Invocation: Andrae Gonzales
Flag Salute: Jeff Johnson
Song: Steve Illingworth
Roving Mics: Brad Barnes & Jessie Lopez
Good News & Announcements:
Girish Patel is happy to be back after his total knee replacement he had two weeks ago. Also, he has been having dialysis treatments for some time now since "his kidneys quit". However- he is very thankful he has several likely candidates for a kidney transplant, including our one and only Justin Leland!
It was Leslie Golich's birthday today, and everyone knows she HATES the birthday song. So Garro offered her a deal; $10 for a short version, $20 for Jim and Garro serenade or $50 for no song. With no hesitation, she paid the $50 fine.
Ron Eaves' birthday is coming up and he offered to pay the $50 fine so he didn't get a birthday song in the future. I see a trend here.
President Ellis featured another "Getting Down To Business" today. The second one featuring a Rotarian that no longer does business (in a traditional sense). This week was the legendary Mike Chertok, who tripped up on only one of the rapid-fire questions Garro hit him with. It took him a bit to figure out how long he was married. Don't worry Mike, what happens at Rotary stays at Rotary.
Guests:
Jared Cope guest of Ken Beurmann
Kristina LaQue and Mike Lukens guest of Lynnette Zelezny
Program:
Today's guest was introduced by the illustrious Jeff Gutierrez. The guest was Bob Meadows, Business Development Director at the City of Shafter. According to the brief sent out by Garro, he was supposed to speak about "the increase in development and the importance of bringing Public and Private entities together". It was more of a braggadocious Powerpoint about how great Shafter is.
Actually, they do have a lot to brag about. Maybe it's because they're smaller and leaner and meaner. Or maybe it's because they have really smart guys like Bob, John Guinn and new city manager Scott Hurlbert running the show.
Unlike other cities, when you are thinking about developing or relocating a company to Shafter, you get a sit down meeting with Bob and the City Manager, City Planner, and other department heads, to give you advice and point you in the right direction. It may not be cheaper to build in Shafter- but Bob claims it's a lot easier and faster. The sooner you open your doors, the sooner you're making money!
Among the many distribution centers opening out that way, Walmart is opening a huge 600,000 sq.' Frozen and fresh food distribution warehouse. It will create 400 new jobs, 100 of those being STEM jobs. Other players, present and future are: Essendant- 400k sq.', Ross- 1MM sq.', Express Ave.- 1MM sq.', FedEx- 210k sq.', PMSI- 350k sq.', and the big daddy of them all, Target at 1.6MM sq.'
Bob claimed to have no ongoing pension plan debt. Which Brad Barnes thought was sort of a smoke-and-mirrors claim, because they paid off their excess pension debt with their general reserves money.
Fun Facts:
- Shafter was named after General "Pecos Bill" Shafter
- The only city it shares a border with is Bakersfield.
- The estimated population is 20,000... Bob is not one of them.
- Is the only city in Kern County with a Fiber Optic backbone.
