Kristin Hayes, Editor

September 5, 2018

 

A GREAT ROTARY DAY.

After the rituals, fourteen Barre Rotarians and one guest speaker sat down to lunch on Panini sandwiches, pasta salad, pickles and cake.

With sadness our President Liane was not present for the meeting but we were fortunate for the goodwill of President Elect Eddie who stepped up to lead the meeting in her absence.

Caroline was quick to offer a happy dollar as Kristin arrived slightly late to the meeting, offering happiness to another woman adding diversity to the heavily weighed men in attendance. She also offered an additional dollar in celebration of her birthday that recently passed. Doug, our esteemed guest and visitor from Bon Air Virginia, also offered a dollar. Doug offered both a happy and a sad dollar after he watched the service for honored Senator John McCain. We were also happy to have Adella Polk, a senior high school student and Loren’s daughter, as a welcome visitor to the club’s meeting.

 

Caroline gave the members an update on our Rotary wall project which is coming together. Caroline shared there will be 8 groups of students and artists who will be painting the 4x8 plywood panels that will be constructed. Caroline put to the group for discussion the option of Rotary forming a group to work on one of the panels. The commitment would be 8-16 individuals who could commit to a few evenings to get this accomplished.

 

Joe Preddy graciously offered his primer paining skills but was politely refused as the panels should come primed. If this is not the case we know the man for the job. Anyone wishing to join the Rotary panel painting group only need ask and do not need prior artistic skill to apply. Ted had the superb idea to use the Barre Granite Museum to help complete the painting and storage which they graciously agreed to do. Tony was quick to point out how nice of them to “carve out” a space for us to use.

Our speaker this week was Steve Mackenzie. Steve is the Barre City Manager and has been in that position for 8 years next month. Steve shared many updates to projects currently underway in Barre. Steve happily reported that the flood mitigation project created to alleviate trash from jamming up during flooding is complete and was deemed a success during the rainy season we experienced in July. The goals of many of the flood projects aim to give the neighborhoods back to the people and they successfully demoed five houses with a grant from FEMA which covered 75% of this project and a companion grant to offset the remaining 25%. The Merchant Row’s Redevelopment project has started and is projected for completion in 3-5 years. Steve also reported on the new dedicated Fire Chief as a change to the Barre emergency response team, the open position for Barre’s Finance Director, a position they hope to fill by the end of September, and updates on the 2018 paving project which is still in process. Takeaway from Steve’s updates on Barre show a community in action and a community that cares for the people and the city in which we work and live.
 
That’s all folks.
See ya next time, Kristin.