Newsletter for September 18, 2013
Minutes from the Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Meeting September 18, 2013
President David Jonah led us in the Pledge and Kris Engstrom followed with the devotional.
There were numerous announcements made and the recording secretary was challenged to keep up. Looks like a busy fall!
Upcoming events included the following:
Speakers
September 25: The elusive Burlington Police Chief Michael Shirling. Bring a guest!
October 2: Gene Richards from Burlington International Airport
October 9: UVM Professor Frank Bryan. Always a favorite!
October 16: Al Gobeille, the Chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, to discuss Vermont Healthcare.
Events and Service Projects
September 21: Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival. Bill Root said that we were in pretty good shape for parking volunteers but could use a few additional people for the afternoon. Wear your new Rotary t-shirt!
October 27: Halloween Parade. Dave Rice is chairing this event and John Beal is looking for volunteers for the food.
November 1: Annual Car Raffle. Ric Flood has already started distributing pumpkin raffle tickets ($10 each) and has sent out letters to previous ticket buyers. Please let Ric know if you are going to purchase a spot this year. Colleen Haig has been in charge of solicitations for door prizes and would welcome help this year.
Latin dance party for H2H on September 13th was a huge success, per Linda Gilbert. Trafton apparently is quite a dancer despite his supposed bad back. 45 pizzas were eaten and everyone had a great time.
Michael Clapp reported that the “compost palace” of Charlotte project last weekend went very well. Among the able bodied Rotarians were Bill, John, Denny, Michael, Adam, Russ and Dave (forgive me if I missed anyone!). There is still a bit more work to be done. Hinesburg has taken notice and would like some help with their projects (the lines are forming…). October 12th date is set for cutting brush at the LaPlatt Nature Trail.
Other Club Correspondence
We received a note from Steve and Elaine Dates who are busy on their world wind Rotary tour of the district.
Terrill Titus sent a note of thanks for the flowers (for Steve’s surgery).
The Colchester/Milton Rotary is doing a walk for Breast Cancer October 20th.
Rebuilding Together is having a work day on September 28th.
Waterbury Rotary is hosting a golf scramble and dinner in October.
The District is sponsoring a concert on September 24 at St. Michael’s College to raise money for the club in Quebec that was involved with tragic train fire.
Don Condon contacted the Board about a project that his daughter (who is currently stationed in Afghanistan) is spearheading. They are in desperate need for used baby blankets to be sent over. This would be an excellent project that could be done, perhaps, in conjunction with a school community service group. If anyone is interested in taking charge of this please contact Dave Jonah.
Light News/Happy Fines
Ric Flood relayed a “Catholic Golf” joke from Spad and it was followed by another golf joke from John Dupee. John was acting as Sergeant of Arms.
- Denny was “happy”
- Michael Clapp was happy for work crew and his wonderful wife of 20 years
- John was happy
- Sam Feitelberg was happy that his son-in-law won an Emmy for the Big Bang Theory
- Ric Flood was happy to be going on a business and golf trip to New Orleans
- Linda Gilbert was sad about the floods in Colorado but hopeful for the rebuild
- Kris Engstrom was happy for her family
- Linda and George Schiavone were happy
- Howard Seaver was happy about Latin dancing
- Dave Jonah was happy about his son’s birthday and the compost project
- Roz was happy that Pat was taking notes today and glad she doesn’t have to regularly drive in Montreal traffic
- Russ Blodgett was happy that Denny gave his sawing advice and saved his fingers
- Chris Davis was happy to be celebrating his father’s 89th birthday
- Fritz paid a scoot fine for Dennis
- Mark paid a happy and late fine
There was $141 in the pot. John Beal drew the lucky number but did not pull the winning card.
Speaker: Meach Cove Farms Update by Chris Davis
Chris gave us a bit of his personal background. He grew up on NYC, but his mother was one of Dunbar Bostwick’s daughters. He wanted to return to his Vermont roots and attended Middlebury College, graduating in 1981. From college he headed to Alaska to work in mining and geology. When his grandmother died Chris returned to Vermont for the funeral and was asked by his grandfather (Dunbar) to help with the farm. Chris agreed, thinking that this was a short-term commitment. However, Chris ended up staying and running the farm from 1982-1997. When the farm was purchased by the Meach Cove Trust Chris was asked to stay on.
The current property covers approximately 1000 acres and shares boundary lines with parts of Shelburne Farms. Barns on the property date back to 1850 and there is an extensive history of all the previous owners. The land is divided into different uses – primarily managed woodlot (350 acres), active organic farming (300 acres) and open spaces.
There is a big problem with wild parsnip taking over and they are mowing all the time to try to keep this at bay.
They have presently received a USDA grant for a project that they are working on using grasses for heating. The grass is formed into pellets and briquettes which can be used a boiler for heating. The cost is very competitive – in the range of wood pellets. The boilers are made in Troy, NY. This technology is being used successfully by the Europeans.
They have also gotten approval for a 15 acre solar farm (similar to the ones in New Haven and Vergennes). There will be 9700 panels (sourced in China) and should generate 2.2 megawatts or 3 million kilowatt hours/year.
For more information about Meach Cove check out their website at www.meachcovefarms.org.