President Lisa Scroggins called our hybrid zoom/in person meeting to order promptly at 12:17, and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

Guy DeWitt and Mike Morrissey were our greeters and Mike introduced the members who brought guests.

Glenn Januska nominated Gena Jensen, Errol Miller, Miamie Sleep, Tammi Chappell, Guy Dewitt, and everyone else who helped with the Casper Marathon.

President Lisa Scroggins nominated Robin Mundell a faithful Rotarian, for demonstrating generosity beyond measure for a great gift to a couple of fellow Rotarians.

Hal Hutchinson nominated everyone who helped with the Highway Cleanup last Thursday, Jim Allison, George Bryce, Dean Cline, Guy DeWitt (also for the water, hard and soft), Fred Feth, Vickery Fales Hall, Mike Howe, Dick Jay, Lori Klatt, Lynn Lockhart, Joe MacGuire, Larry Madsen, Dan O’Dell, Maribeth Ploceck, Mark Owens, Martha Rakestraw (coordinator, aka: Boss), Eric Shlidt, Al Scroggins, Dave Simonson, Dick Wimbish, Michele and Cordell Wistisen, Burt Toews,  Deanne Simonson, Tommy Hall, and anyone else who was there that he may have missed. Then Brad Cundy and Keyhole Technologies, special thank you for the BBQ afterwards.

Eric Easton nominated everyone who helped with the Platte River Cleanup on Memorial Day Weekend Saturday, Lisa and Al Scroggins; Jim, Jimmy, and Jacob Ruble; Mike Morrissey; Tammi Chappell; Dick Wimbish; Gena Jensen; and Eric and his Wife.

Mike Howe nominated Gena Jensen and Sabrina Kemper for being on the Chamber Board and Hal Hutchinson for organizing the Highway Cleanup.

Vickery Fales Hall nominated Bill DeGraeve and his son Gabe and friend Zach for fixing the tire swing at the Crossroads Park.

 

Dan O’Dell in a very dramatic way, telling stories on other Rotarians, Martha Rakestraw we definitely need to know more about your exploits with famous rockers. Dan said we have to go to the Golf Tournament on July 31^st in order to learn more. They then introduced Chris Navarro and a huge list of goodies for an auction to help the Golf Tournament money raising. Tickets to CNFR, Chris Navarro’s Autographed Book, a $50 gift card and more. Congratulations to Dean Cline who after a small competition from Kevin Murphy, just to move the price up, bought it all for $1200.00. Thank you, Dean.

Steve Loftin announced that today is the day for packing meat at the Food Bank of the Rockies after this meeting at about 1:30. Gena Jensen said it isn’t hard work so come help.

Vickery Fales Hall announced we have the opportunity to go do cleanup and perform maintenance on Crossroads Adventure Park on Saturday June 12, 8:30 – 12:00, Kyle Gamroth will be the chairperson of the day that day so Please be there to help.

Mary Ann Hoff announced that they are trying to get Toastmaster clubs in Casper up and going again since having to shut down for the pandemic. They are having a demo meeting Tuesday June 22, 5:30-7:00 at the Chamber. They have three clubs, 1 early morning 6:30 on Mondays at Perkins, a Tuesday evening club at 6:00 at the YMCA, and a noon club where our very own Maribeth Plocek is the Club President, they meet 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays at Caldwell Bankers. There are flyers on the table if you want to know more. 

 

We inducted Ashley Vondra, sponsored by Katie Caldwell Burchett, Carol Johnson, sponsored by Luke Gilliam, Laurie Morgan, sponsored by Anthony Martinez, into the club. Welcome and Congratulations.

Also several Paul Harris pins were handed out to the following individuals today by Edis Allen and President Lisa. Brad Cundy PH+4, John Jorgensen PH+6, Tim Havasi PH+6, Casey Allison PH+3, Mike Ward PH+3, Richard Schwahn PH+7, Dennis Lower received his PH Fellow award and certificate which he earned a long time ago and it finally caught up to us to award. Dennis said “By Jove, I Did It!” Congratulations and Thank You to all!

Dean Cline let us know about 307 First which is a group of people who are promoting Wyoming and celebrating businesses in Wyoming. He is dedicating one of the sculptures that they do, to Rotary and they will have a program later to tell us more about it. The one he is dedicating will become an auction item to support the Golf Tournament.

Miamie Sleep introduced our very own  Sabrina Kemper from the City of Mills who is here to talk to us about Mills and their 100 year celebration coming this Saturday with concerts and all sorts of fun. The Mills Family started the Mills Construction company which was a gravel company that took care of the roads between the river and the Salt Creek Oilfields. The horse and buggies had to travel between the oilfield and the river on gravel roads many times a day so that was hard on the roads. The Mills Construction Company maintained them. They decided they wanted to form a local government and be separate from Casper so once they had 200 people they came together and formed the Town of Mills as Casper was over 5 miles away. In 1921, May 10^th, they officially became a town. In order to become a City in Wyoming you have to reach a population of 4,000. So Mills last year applied to become a City, as they are between 4200-4700 population. On August 4, 2020 they officially became the City of Mills and they are going to celebrate that this Saturday as well.

Mills has a lot of industry along with housing, they have a lot of new homes being built with a new construction area that will produce 87 new homes. So, they have a big mix of old and new. They like to support business; they are working on a study for a bike trail from the riverfront to the Robertson Road are in Mills which will be a little over 3 miles.

They have a summer reading program at the library. They are looking for a grocery store and more restaurants to start up in Mills as it is a long drive for some of the workers to have to go into Casper to eat on their lunch breaks.

They are working on eliminating and cleaning up some of the dilapidated buildings and are trying to make Mills better with Recreational things to do as well. They were awarded the Business Council Riverfront Reparation Grant officially last Thursday so they will be using that money for infrastructure on the Riverfront property so they can start some development there. They are looking to add more professional office space so they are running fiber optic in order to improve the high-speed internet access to help with this.

The Celebration for the 100 years will be this Saturday, they wanted to do it on the May 10^th Birthday but the weather didn’t cooperate. There are flyers on the table, this Saturday all day long with lots of different events so please attend.

She then opened it for questions.

She was asked about the Post Office and if something will be done to help it. They have been in contact with the federal people as they are out of PO Boxes and the location is hard for access. They are also trying to get the zip code fixed to where everyone has the same 82644 zip code instead of some with 82604.

She was asked about what they have for Animal Control, they have had their own for about two years now. They are working with the Humane Society to take care of them, now they do not have as many animals being taken in as the officers recognize many of them and just take them home, they are currently working on a building to house the animal control.

She was asked if they are having the same problem as Casper trying to find people to work in the Parks department, they are looking for a parks person and are having some issues but they work together well.

There will be shuttles and lots of parking for the anniversary event as they will be shutting down the road from Mobile Concrete to 13^th street as that whole area will be the celebration area.

She was asked about how the Mills giant Eagle came about, she said the Rick Bonander was in Kalispell MT and saw the Eagle and he came home and told the Mayor about it and then they did some fundraising and were able to purchase it.  

 

President Lisa Scroggins concluded the meeting at 1:12, she let us know that next week, we will be back here and on Zoom.

“Rotary Opens Opportunities”