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Our invocation was offered by Katie Johnson. Zack Stach circulated a sign-up sheet for Rotarians to assist at the speech tournament on January 28th and told us we will again be helping at the United Way on January 31st. Hal Leland contributed to the brag bucket for missing the prior week's meeting and not realizing he was responsible for bringing college students to it. Katie Johnson contributed for the same reason but because she was enjoying Christmas with her son in Red Lodge, Montana. Mary Pettit is proud of her daughter Hannah for receiving the DAISY Award for her work on the OB floor at Lake Region Healthcare (this is a national recognition). She also congratulated Brian Tjaden for his promotion at Century 21. This writer contributed for missing the prior day's Board meeting and, not surprisingly, someone who attended commented that it was a lot shorter meeting. Lisa McFarland gave her classification talk, noting that Mark Brink had forewarned her of this opportunity when he asked her to become a member of our Club. Lisa was born on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1986, and she was the first child, grandchild and great grandchild in the family. Lisa has a younger brother and sister and grew up in the Sioux City, Iowa area. She is unnecessarily unapologetic for being a Hawkeye fan. While in grade school the family moved across the river to Nebraska where Lisa attended high school; she shared with us a picture from high school years where she modeled a hair style with a permanent in the front and long hair in the back. When she started at the University of Nebraska in Carnie, her thoughts were of working in the medical field but was dissuaded from that by the time she achieved her biology major. Nonetheless, she received a Master's in biology at the University of South Dakota where one of her professors suggested law school. She described her years at the University of Nebraska Law School as ones of pain and suffering, an experience to survive and one only loved by law professors (very accurate in my opinion). Lisa then had some awesome clerking responsibilities, including one with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office. Husband Shane, to whom she has been married for almost 17 years, is an accountant and works for Grant County in Elbow Lake. Their family includes six children, four of whom have been adopted from foster care, and the children's ages range from 13 to 26, with two daughters enrolled at Kennedy. Lisa told us how service is a big part of her life, with Shane and her serving as foster parents for several years. That experience was described as both rewarding and terrifying, specifically referencing helping a single hard-working mother raise her children in the former category. While living in Columbus, Nebraska, Lisa served on the Community Health Center Board and also on a board for court appointed special advocates that worked with foster children. She was able to participate in a Night to Shine which is a prom for special needs children, making it through an all-nighter dancing. Lisa's family has hosted an exchange student. Since moving to Fergus Falls, she has volunteered at The Center for the Arts and has now joined a women's group at United Way supporting literacy. In our recent Salvation Army bell ringing effort, Lisa and two of her daughters and one of the daughter's friends joined in the effort. Passing up a job offer as a prosecutor Lisa took an in-house counsel job with the Omaha Housing Authority and stayed there two years before moving to Nebraska Public Power where she worked for 14 years. She has now been at Otter Tail Power for two years, doing mostly transactional work but also some litigation. She has been extremely busy with major projects including contracts for the company's solar farm, wind farm, and advanced metering; in total those efforts reflect over $150 million to be invested. She mentioned a team building exercise in Ashby that included an ax throwing opportunity, and then threw another one after stating that most attorneys she knows are kind, generous and hard-working people, "and then there is Bob Russell." Lisa's hobbies are now defined by being a spectator and taxi-driver for her high school daughters, with one involved in dance and swimming and in the one-act play and the other a flute player in the bank and cast in the upcoming musical production. When she takes time for herself, she likes to read and travel, referencing an upcoming trip to Las Vegas area to visit her parents and to visit the Grand Canyon. Grandson Jack is ten months old, and Lisa loves her time with him. Part of the challenge working at Otter Tail Power is the fact it operates across three states, needing permission from all of them as it moves forward, and also services six reservations that seek to exercise control or even compete with the company. That is in addition to federal regulation. The FERC license has been renewed but now the company has to submit a recreational management plan after being reviewed by the City and the County; it is likely that plan will result in an upgrade to the portage facilities, but removal of any damns is not now in the plans. |
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