This week our featured speaker will be Thom Trunkle, who will give us an update on the Ursuline Center.
Also, don't forget about the 30th Anniversary Challenge for PolioPlus. If you haven't done so yet, bring $30 to this week's meeting and donate it to The Rotary Foundation's polio fund in honor of the 30 years of Rotary's work to eradicate polio. We’re also collecting change for Pennies for Polio Plus. With only 11 polio cases reported worldwide this year, let’s double down on this debilitating disease and get rid of it once and for all!
Calling All Volunteers!
Camp Rotary Clean-up Day is this Saturday, May 14. You can be part of a fun, if slightly cockamamie, group like the one pictured. Here's what you need to know:
To carpool, meet at 8 a.m. at 4-B’s on 10th Avenue South. If you’d rather drive, plan to arrive at the Camp at 9:00.
Bring work gloves. Tasks include cleaning the lodge, the lodge kitchen, the new and old cabins, dragging down fallen trees, cutting them up for firewood, picking up the central yard (including rocks that will harm the mower), and cleaning the pavilion.
Bring a family member or a friend, if you like. Many hands make light work!
Bill Harp is providing his famous Camp Rotary Work Day BBQ at noon – so don’t miss it. Work should be completed by early afternoon.
Last Week at Rotary
Last week Scott Patera gave us a brief overview of Northwestern Energy's commitment to the Federal Clean Power Plan. The company is physically the largest utility in the United States and owns utilities in Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
The Federal Clean Power Plan, which is monitored by the EPA, currently requires NWE to reduce carbon emissions by 47% by 2030. To meet this requirement, Scott told us, the Colstrip plant would need to close. A regional economic model analysis recently projected that the economic effect of closing Colstrip will require Montana to become a power importer verses an exporter and would cost the State of Montana $44 million in property taxes.
Camp Rotary Construction Update
The four new cabins that have been under construction since last fall are slated to be ready for final inspection by May 14. It's has been a bit of a roller coaster trying to get deficiencies corrected and keeping things on track, but it looks like we are going to make it under the timeline.
Interior furnishings like cabinets, draperies and miscellaneous accessories have either been ordered or are being assembled. With 36 beds total, there are lots of things to coordinate.
We are preparing for the next phase of work, which includes five cabins. The drawings for the next phase of cabin construction were approved by the State of Montana and the permit has been issued for construction in the fall. With the help of Rotary members, a list of seven contractors was assembled for bidding. Bids were received and we are evaluating the low bidder's number. The low bidder, Steven Johnson Construction, has been to the Camp to review site access and see the current cabins under construction. Steven was recommended by Mike Wier. Thanks. Mike! If all goes well we hope to meet with the Board soon to approve a contract for next fall.
Thanks to all you Rotarians who have made this new construction possible!
Bruce Davidson
Milestones
Birthday greetings go out tomorrow to Tyler Hentzen. Best wishes, Tyler, for the best year of life ever!
This Week in History
1607 – Jamestown, Virginia, became first permanent English settlement in America.
1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis on their famous quest to explore the Northwest.
1889 - Crowds rioted outside the Astor Place Opera House in New York, angered by the dress requirements for admission and the comments of actor William Charles Macready's about how vulgar Americans were. When the mob began shattering windows, troops were called out and ordered to fire, killing 22 and wounding 26.
1937 - George VI, the subject of the recent Oscar-winning film, “The King’s Speech,” was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII.
1969 – The Vietnam War’s battle of "Hamburger Hill" was waged. Again and again, U.S. troops scaled the Dong Ap Bia Mountain, fighting the North Vietnamese hand-to-hand. After ten days, our trips secured the “hill,” at high cost in American lives. Shortly thereafter, military leadership decided to abandon it and the North Vietnamese reclaimed it.
1994 - Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president of South Africa.
Camp Rotary Clean-up Day is this Saturday, May 14. You can be part of a fun, if slightly cockamamie, group like the one pictured. Here's what you need to know:
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