Greeters Don Overly (Middle) and Brian Bergmann (R) are shown greeting club member
Jack Workman (L). Club treasurer Gerry Eastabrooks can be seen in background.
Lee Hieronymus was sitting across from member John Callander and commented on the snappy look John had this day, noting that no one would not know his name is John. John works with the Wright Brothers airplane group, which wears the fancy Army-style shirts. He told Lee there was no story and that he just wanted to look good today, so it seemed only proper to capture the smiling, good-looking club member on film for posterity's sake.
Ron announced that Jennifer Gibbs, marketing director at St. Leonard, a former member of the Beavercreek Rotary, has submitted her application to join the club and has been accepted. As soon as her new badge comes, she will be inducted, he said.
He said another previous visitor to the club, Katie Neubert, is thinking of joining, as she has a new job here in Centerville.
Ron said our club was well represented at the district assembly at Normandy Church, with those among the group including new members Kisha Taylor and Brian Bergmann. Arnie Biondo and a number of others joined them.
Ron said the incoming District Governor has some new goals, one being creating a peace scholarship, that would amount to $25,000 and cost each member $8. Another goal would be planting a tree for each member in the district, which would be about 3,000 trees, he said.
Ron reminded everyone of the July 21 Rotary Day at the Dayton Dragons. Tickets are still available but no longer for the Rotary Club section.
Happy Bucks: Sgt.-at-Arms stand-in Brian Hayes collected Happy Bucks for The Victory Project, a privately funded Dayton after-school program for young men involving the three "E's": Education, Entrepreneurship, and Enlightenment.
Brian Hayes is seen in picture below, dressed very conservatively...for Brian...
Brian recognized our guests and then collected Happy Bucks.
Judy Budi gave $5 for missing meetings and Ron Hollenbeck gave $5 for those who attended the district assembly.
Boyd Preston gave for missing last week's meeting for his son's graduation at IU.
Jim Harris and Kim Senft-Paras each gave for the Victory Project and Kim also gave for a grandchild.
Frank Perez and Drew Carter each gave for being Happy.
And then came Rick Terhune....
Club member Rick Terhune, a Centerville dentist, gave one of the Happiest Bucks of his life, I suppose. The club all thought so, anyway, and applauded what he had to say. He is seen here before the meeting. He's in the red shirt, with Chuck King and Boyd Preston and Gerry Eastabrooks to his right in the picture. Our speaker of the day has his back to us, unaware
of the momentous words Rick is to tell us in the meeting.
Rick stood up and told the club members that in December he passed out in traffic and his heart stopped. He ended up hitting two cars and a tree. It was by Elsa's Restaurant a couple blocks from his office in Centerville. Two nurses used a defibrillator to shock him back alive, he said. He woke up in the back of an ambulance that took him to Kettering Hospital. He said he wasn't feeling bad before the accident happened. They took him to the emergency room where he passed every test they gave him and could find no heart damage or signs of a heart attack or blockages. Before he was released, the cardiologist said the cause of his passing out was due to low potassium. That can be cured by eating such things as bananas, avocados, and baked potatoes with the skin on, he said.
Carol Kennard gave for being Happy as did Ann Blackburn. Rebecca Quinones gave for Adam Manning working with her husband Carlos on her birthday dinner and she said that on Tuesday she and Jeff Senney attended an executive dialogue and when the House of Bread was mentioned needing milk for the children they got a donation of $500, enough money to buy milk for the weekend, and then another $250 donation to get enough milk for the summer.
John Callander, the well-dressed man in the picture above, gave for spending a week in Ft. Myers, Florida, where it only rained at night. What was bad was all the smoke from the grass fires, he said.
Jeff Senney said they had a birthday dinner for his dad Walter, who turned 95, celebrating with a bottle of wine. He said his dad was a little wobbly as they left for home, the wine bottle being empty by then.
Brian Bergmann gave for Peachy to get better, and for drivers tending to pass out in front of Elsa's.
