Newsletter for Meeting of April 16, 2014
April 16, 2014 Newsletter
By John Hammer
Charlotte Shelburne Rotary
Wednesday, April 16, 2014, 7:15 a.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room
Welcome
President Dave opened the meeting with the Pledge. Doris Sage and Sam Feitelberg gave the invocation.
Guests: None
Upcoming:
April 23 – Jim Donovan, Illustrative Plan for Route 7
April 25-27 – 7850 District Conference, Hilton Hotel, Burlington. Members are urged to pre-register at http://bit.ly/1gUQJT1 More Below.
April 30 – Brett Sigurdson, Editor of the Charlotte News
May 3 – Rebuilding Together working on a Senior citizens home in South Burlington. Interested should log on, on-line. (http://www.rebuildingtogetherburlington.org/)
May 7 – Dr. Marvin Malik of Vermont Physicians for National Health.
May 14 – Robin Turnau, President of Vermont Public Radio
May – Volunteer work in Hinesburg (TBD). The building is being designed.
Early June – Volunteer work in clearing at Charlotte Demeter Park and Shelburne Nature Path. Michael Clapp will be passing out lists in a week or so.
June 6 – Bowlathon
June 11 – Essex Rotary Golf Championship
District 7850 Calendar: Hot Link http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Events/EventsCalendar.aspx?accountid=50051
Announcements
Thank You - President Dave circulated a thank you letter from the Charlotte Senior Center for Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Volunteers noted were: Linda Gilbert, Bill Deming, Carole Obuchowski, Tod Whitaker, Michael Clapp, Dave Jonah and Denny Bowen.
Rotary District 7850 Conference – 155 have registered. Finances are now in the black. Conveners’ sheets to help coordinate presentations are being developed and will be emailed out soon.
Paul Harris Fellowship – Terrill Titus was proud to present a Paul Harris Fellowship pin to member Chris Davis for his generous donation over time of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. He was totally surprised by this and with true Chris Davis humility accepted the honor. John Hammer followed with a short speech praising his selfless and very valuable work as Fire Chief for the Charlotte Volunteer Fire Service.
Charlotte Conservation Commission (CCC) – Trafton Crandall spoke up in favor of volunteers to join the CCC in their invasive species campaign to rid Lake Champlain of European frogbit. Work requires several hours in a paddle craft harvesting the noxious weed, generally from Town Farm Bay in Charlotte.
Spads’s Humor
It was Saturday morning when the man got up quietly, dressed, gobbled down a quick breakfast, grabbed the dog, went into the garage and hooked up his boat. He backed his truck out into a torrential downpour of snow mixed with rain. It was blowing horizontally at 50 mph. He pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio and discovered that the weather was to remain like this for another 24 hours. He went back into the house, quietly undressed and slipped back beneath the sheets. As he cuddled up against his wife’s back with a different sense of anticipation he whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.” She sleepily replied, “Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that crap?”
Sergeant at Arms – Richard Fox was in full form today and fined a large number of people for not fully clearing their windshields of the ice and snow that fell last night.
Ric Flood – Heading to Boston to watch daughter Megan at the Boston Marathon
Terrill Titus – For Megan Flood’s return to the marathon, for watching her daughter complete a half marathon and for a wonderful time at the Make a Wish 25th Anniversary Gala last weekend.
Chris Davis – For the surprise of the Paul Harris Fellowship Award. He also announced that the Selectboard meeting for Charlotte will be at the Fire and Rescue Station next Monday night at 7PM and all are invited. Terrill Titus followed up with praise for Chris and all the other fire service personnel. She, as a part of her insurance training, underwent an exercise of dressing in the equipment of an ordinary firefighter and simply running back and forth in a parking lot. She noted that just getting into all the gear was a challenge for a healthy person, but running and the possibility of fighting a fire in the gear must be really daunting.
Eric Hanley – On way to Charleston. His daughter, Megan, has been accepted to Endicott College in Boston. Really enjoyed the Make a Wish Gala.
Dennis Webster - Two years in a row ECAC teams have won the national championship.
Mark Joczik – Off to Charleston too.
Richard Fox – Just back from Nashville where he became thoroughly sick and tired of country music that is heard in every corner of the city – even in the streets.
Steve Dates – After next week’s District Conference, he and Eileen will be off to Oklahoma to attend a garden club convention.
Evan Webster – Going down to Massachusetts to visit.
Trafton Crandall’s ticket was drawn and he drew the Four of Spades for a rollover of the $22 pot.
Speakers – Today was Committee Day, but it transpired that Chris Davis gave a short presentation on the work being done at the Meach Cove Estate.
They have installed a Vermont-owned, solar photovoltaic farm covering 15 acres of marginally-productive agricultural land. The farm produces about 17,000 KWH per day that is enough to power much of the village of Shelburne on a sunny day. There are more than 10,000 3’x6’ panels. This is the largest array that can be authorized by the Vermont Public Service Board.
Because bees are having a hard time these days with loss of flowering plants, he and the project are investigating flowering grasses and plants for ground cover under the panels. They have developed a grass mix that grows about 10” tall and will need mowing only once a year.
The Project is also installing an experimental biomass boiler to provide heat. It will burn pellets or pucks made of compressed grasses and weeds. They have found some plants that have higher Btu output than wood. They will be experimenting with these fuels over the next few years.