Past President Thomas Goode, seeing that President O’Neil had not yet arrived, took the bull by the horns and hit the bell with the normal sized gavel to open the meeting at 12:01 p.m.  He asked Linda Biggler to lead the pledge, which she did. Mike Grace was asked to give the invocation.  

 

Lynn Lizarraga joined the meeting at this time.  PPP Thomas Goode noted that she was late but not later than our president.

 

Governor Elect, Karen Cendro from the Laguna Sunrise Rotary Club and Mike Cendro, Karen’s husband, from the Point West Rotary Club.

 

President O’Neil arrived at this time to a hardy welcome.  He still beat Michael Caplan.

Gregg Cotta was visiting for the first time and is looking for a club to join.  He owns

Seasons Coffee at 19^th and Q.

 

 

John Gabriel said we are sold out.  Every sponsorship has been sold.  Our club has really stepped up while the Granite Bay Rotary Club kinda stepped down.  (Que booing from the crowd.)  We need a volunteer to go with Rob and John to pick up donations from Markstein Distributing of 35 cases of beer, energy drinks and water.  Bill Hambrick graciously stepped up and volunteered to help bring the donations from Al’s house to the course.   Many other volunteers are needed to help on the day of, moving stuff around to the different holes.  Lynn Lizarraga is coordinating the volunteers.  She is meeting with the 20/30 club to secure additional volunteers.  If you like alcohol this will be the place to be.  John Gabriel is considering calling in a fake emergency far away from the golf course at closing time just to reduce police presence for our golfers.  We have a waiting list for golfers and this is a good problem to have.

 

President O’Neil is looking for a volunteer to help with the Holiday Party.  He also announced that he was planning for the volunteers working on the American River Clean-up work-day would gather afterwards at the Capital Beer and Taproom.  The Prez. was informed that plans had changed and that everyone that wanted to was going to attend the Point West Beer Fest at Discovery Park at 1:00 PM.

  

Matt Ross announced that he attended the service for Sheila Romero on Saturday.  She was like his Rotary mom.   She helped show him the ropes and got him into the Foundation.  In her honor, Matt will match every dollar donated today to the Foundation. 

Steve Turner was heard to say “You picked the wrong day.” He went on to say that he was going to donate because he sold his house but he thinks that donating in honor of Sheila is a better reason.  He is foregoing five bell ringers and putting the money into the Foundation in Sheila’s honor.  A round of applause was given.

 

John Gabriel was going to be a bell ringer because of the golf tournament but he changed it to be for Shelia. 

 

Lisa Asperger rang the bell in honor of her granddaughter, Vivian, being born on September 8^th, 7 lbs 13 oz. and wanted Sheila to get the benefit.

 

Rob Ford for Sheila rather than his 30^th wedding anniversary.

 

Carroll Cook noted that George Prather gave a wonderful presentation at the funeral service.  He decided to match Steve’s $500 donation. 

 

Happy/Sad Bucks – None

 

 

Bill Hambrick introduced guest speaker Scott Wolcott, Past President and current board member, and Tiffany Redden, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, both with the American River Parkway Foundation.  Bill and his wife Lee are very passionate about the Parkway and are very involved with the Foundation.  Our Club is Mile Nine financial stewards on the parkway.  The presentation started with a video:

Parkway In Peril,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9EbUSBOg2Q

The video needs to be seen to do it justice. It shows the magnitude of the problem.  It is up to all of us to take care of the parkway.

 

Scott Wolcott has been on the Board for the American River Parkway for the last thirty years.  He asked who has been on the parkway in the last month.  Only one hand went up.  Scott said that that person is one of about one million people who visit the parkway every year.  There are about nine million visitor visits per year, way more than Yosemite. 23 miles each way, 46 miles bike ride not including the 3-mile run up to the dam.  It is one of the longest urban parkways in the country.  The American River Parkway Foundation is one of the stakeholder organizations that came up after its creation.   The video you just watched is the culmination of the efforts of the American River Fire Protection Group.  The American River stakeholders came together to determine what they could do to support the parkway.  This included utility groups like water and energy, infrastructure managers of bridges, parks departments.  There are hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in this parkway.  15% of our parkway has burned up this year. 

