President Dick Jay called the meeting to order promptly at 12:23, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.  President Dick Jay then recognized our District 5440 Rotarian of the Year, our very own Liz Becher, Congratulations!!!!!!   The Trophy for Rotarian of the year is a traveling trophy and there are two of our clubs Rotarians who have been presented this honor, 1988-89 Doug McLaughlin, and 1996-97 Tom Thorson.

Vickie Diamond and Caryn Dowell were our greeters today and Caryn

 introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing “I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane” in honor of our speaker today.

Glenn Januska announced that the Airport has named a street at the airport in honor of one of our Rotarians the late Tom Lockhart for all of his service to the Airport Board and the community.

John Griffith let us know that NPR has put out a Podcast about Leah Reeb Varela’s Grandfather and his work with the Civil Rights Movement.

Bill Devore announced that he has another new Grand baby.

Liz Becher announced that at the District Conference they held the drawing for the trip to Chicago to visit the Rotary HQ and our very own Barry Johnson won the trip.

Dave True announced that his 13^th Grandbaby was born last week, the 11^th boy.

Martha Rakestraw announced that her Daughter Susan Brown was awarded her doctorate in Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and is already analyzing Martha.

Hal Hutchinson announced that he is now a second time Grandpa.

Kevin Murphy announced that Charlie Shopp’s son was on the KWHS winning team.

Lisa Scroggins nominated Becky Byron for all of her hard work tracking everything for the Centennial Gala;

Ann Ruble nominated John Jorgensen for all of his work with Wyoming Reads;

Jim Anderson nominated Bob Tarantola;

Francisco nominated Bill Schilling for taking him to District Conference and Richard Schwahn for buying the exchange students a Nebraska Sandwich;

Cori Burton nominated Greyson Buckingham and all others who were deployed last week.

Charles Schoenwolf nominated Carley Applegate for all of her hard work on behalf of the home healthcare professionals in the state.

John Griffith nominated Windy Allen from Dave True’s office for all of the hard work she puts in every year helping with the District Conference.

Gabriel DeGraeve and Jillian Wallace from NCHS announced that the WY High School Short Film Festival will be the final one this year on May 25^th.

Anthony Martinez spoke about the upcoming Golf Tournament and encouraged everyone to support all of the Rotary fundraisers and asked that all individuals and businesses that participated last year please support the tournament again this year and if anyone new can please support the Golf Tournament in any way you can.

Hal Hutchinson announced that the highway cleanup will be Thursday June 13^th at 5:30 out across from the airport on Highway 20/26, please be there with a pair of gloves and be ready to help.

Lisa Scroggins reminded us of the membership drive and contest and then she drew a name for the prize winner. Since October 1 we have 17 new members. Carley Applegate had the most impact on recruiting by recruiting two new members who then in turn recruited a new member each. She thanked Lori Klatt for putting together the prize of the gift basket. The Board also put together points towards a PH Fellowship as part of the prize. The name drawn for the winner was Carley Applegate Congratulations!!

Larry King introduced Alicia Foster, the winner of our Rotary Scholarship at Casper College. Alicia spoke to us and thanked us for the scholarship and our dedication to helping students.

Tehl Campbell from NCHS was our SOM today and the final one from NCHS for this year, a great young man with a fantastic future!

John Griffith introduced our speaker today, our very own Glenn Januska from the Natrona County International Airport. He said that there is a lot of development and construction going on at the airport. He showed us the picture of all of the planes that were in town for the eclipse lined up along the runway. He said that they are always looking for ways to offer more services to more areas and told us that there is a shortage of pilots and it hits the smaller airports and planes the hardest so they try to make flights with bigger planes more available when possible. They received a grant of $500,000 to specifically offer more air service in the west and Phoenix is their target market right now. But it could be Dallas they ad as they move forward. They added a hanger for corporate airplanes to be available when needed. They also have added more infrastructure for air tankers for firefighting. They are working with the State forest office to allow their aircraft to have a place to launch out of as the first line of defense for assessing any fires in the State before sending in the firefighters. They built a new water tank that drastically improved the water pressure as soon as it was put into use. They do a 30k linear foot fiber optics line to improve connectivity and they are doing upgrades to the major roadways and the interior roads as well. They have a lot of companies leasing property from them for storage and such which gives them about 750 people who go to work at the airport on a daily basis. They constructed a new maintenance building to better fit the new equipment they have invested in and made it expandable for any additional equipment that they will be adding. They also have been investing in upgrading the lighting around the airport to LED lighting and they are one of the first to have upgraded the runway lighting. This has already made a significant savings in their monthly electric bill. They are finishing up construction on one of the taxi ways. They are also moving forward to improve and reconstruct the parking lot and make some good improvements to it. They also have about a $10 million project on the concrete to improve and replace damaged and old areas. The gate holding area of the terminal will be expanded and changed around, they will put in new restroom facilities as well as a new loading bridge and will make the look new for the whole terminal. They will also be putting together a quick turnaround facility for the rental car companies where they can take care of the rental cars better and keep them off of the main roadway. They were just awarded a Grant from the Federal Government to reconstruct and upgrade the firefighting training facility. They train other firefighting crews from around the country and certify them as well as recertify them for the specialty firefighting techniques. They will be expanding the training areas and expand to a larger fire truck with a greater water capacity since they do not have access to fire hydrants and have to haul the water with them. They have also expanded the Foreign Trade Zone to include all of Natrona County so if you import goods or know anyone who does they need to talk to him about the tax breaks and things that are now available to all businesses in Natrona County. He let us know that May 30 thru June 2 the Ford Tri-Motor Airplane will be at the airport. Any youth ages 8-17 will be able to get a free ride on an airplane during that weekend. There will be a great event going on with a Chamber Barbeque Friday night. July 10^th thru the 12^th they will have the military airplanes out at the airport and there will be a dance at one of the hangers for that weekend. He then took questions from the audience.

 

President Dick Jay concluded the meeting at 1:33 letting us know that next week we will be off for Memorial Day and the following week we will be back at the Ramkota and we will have the commissioner of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, Mr. Roger Walters, as our guest speaker.

“Be the Inspiration”