The Casper Rotary Club
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This week's meeting will be held:
Monday, June 11th, 2018
at the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center
800 N. Poplar St.
Casper, WY 82601
Greeters:
Hal Hutchinson
Guy DeWitt
Inspiration:
Errol Miller
Program:
North Platte River - Matt Hahn
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Rotary Club of Casper WY
Meeting Summary
06/04/2018
President Richard Schwahn called the meeting to order promptly at 12:23, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Dan Odell
Greeters:
Susie McMurry and Tassma Powers were our greeters today and Tassma introduced the members who brought guests:
- Visiting Rotarians today we had Helen Bishop (Jackson Supper Club);
- Steve Higginson introduced Michele Wistisen (Casper Planetarium);
- Viskery Hall introduced Ryan McConnaughey (Pronghorn Agency);
- Charles Schoenwolf introduced Salina Hofland (Speaker, Author);
- Frida our exchange student was here as well;
Song:
Gary Pehrson had us all stand and sing “Friends in Low Places”
Two new members were inducted into the club today, Carter Napier and Linda Blackstone. Welcome to the club, we look forward to working with both of you.
Past President Jim Ruble was awarded the Paul Harris plus 7 today for his contributions to the Paul Harris Foundation. Congratulations and Thank you Jim.
Tim Cortez gave us his classification talk today. He is the director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Casper. He oversees many things for the city in his responsibilities, which includes the Events Center, Hogadon, the Municipal Golf Course, The Rec Center, Ice Arena and Aquatic Center as well as all of the outdoor pools. He is over the Fort Casper Museum, Highland Park Cemetery, the skeet range, the speedway and motocross. He previously worked for 23 years in fire service where he served people around the country. Tim has a BS in Math and Chemistry from UW and also has a degree in Fire Science, and recently earned his MBA from UW. He is on the board of a couple of non-profit organizations in Casper, The Childhood Development Center and the Youth Crisis Center, which help children. He is married with two children. He thanked his sponsor Susie McMurry for introducing him to Rotary.
Bill DeGraeve presented our exchange student Frida with a Wyoming License Plate with her name on it for her to remember her year here. This is a tradition started man years ago by former Rotarian Ed Opella who continues to help provide these plates for our exchange students.
Family of Rotary:
- President Schwahn announced that he has a new Granddaughter, his very first, her name is Jamie Diane Schwahn, Congratulations.
- Charles Schoenwolf announced that his 5th grandbaby was born this past week as well. Congratulations!
Rotarians of the Week:
Hal Hutchinson nominated all of the many Rotarians and family members who helped with the Highway Cleanup as well as John Griffith for organizing the social afterwards at Racas and Guy DeWitt for the drinks at the cleanup and Nick Hill for providing food from Q’Doba.
Announcements:
- Lisa Scroggins announced that the Library is having a grand opening of a new area in the library called the Creation Station. It is a privately funded area for people to be able to create different things. The grand opening will be June 12th at Noon and all are invited to attend.
- Lisa also announced that the last week of June there will be a Rotary orientation for all of the red badgers to attend. Any new members for the past two years are encouraged to attend and all Rotarians are invited. She will have more information next week on the date, time and location.
- Bill Schilling announced that he was on the mountain this morning and as he was leaving there were about 25 University of Texas students and he spoke with the professor that is taking these students on a tour around the Country. This Professor told Bill that the Park is fantastic and a great legacy for Casper and Wyoming. Bill then told us that Saturday June 16 there will be a work day installing 500 feet of split rail fence. All red badgers are invited to help as are all members of the club.
- Peaches Lynch thanked everyone who has signed up as sponsors and golfers for the golf tournament and told us that we are still in need of more. They also need swag for the gift bags they will be handing out. Casper College donated the bags and a sleeve of balls for each golfer. She also told us that our new exchange student will need two other host families, we have the first host family and she thanked the Boatright Family for volunteering for that opportunity.
- Phillip Rael let us know that the Duck Derby tickets will be printing this week so we will have tickets to start selling next week. They are gearing up and he needs a new Vice Chair, Mandy George volunteered, great job Mandy.
Program (City of Casper One Cent Tax):
President Elect Dick Jay introduced our speakers, Carter Napier, Liz Becher, and Fleur Tremmel. Carter let us know that they plan on letting us know about the one cent sales tax and what the funds are used for and then let us ask questions and then also get our input on what the funds should be used for. He then turned the mic over to Liz, she told us that the one cent is up for reelection this fall. The one cent tax was first started in 1974 and is a general purpose sales tax that the City uses for capital expenses. We have been blessed to have it elected every time it is voted on and this will be the 16th time it has come up for a vote. The City uses it for capital expenses, infrastructure and there are signs around town that identify the projects that it pays for. The County uses their portion for additional things. Our Fire Stations, City Hall, Hall of Justice, The Events Center, The Rec Center, Senior Center as well as street and sewer projects just to name a few things that the one cent tax has paid for. The Committee is currently educating the people of the county about the tax and they have been sending out surveys and taking surveys in the public meetings. They will tally these up so that they can use the input to decide what the funds will be used for. They then started our survey which went through many questions about what the funds should be used for. Some of the answers were surprising but for the most part they were as expected. After the survey Carter spoke some more and answered questions from the group. The funds are divided up among the Cities and County according to population with roughly 75% to the City of Casper and 15% to the county and the rest to the other municipalities. These funds are all of the funds they have for capital expenses so if it was not voted in again they would have to find those funds somewhere else through cuts and other means such as increase in our water bills.
President Richard Schwahn concluded the meeting at 1:36 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota.