Rotary Meeting Minutes January 28, 2019
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by President Rick Walter.
Elizabeth Rusnak led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Rick Ostrander manned the front desk.
Our Greeters were Scott Rethke and Monica Fratita
President Rick gave us a bit of humor with an “old people” joke.
Visitors and Introductions:
Elizabeth Rusnak introduced Nick Handfelt, a Senior at Juanita High, who is our Student of the Month, and his parents, Catherine and Mark. Nick will give his ‘talk’ tonight.
Monica Fratita introduced Erin, a Visiting Rotarian from Port Townsend, who is apparently moving to Kenmore.
Announcements:
- President Rick talked about the Rotary International Foundation and all the good it does world-wide.
- Amy Mutal reminded us of our ‘Valentine’ Night February 11, for Rotarians and Friends/Lovers/Spouses/Others. She wants us to send photos from our past that fits the theme of the evening. She would also like us to have an amusing story about the occasion depicted in the photo.
- James Nevers reminded us that we need volunteers for the various tasks involved in running the Duck Dash at Summerfest, July 26-28.
- Steve Shinstrom reminded us that Bunco will be themed as red/white/blue, at the Shinstroms, Saturday evening April 20.
- Patti Sims informed us that Miracle League is coming this Spring. First game will be 10AM at Perigo Park in Redmond, Saturday, April 27. We are typically done by 11AM.
- Rotary District wants volunteers to walk and clean up the Interurban Trail in Seattle, Saturday April 13 10AM – 1PM.
- There is going to be a District-wide blood drive on six different dates, at six different locations. President Rick is looking for a volunteer to spearhead each event. Teri Ebert volunteered for the blood drive. Dave Debois is pondering the trail clean-up event.
Our Student of the Month, Nick Handfelt, gave his talk, speaking about being a long-time Kirkland resident and about his school sports and school political activities. He is involved in a program that pairs student athletes with handicapped kids. Nick can no longer play football due to a spinal injury. He will attend WSU and wants to be a sports agent, representing athletes.
Our speaker this evening was Dow Constantine, the King County Executive, who spoke about some of the challenges and issues facing the County and some of the County’s efforts to address these issues. Mr. Constantine is in his third term as County Executive, after serving in the state legislature.
The County provides many services, especially to the unincorporated areas of the County. These services include everything from police to courts to health services to animal control to transit to an airport.
He has tried to improve the level of services by engaging County employees and their ideas to develop and implement these ideas to make changes. As an example he spoke about the County’s success in reducing the ‘kill-rate’ of impounded animals from about 40% to adopting out over 90% of animals.
The County is currently developing and implementing ideas to reduce the homeless population in the County, by working with other local governments and with local charities.
The meeting was adjourned by President Rick at 7:37PM
Respectfully Submitted
Acting Scribe - David Aubry