Northwind April 30, 2009

Posted by Rick Staeb 
 

Northwind Bulletin for April 30th, 2009

President Tim called the meeting to order at 12:30pm.

Gary Snyder gave the invocation.

Chuck Tull introduced visiting Rotarians:

George Tsakumis from Vancouver along with Harlen, Ken and Jeannie McGee from the Bellingham Club.

Birthdays;  Scott Piper on pre-Cinco de Mayo day, the 4th of May.

Announcements:

Junior Achievement Training Days are May 7th and 14th at 11:15 prior to our regular club meeting.  May 22nd is the JA day at Carl Cozier School.  See Leah for more details.

Dan Baker gave a May 8th auction update.  Brian needs by Monday the total number of people at your table or in your group who are coming to the auction.  You'll need to pay at the event for the dinners.  We have a great list of auction items and items are still welcome.  Don't forget to bring your bottle of wine for the auction to next week's meeting if you haven't done so already.   A motion was made by Randy Carr and quickly seconded by Dan Parsons that Dan Baker gives all future auction dates.  The motion was unanimously passed by the club members. 

Julie announced there will be a raffle at the auction for a trip to Alaska; only 200 tickets will be sold at $25 each.  Good Odds.

May 7th is our Youth Service Awards program so please plan on attending this always special day.

Laurie Lloyd thanked all the volunteers for the work party effort at the Humane Society Horse Rescue Facility.  Tim Carpenter calculated the average age of the volunteers at 65 but Tim's math may have been fuzzy since he managed to fall off a ladder at the event.

Happy Bucks:

Ken Richards was $5 happy for Scott Wallace filling in for him as fine master. Bill Grace $2 for participating in the work party on Saturday and give blood.  Julie was $5 happy about the members who stepped up to underwrite the Alaska Cruise Raffle, tax season was over and her great trip to Pennsylvania.  Tony C gave an info dollar to use the                                                                                        portable microphone for the invocation.  Rome $2 happy to know he wasn't the only one who was a victim of a jelly bean thief. Jake was $5 sorry about missing the work party. Tim C was $2 glad about the work party and that there were no injuries. President Tim was $5 happy about Tim's casual shirt, Bill Grace's blood donation; Mel was back, the great sunny day and the success of the Mariners so far this season.  Phil was happy about his new grandson.  Jim Bliss was $2 concerned about his age bringing up the average at the Horse Rescue Facility event.

Fine Master:

Gimpy Greg Thulin hobbled up to the podium to inflict this week's financial pain on the members.  Members who were traveling in spite of the Swine Flu outbreak were fined a buck.  Chrysler owners were fined $1 for not providing better support of their car company.  Gary Tomsic was fine for a fellow city declaring bankruptcy after not complying with a public disclosure request.  Anyone not going to the auction or not donating an item was fined a dollar.  Then came the "Pity on the Fine Master" portion of the financial pain.  Any members, who took a walk, rode a bike, went skiing, and boating, golfing or were able to dress themselves while standing up, all had to pay a dollar.  As usual the Wallace Rule was in effect.

Program:

The program was our own Sharon Robinson from Zervas Group Architects.  Sharon along with 8 other local architects formed a volunteer group to assist the City of Bellingham and the Port in the decision making process of developing the 130 acres of Bellingham waterfront.  With so many diverse opinions and "turfs" that needed to be protected, at times it appeared that little progress was being made on the waterfront development project. 

The group of local architects volunteered to review City and Port waterfront redevelopment planning concepts for the Waterfront District. The goal of the group was to unify master plan concepts, provide professional and impartial opinions, and help achieve consensus among the parties.

Sharon's presentation is excellent and if you have any interest in the waterfront development project you should review the group's suggestions at the City of Bellingham website.

http://www.cob.org/issues/waterfront.aspx

The group did a very thorough job and appeared to do so in a very unbiased manner.  The presentation included suggestions on the following aspects of the project:

Ø Street Grids

Ø Parks

Ø The BN Railroad

Ø WWU

Ø Existing Structures

Ø Sea Level Rise

Ø Block Sizes

Ø Solar Access

Ø Regulatory Approvals

Ø Environmental Impact Statement

Ø Design Review

Ø Building Heights/Views

Ø Public Transit

Ø Marina

Thanks to Sharon and the rest of her group for volunteering their time and energy to help move the project along. 

Tim Carpenter drew the 3 of clubs. 

Rick Staeb Editor