Harvey Smith mentioned a granddaughter in Indiana, and Kisha Taylor gave a dollar for being late and a dollar for being Happy. Deb Dulaney said she was Happy and Dave Trout was Happy too.
Matt Kuhn gave for his daughter, a recent college graduate who plans to go to Spain and then law school, and also for his son Matt, on leave from the U.S. Air Force Academy, both with him this day.
Don Stewart said he was glad to be able to talk to Matt Jr. about hockey, and Adam Manning gave for his manager Steven and his wife Kristy having a daughter, Emily Katherine.
Arnie Biondo gave for going to his first district assembly meeting
Sivaji also gave, but his words were drowned out by the crowd around him.
Today's Speaker: Brian O. Martin, executive director of the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC).
Club member John Beals introduced our speaker. But before he did he explained to the club what RYLA is all about. He said Carol Hughes operates the program at Camp Kern, and that the late Hans Berkel became a big supporter of RYLA, which was formed in 1970 to help young people learn to be leaders. Our club picks juniors in high school so that they have their senior year in high school to practice what they have learned about leadership, he said. He said they pick people who are not the captains of their teams or of the Speech and Debate Team, etc., but rather kids they felt had potential..."a Jim Briggs type of a guy,"....he quipped, taking a dig at our fellow club member Jim. A bright student is picked, he said. They are then prodded to move forward and become a leader. It is part of the outreach of Rotary to young people, John said.
John said Brian Martin, our speaker, is responsible for overseeing all management aspects of the MVRPC, which is responsible for various regional planning activities including air quality, water quality, transportation, land use, research and GIS. He represents the agency also on the regional, statewide and national levels. The agency's current operating budget is about $4.65 million. He has a staff of 23, with 75 board members.
John said Brian has worked in many cities in the Midwest in both consulting and public agencies in the fields of transportation, economic, and environmental planning and public involvement. He has completed 20 community plans over his career for large regions, cities and villages.
John said Brian is a proud husband and father. He is married to Marchale and they have two sons, Brian, a junior at UC, and John, a freshman at Northwestern University. Brian is a graduate of Western Kentucky University, with a BS degree in Production/Operations Management and an MS degree in City and Regional Planning. He is a member of the Dayton Rotary.
Brian thanked John for the intro and said he has known him for a long time as he has been on his board of directors and is soon to be first vice chairman.
Brian said he has been here four years and that he and his wife are from Kentucky. They first lived in Trotwood and then Indianapolis for five years, and when a job opening occurred in Dayton, he came here. He gave Happy Bucks for Dayton and Centerville. He said he believes in the fight to eradicate Polio that Rotary is so well known for.
He handed out the latest guide map for Miami Valley Ohio Bikeways, the fifth edition, just put out three weeks ago. He said the Centerville-Washington Park District is a sponsor and that the maps cost 12 cents apiece to create, and that they bought 100,000. Centerville is well connected on the trails, he said. The International Trails Symposium brought 700 people to the Miami Valley. The trails help market the region, he said.
The MVRPC is a multi-county organization for five counties, he said. Montgomery, Greene, and Miami Counties are the main ones, with three cities in Warren County getting federal dollars, Franklin, Carlisle, and Springboro. Darke and Preble County get plan services but do not get federal dollars, he said.
According to their Web site: MVRPC serves as the Metropolitan Planning Organization for Montgomery, Miami, Greene Counties, plus a portion of Northern Warren County. MVRPC also provides Regional and Environmental planning support for members in seven counties. MVRPC policies guide agency interactions in many areas including the implementation of project funding, public participation in the planning process, public records retention and access, and non-discrimination.
As the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), MVRPC is responsible for transportation planning in Greene, Miami and Montgomery Counties and parts of northern Warren County. MVRPC's areawide water quality planning designation encompasses five (5) counties: Darke, Preble, plus the three MPO counties.