 

The ARPF has a contract with the county for the removal of non-native plants.  Their volunteers remove hundreds of thousands of plants each year like Red Sesbania and Star Thistle.     A senior member helped to create a no star thistle zone on the parkway between Watt Ave and the University by single handedly removing over 44,000 plants.   The ARPF helps coordinate these efforts and the parkway cleanup.  They don’t measure trash by the bag, they measure it by the 40-yard container.  The parkway is a mess and not just from the illegal campers, the day-to-day users are terrible.   You would not think of seeing anyone throwing trash in the Merced River in Yosemite but it happens constantly in the parkway. 

 

They work with user groups, such as running clubs, Soil Born Farms, Effie Yaw Nature Center, to put on events on the parkway to increase advocacy for the parkway.  ARPF helps fight for funding from the County to support the county parks.   They have helped get over 85,000 poopbags in the park by working with dog groups.

 

They have worked with the Rancho Cordova Rotary Club and Save Mart to refurbish a picnic area and amphitheater in the Riverbend Park.  Then they worked with the Sacramento County Office of Education to run science-based classes at the location for youth around the Sacramento Community, most these students are Title 1 and come from low-income families.  For some of these students it is the first time on the parkway.  These classes only cost $26 per student, including transportation. 

 

John Gabriel asked about the nature of the fires and fire prevention. 

Scott Wolcott responded that there were no natural fires on the parkway, only mand made.  Steve Turner noted that in all his years with the fire department the County has implemented many programs to reduce and mitigate fires and is proud of the efforts taken to address the problem.

 

Tim Cahill was pleased to see that the county was using goats to help keep the grass and brush under control.

Scott Wolcott noted that they are in discussion with the goat owners to allow them to keep their goats on the parkway permanently.

 

Scott Wolcott stated that the ARPF does not have a position on homelessness.  The County and the City need to develop a unified position and plan to address the problem. All Scott knows is that the campers are starting the fires and causing tremendous damage to the parkway.

 

Matt Ross observed that the area behind Cal Expo seems to always have fires. 

Scott Wolcott stated that the County is considering allowing mountain biking on the parkway in that area to help increase appropriate use and decrease camping.  Increasing approved activities decreases undesirable activities.

 

Tiffany Redden encouraged everyone who is concerned about the state of the parkway to contact their legislators and demand they find a solution to the problem.

 

Rob Olmstead agrees 100% with the message delivered today.  He expressed concern that there is too much politics in place to solve the problem because a bill intended to do so last year didn’t even get a hearing.  Until the public demands change, nothing will happen.  The biggest changes responsible for the increase in the homeless population and impacting the parkway are the changes to the criminal law, AB 109, Prop 67, AB147.  Most of the folks that are down on the parkway are drug addicts or people with criminal records that would have been in prison if it were not for the changes in the law.  Drug court no longer exists and there is no incentive for the addict to seek help. 

Scott Wolcott agreed whole heartedly.  The video is a call to action.  E.coli in the river is a problem and the homeless are making the problem worst.  We need a coordinated approach between the County and the City if we are going to solve the problem of homelessness in the parkway.  Please check out their website https://arpf.org/  The secret word is Parkway. 

 

Prez O’Neil reminded the club we will be dark on September 21, the day after the golf tournament.  You can still come and eat at Piatti’s but you will not see your fellow club members, that is unless they forget and come too. 

 

President Patrick O’Neil pulled visitor, Gregg Cotta’s ticket, and he thrilled the club by being a loser.

 

Matt Ross reported the tally on the Sheila Romero’s Foundation donation was over $3,200 with everything included.

 

President Patrick O’Neil rang the bell at 1:14 P.M. closing the meeting.

 

Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,

 

Mike Grace