Pete Wassburg managed the desk. Our greeter for the day was Anonymous (but, “We are all greeters!” aptly said by Kathy!). President Lori called us to order. After the National Anthem and Oh Canada, Ben Durbin provided an Invocation. Kathy led us in Songs: #1 Sing Everyone Sing; #75 Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head; #3 Smile. President Lori asked if we had any guests and, very happily, Ben Durbin brought delightful, bright-eyed Zinnia B (who found a June Bug and didn’t eat it, and Lucy Rose (whose favorite color is red and who cracked her first egg and helped her dad make breakfast today!) Great visitors!
Announcements by President Lori pertained to the next board meeting, next week; Nothing working on the Duck Derby yet; teams are still being selected for the Golf Tournament scheduled for June 13; and, there will be an annual Peach Sale this year- contact has already been made with the grower/supplier (and, perhaps the last one to be organized by Jamie and Keith).
Bob Russell had a disappointing announcement for the Rotary Minute. This club (Fergus Falls Noon Rotary) will not be hosting a Rotary Exchange Student this coming year—no one volunteered to be one of the host families for the student. Sad. For our current visiting student, Lulie, her last program visit to our club will be May 29th. Please, as many members as possible do attend.
Brags and Fines were led by a very proud dad, Ben Durbin, as he described the adventures of his two girls, our guests! Keith put in a buck as he made his announcements regarding the Peach Sale. John McFarlane paid into the pot while describing how his son took his grandson to historic Edinburg, Scotland as a graduation present and they got to play golf together on the historic golf course there. (The game of Golf was invented by the Scots!). What a grand trip and adventure!
Our Program for today was a visit and talk by Fergus Falls Council Member Karoline Gustafson. Karoline is a freshman member of the City Council, elected in November and taking office in January representing the Fourth Ward. She works at Lake Region Care Rehabilitation. Though new on the Council – and also a member of the city Port Authority – she addressed a range of issues. Rather than a full, printed or prepared presentation, Karoline would open a topic and ask what questions we had which she would then engage extemporaneously and comprehensively. Impressive.
The first issue discussed was regarding an Aquatic Center (water playground). Before engaging in that topic, she felt it important we do understand the workings and power of the Fergus Falls port authority. She then moved to the Aquatic Center, a pet project for her. Various groups and committees have been working to obtain a recreational water park in Fergus Falls for three years. Each time the seem to gain momentum, something seems to come up to butt ahead of the priority queue and they have to wait for that. Things looked favorable for a while until someone thought Fergus Falls needed a Community Center and heads turned and focused on Community Center. Recently there has been some recognition that Aquatic Center and Community have some things in common to consider. Location is still an issue since the first choice was taken away when the Kirkbride lands were declared historical sites. A difficulty plaguing Fergus Falls is the propensity the town has for rumors and “word of mouth” information gathering. Firestorms are started on rumors of false information! E.g., how much money each person in Fergus Falls would have to pay to build a water park in Fergus Falls.
She also addressed the clean-up of the old Dairy site for which there are some grants/loans in the works. The proposal for an Otter Cove children’s’ center downtown is in the property acquisition process. The Masons own the building which Great Plains had been leasing. Karoline was very knowledgeable about the status of road and street repair in the city. She explained the city-county street swapping situation when responding to a question regarding a traffic Roundabout at the intersection of Fir and Freiberg Streets. Surfacing the streets is expensive, especially when having to move some water mains, and some being redone or upgraded to 9-ton roads vs 7-ton roads.
Contacting Council members is easy, just call. Council members like to hear from everyone so it is okay to call a council member from another ward. BUT DO NOT CALL ME AT 4:00 IN THE MORNING!
Thank you, Council Member Karoline. An informative meeting.
Rotary book plate stickers were applied to school books at the end of the meeting.