There are 75 members on the board of directors, which meets at the Board of Realtors, Brian said. He said our club member Sally Beals is one of the members. The board is a decision-making body comprised of elected officials of local governmental organizations and other non-governmental organizations, such as local chambers of commerce, regional transit authorities, special districts, higher education institutions, private businesses including utility companies, and state agencies such as Ohio Department of Transportation.
Most of the MVRPC staff are trained in engineering, he said. Many have been on staff 13 to 14 years. Seventy-five percent of their work involves transportation, he said. Their long range transportation plan goes out to 2040. The plans are updated every four years, with a 20-year horizon. They try to take care of everyone in the region and the plans include multi-model strategies and projects. One of the problems they are looking at is the increasing number of pedestrians being struck by vehicles because of people using hand-held devices and putting on make-up, etc.
Besides the 2015 Bike Plan update, they have a regional open space plan and an area-wide water quality plan. Some 99 percent of Miami Valley residents get their drinking water from the underwater buried valley aquifer. They have a 7/8 year regional plan, Going Places.
Some 50 local agencies make up the MVRPC, he said. The group serves as a consultant to area realtors.
They give new ideas and better information for stronger decision making, he said. They try to improve relationships. They share information on mapping and economic development and site selection and work with local government. He said Jefferson Twp. recently won an award for comprehensive planning because of their innovative solutions.
He gave a presentation on the Dayton area's National Parks recently, coming after a presentation about Utah's National Parks. Ours may be on a smaller scale, but they still have an economic impact. The Regional Trails Network is estimated to have a $1.3-to-1.5-million economic impact by bringing visitors to the area, he said.
The MVRPC has partnered with the city on such things as the Clyo Road resurfacing, Franklin St. last year, Wilmington Pike signals, and State Route 48 at State Route 725, etc.
According to the MVRPC Web site:
Founded upon the principles of regional collaboration, cooperation, and consensus building, the MVRPC serves as the common ground where area partners come together to work toward a shared vision across the Region. Together, public and private partners develop and implement innovative and sustainable strategies that enhance the Region’s quality of life and economic vitality. The strategic plan guides the implementation of this vision.
A capsule history of the MVRPC follows. The Web site notes that the 50 year celebration took place in 2014:
In the early 60's, business leaders and Chambers of Commerce in the Region agreed that a vehicle to study and propose solutions to regional problems (those which cross jurisdictional boundaries) was needed. The result of the consensus was the formation of MVRPC in 1964, under Section 713.21 of the Ohio Revised Code. Membership included both elected officials and private sector representatives.
In the 70's, in response to Federal mandates, (and plentiful dollars to fund them), the organization gradually evolved into one solely comprised of elected officials, covering Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Preble Counties.
In the 1980’s, federal programs and funds dramatically decreased, resulting in a much smaller organization, but also one with fewer constraints on its structure and functions.
In 1984, MVRPC adopted a new Strategic Plan and revised its Bylaws to reflect a more locally responsive and locally determined organization. Private sector membership (up to 25 percent) was also reinstated.
Also in the early 80's, the Transportation Coordinating Committee, the transportation planning body for the urbanized area (Montgomery and Greene Counties) which had been jointly housed with MVRPC for many years, formally became part of MVRPC.
The 1990’s were about improving the Region’s coordination and economic development, with emphasis on transportation investments. MVRPC focused on enhancing public participation and regional decision making, providing accessibility around the Region, and improving watershed and air quality.
During the 2000’s, the Region saw significant change due to the Great Recession. In response, MVRPC focused on five major elements to support a stronger economy: corridors of commerce, partnerships, quality of life, and providing resources to communities and organizations. In 2005, Franklin, Carlisle, and Springboro joined MVRPC, extending the Region into Warren County.
In the 2010’s, the Region began to recover from the recession, learning to do more with less, and finding innovative ways to build on our distinctive qualities and assets. In 2013, Brian O. Martin, AICP, became Executive Director of MVRPC. The Strategic Plan was updated, and the Agency re-organized adding a new Sustainable Solutions and Transportation Alternatives Department, as well as finishing the Going Places initiative and developing Planning Tools.
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