Lake Report (Jun 13, 2017)

Our regular Rotary Club Meetings are at the Lake Stevens School District Educational Service Center located at 12309 22nd St NE. We start at 7:30 am. There is a robust continental breakfast available beforehand. Visitors are always welcome. Our mailing address is PO Box 908 Lake Stevens, WA 98258.

Breakfast Sponsors

June 16 - Laurie Westover

June 23 - No Meeting

June 30 - Joyce Bell & Chris Vallo

Interested in being a sponsor?

Download the website sponsorship guide

James Monroe
(If you have any comments or questions, please contact the editor)

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This Week's Meeting

Posted by James Monroe on Jun 12, 2017

Mayor John Spencer will give a State of the City address at this week's meeting. Friday is also the deadline to line up sponsors for this year's Aquafest fundraiser.

CONTEST: Be the first person to correctly identify the from where the photograph at the top of this bulletin and at the top of our website was taken by 7:30 am, Friday, June 16th. Email the Editor.

WSDOT Update

Posted by Gary O'Rielly

Our special guest speaker last Friday was Lorena Eng, NW Regional Administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Ms. Eng has been with WSDOT for 16 years. Her last visit to our club was in 2013. Back in April, Jim Brown and Tes Abraha briefed us on the SR9/SR204 interchange. Ms. Eng will update us on a variety of other projects in our area.

Lorena oversees 1,100 employees and a biennial budget of $900 million dollars which is up over $50 million dollars from three years ago. Her staff is responsible for the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of over 4,000 lane miles of federal and state highways from the Pierce County line to the Canadian border in the 6 county Northwest Region on the west side of the Cascades. Lorena received her civil engineering degree in 1979 from the University of Washington. (Go Dawgs).

Lorena commented that we have an aging infrastructure with the theme and goal of FIX IT FIRST, KEEP IT SAFE AND FINISH WHAT WE STARTED. The topics were addressed on Friday morning as follows: Fix It First (Preservation Projects); Keep It Safe (Safety Improvements); Fish Barrier Correction and Finish What We Start (Connecting Washington). Fix It First - pavements $26 million; Bridge preservation $8.5 million; Keep It Safe - $31 million and Fish Passage - $4.9 million. Connecting Washington investment in Snohomish County - $501.5 million.

SR 9 Corridor improvements include SR9/S204 Interchange. - $69.5 million for design, right of way acquisition and construction. Design Build in 2019. SR9/4th Street NE Access Project - $420,000 to design a new access point from SR 9 through a northbound right turn lane. Construction to be concurrent with interchange construction. Other improvements to SR 9 corridor include the widening of Marsh Road to 2nd Street in Snohomish - $142 million with design to start in mid-2019 and Design Build to begin in 2022. New southbound bridge over the Snohomish River and overflow structure south of Snohomish River. Numerous other SR 9 corridor improvements are SR 9/176th Street to SR 96.

One of the larger and most interesting projects to our area is improvements to US 2 Trestle/SR 204 and 20th SE. Cost for the justification report are estimated at $1.5 million; finance study at $350,000 and transit congestion jump at $1.8 million. Another big issue is I-5 improvements amounting to $134.4 million. So there is a lot going in our area that impacts our areas transportation network.

We want to thank Lorena Eng for taking time from her very busy schedule to update our Club on infrastructure improvements coming to our area in the near future.

LSHS DECA Program

Posted by Gary O'Rielly on Jun 08, 2017

Two weeks ago, our guest speakers were from the Lake Stevens High School DECA program. The current President and the incoming President gave our club an overview of their programs activities. In the beginning, DECA was known as Distributing Club's of America. DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the world. Mattie and Andrew shared the programs requirements. They include a student store, marketing management and include college credits. The business mindset, advanced management and stock market involve over 400 hours. Competition is the key to DECA at the region, state, national and international level. There are lots of categories to choose from from financial advisement to virtual business and prize money is available. The competition always involves high energy, hard work and a keen and strong competitive nature.

DECA members attend conferences. Last year, the WRLC which is only held every four years was in Seattle. The best part of this conference is the networking that goes on with attendees from all over the world. DECA is all about team building. Business bounding is another activity for the incoming group leadership and Waterhouse is more geared towards marketing. Each year, alums return to help the current group in doing their activities/projects. A video is created each of year of their activities.

This year there were 164 members of DECA. The group has provided input into the DECA store as part of the high school rebuild project. There is a Digital Design classes. Five individuals are going to Nationals. Benefits to being involved in DECA are participating in one of the largest student organizations in the United States. DECA students learn business and marketing fundamentals, acquiring useful skills for employment. Listing DECA on your resume or job application is another benefit for future employment. Another factor mentioned earlier is the opportunity to participate in area, state and international DECA competitions and leadership conferences.

Quote of the Week - Who Said It?

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

Thought of the Week - Who Said It?

"Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out."