lacy
who is County Executive Dave Somers’ Executive Assistant. Randy and Nick Hansen were a perfect team to welcome us to Rotary today as our official greeters.
Announcements included:
>Sponsor Awards – Deborah Wright presented an award to Ted Wenta for bringing in a new member.
>June Meetings – Judi Edwards reminded us of the needs list from the Boys & Girls Club to be collected on June 1st, Changing of the Guard on June 21st and Year End Celebration at the Comcast Arena on June 28th . There will be no noon meeting that day.
>Park Clean Up Update – Tim Coulter was proud of the 12 that showed up and matching Interact students, a great clean up job and wonderful lunch provided by Don Senter and his sous chefs Tom Rainville and Jerry Tucker.
>National Holiday guess – Jim Staniford told us this was a “nothing” day then tried to change his mind but it was too late.
>Rotary History – Larry O’Donnell told us that today was the 37th anniversary of women being eligible to join the Rotary Club. He mildly chastised the powers that were by listing numerous women who made fine contributions to the community and would have made good >Rotarians during those earlier years.
>Cards for Larry Goulet (Heart Surgery 5/13/16) and Ralph Mackey (wife passed May 2, 2016) were available for signature.
>Tom Koenig spoke highly of the student scholarship interview process and how grateful he was to the team of Rotarians who took part. They all said the students were amazing and had some heartfelt stories about their experiences.
>Community Service Announcement – Tara Eckstrom sent in an announcement from her husband Grant who is on the STEM advisory board regarding their upcoming Expo on June 6th at the Comcast Arena from 5 to 8 pm.
Happy Bucks/Birthday Bucks Raffle
To lead off the Happy Bucks, Jerry Tucker invited everyone to notice the “Duck-mobile” parked outside which was formerly a Rubatino Refuse vehicle. He promised to remain steadfast to his Oregon teams with $100 challenge to Huskies and Cougs and the like.
Rich Anderson commented that Mark Nesse was out with knee surgery so he missed the “pickled herring” in honor of the Norwegians (and pretend Norwegians) in the group.
Steve Juntwait echoed the sentiment and was very happy to see the pickled herring—I guess you have to develop a taste for it…?
Tim thanked Don Senter again for the for his famous BBQ. (You know that got me to thinkin’ about his fruitcake—do you think he might be adding a secret ingredient to the BBQ sauce?)
Zak was happy his son had moved up to join him in his construction company.
Amy commented about the excellent quality of the food (pickled herring notwithstandiong) and applauded the kitchen.
Don made a crack about sex education but I* didn’t catch it (on purpose).
Paul Petre, Paul Stoot, and Will all enjoyed being part of the interview process with the students.
Tiz visited Bill Dobler at Bethany and suggested that he was really enjoying visitors. Larry “O’Donnell” claimed to be one of those adopted Norwegians and also said that Bill Dobler was interested in having company. Larry popped up again to tell us that Bill Dobler was moving to Everett Gold Care, 1506 Pine Street for rehab and would enjoy a visit. (Getting the message?)
Julie Herber thanked Rotary for admitting women to the club (in 1987).
ITEMS ARE NEEDED FOR THE RAFFLE PLEASE. Todays items were chocolate cherries, wine, peanut brittle, coasters and something I can’t read and they went to Amy, Zeb and Judge George Bowden. And don’t forget to visit Bill !
Glen Bachman introduced the “State of the County” program speaker first as a fisherman,
then as a County Councilman and a family man with a wife and three children and then finally
as Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers.
Dave divided his presentation into three main categories:
Economic Development where he told us of the Sector Leads who would be responsible for
Increasing jobs in their given area. He also talked about Everett working together with Seattle
and Tacoma ports on a regional strategy for growth in international trade.
Financial Balance and Stability where he talked about the county annual budget of $250
million with 97% going to criminal justice. He said we were $7-10 million in the red part of
which would be solved by cancelling the construction of the new courthouse because
renovations of the old one would be more fiscally responsible.
Sound Transit. Here he expressed the frustration of the current timeline putting the
development of the system in Everett 25 years out and efforts to decrease that to 19 – 20
years. He reminded us that we needed to get ready for 200,000 more people. We need to
anticipate a tax increase of .2% to deal with criminal justice…and finally he mentioned that the
preparations for the Commercial Air Service at Paine Field would start in the summer.
President Deb presented County Executive Somers with a certificate acknowledging his
presentation with our donation to the Conflict Resolution Center for their efforts for peace at
home.
President Deb then acknowledged visitors and guests, contributions; reminded us of meeting announcements; added a quote from Buddha about sharing and challenged all to be a Gift to the World.
Meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara George
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