With rituals completed, thirteen Rotarians helped themselves to quiche, salad and pie. Ted was first up with a Happy Dollar in recognition of John steping up and entering the City Council race. John added a Sad Dollar to the coffers in noting that at yesterday’s vote on the make-up of the new school board he was the 103th voter (There are more than 3,000 registered voters in Barre City.) to cast a vote and that was late in the day. Caroline gave four Happy Dollars: one for Nicole joining Barre Rotary; Jeremy being here as our guest speaker; Eddie for raising the final funds needed for the completion of the mural wall; and District Governor Larry Vars visiting us today.

 

 

Bruce announced birthdays and anniversaries: Birthdays: Sue Poczobut---February 6^th; Liane Martinelli---February 15^th. Anniversaries: Tony Campos---5 years; Chandra Pollard---1 year; Kristin---1 year.

He also provided some of our Club’s membership composition statistics.

 

 

Nicole (soon to become a Barre Rotarian) increased the number of “green backs” by first searching, then finding and finally throwing five dollars in the basket. Happy for: great to be here; to the Club; Larry Vars presence; Norwich at the State House and Downtown Montpelier; and not being in the office. Jeremy added another five bucks for seeing all of us. Eddie gave a Happy Dollar for Norwich making the playoffs. He also gave another for being called and told that he was one of five finalists in Central Vermont Rotary Club’s raffle only to find out later that he had won one of the consolation prizes of $100. Ted gave a Happy Dollar for Norwich Women’s Hockey Team making it to the playoffs and President Liane threw in one in celebration of her 50^th last week.

 

 

 

Caroline rose to explain that SWISH, an AAU Basketball Club (long supported by Elizabeth), had been overlooked at the Donations Meeting and she asked for rectification of the situation by reducing a contingency donation to Our House from $500 to $250 and awarding SWISH a donation of $250. Eddie so moved and Tony seconded. Motion passed with a majority voting “yes” and with one “no” vote being cast.

 

 

 

Egged on by President Liane, Tony proposed the only fine of day on Eddie for being inattentive. Without a defense, the fine easily passed.

 

President Liane recognized District Governor Larry Vars who provided a couple of highlights of the upcoming District Conference in Sherbrooke, Quebec in May. Registration is now open.

 

 

President Liane then introduced our speaker, Jeremy Grenier of Calmont Beverage Company.

 

Jeremy talked about possible revisions to the current bottle law. Currently there is no facility in Vermont or close-by to process recycled glass including bottles and jars. China has stopped accepting glass and companies like Casella do not have a solution for the problem of cleaning glass which is evidently a highly sophisticated process. Money that has been collected from unclaimed deposits has been diverted to other uses instead of being used for recycling. Jeremy said that if  2 or 3 cents were added to wine and glass jars, 2 or 3 million dollars could be raised and in two or three years a glass cleaning facility could be built and run by the State of Vermont. Once cleaned properly, glass can be recycled for use in road pavement material. The bill has not been brought to the floor this year, but was “shot down” last year. Jeremy wanted us to understand the revisions to the bottle law and asked for our support.

 

 

 

 

    

                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check received by Nancy Pope, Chair of the Board, and Loren Polk, Director of the Library