President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
President Brian shared:
In light of the fact that it is St. Patrick’s Day our thought of the moment is part of the Irish Blessing which says “May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow. And may trouble avoid you wherever you go.”
Today Our speaker will be Michael Norton-Smith who will share with us about Centerville’s Development.
Chuck King announced the District Rotary Golf Outing will be on May 18 at Heatherwood Golf Club. Let him know if you’d like to form a team.
Judy Budi announced that April 14 is the scholarship deadline. Application was distributed at CHS and Alter and is also on our website. We also have a trade scholarship so if you know anyone who is going to a trade school, connect them with her or Sofie. They must be in the Centerville Rotary area. The scholarship committee met today and is comprised of Jim Harris, Sofie Ameloot, Susan Schnell, Harvey Smith, Mark Febus and Judy Budi.
Susan Schnell announced tomorrow we will be sending three CHS students to RYLA at Camp Kern. They will come to a Rotary meeting afterwards to share about their experience.
Boyd Preston announced we have a full slate of volunteers to spread prairie seed next Tuesday, March 22, 3-4 pm at Grant Park as part of our 50th Anniversary project. Meet at the Kennard Nature Nook on McEwen Road and dress for walking through a meadow area that may be muddy.
Mike Wier announced he did not get any more takers for the Dragon’s game so those who have already signed up can now bring yourself and 4 others. Let him know if you’d like to bring more people with you to the 3 game. Next Wednesday, he will open seats up to the Miamisburg Rotary Club.
Sofie Ameloot sent an email asking for feminine hygiene items and children’s toys/crafts for the Artemis Center., You can drop them off at Crissy's office through the 15th of April. Address 689 Miamisburg Centerville Rd. Centerville. You can also drop items in a bin at Sofie’s place but she will be leaving on vacation March 24th through April 2nd. Sofie’s house: 1020 Treeside Ct., Centerville.
Sofie also mentioned she is having a hard time getting raffle prizes donated for the Golf Outing as businesses are still trying to recover from COVID-19. She suggested looking at home for anything in new or close to new condition that you might be able to donate to be included in a basket.
Brad Huffman reminded all that the Rotary Golf Outing is on Friday, May 6. The success of the event is dependent on sponsorships, so please ask everyone. If all club members bring in one sponsor, we will have a successful event. Flyers are available at the meeting and also on our
website (look for the list of Download Files on the right.) We currently have around $5,000 in sponsorships and need around $16,000.
Ron Hollenbeck shared the 50th Anniversary tidbit today about Water and Sanitation.
Ron mentioned our club first focused on Haiti. There was a borehole dug at 400 feet, but they didn’t have a pump that would work that deep. We were able to sponsor a LifePUmp that is a hand pump that CAN work that deep. It also has a box on top to monitor activity remotely and watch for issues.
We tried for a global grant and needed to raise at least $30,000 to get it matched. We surpassed that goal and raised $31,500 but didn’t get the support we needed from Haiti, so we were not successful at obtaining matching funds from Rotary International. Instead, we were able to install three pumps.
Cayes, Haiti - serves 600 people
Saint Jean, Haiti - serves 800 people
Arniquet, Haiti - serves 600 people
This quarter we are collecting Recovery Bucks to help relief efforts in Kentucky where they had all of that devastation from tornadoes.
Our Sergeant of Arms today was Boyd Preston
Recovery Bucks were given today for:
- Boyd Preston asked if it “was the truth” when Uriah commented last week about the Blue Jackets game…
- Bill Menker was in North Carolina last week at the John C. Campbell Folk School continuing his blacksmithing apprenticeship and expanding his metal working skills. It was Scandinavian Heritage week at the school and Bill was learning all about Viking-style iron work, the main project being a Viking axe.
- Chuck King during an annual visit to his urologist, discovered his doctor had just joined the army reserve. It’s never too late in life to serve and the bonus is that it will put his kid through school.
- Frank Perez has been away for a big wedding and some other adventures. While at a theater in Columbus waiting for a Little Feat concert to begin, he got a text from Carol Kennard who told him to look at the right side of the theater. He did and found Carol and her husband at the same show!
- Brad Huffman announced it is pool opening day at the Huffman house and the water is clear!
- Ray Merz just got back from 10 weeks in Naples, FL. His father always said you should plant potatoes on St Patrick’s Day so he encouraged everyone to do so.
- Tom Broadwell is back home and settled in from his travels. He was happy for warmer weather and thinks it’s going to stay this time.
- Arnie Biondo was happy.
- Mike Norton-Smith was happy.
- Lee Hieronymus was happy Rotary had an open door policy today (the door was open to the outside), and noted he was heading to the farm to do farm work today.
- Robert Ford was just happy to be here.
- Susan Schnell was happy to be here, having missed a few weeks while in grad school hell.
- Sivaji Subramaniam announced last week was a special day at the London Rotary club where his sister is past president. The club welcomed the current RI president and his wife at her club, and his sister was in charge of the program.
- Jim Harris was happy.
- Sofie Ameloot was happy to have finished painting a room (and it was green.)
- Kim Senft-Paras was happy to be here and acknowledged the 50th tidbits subcommittee as this information helps remind us why we’re a club!
- Harvey Smith bought a new sweater for St Patrick’s Day.
- Gerry Eastabrooks was happy.
- Ron Hollenbeck was happy his childhood friend who went into kidney failure is doing better now.
- Carol Kennard begged for someone to help take notes when she is on spring break and Chuck King stepped right up!
- Dick Hoback was happy for the good weather.
- Uriah Anderson gave a $5 IOU noting the Blue Jackets fans were great hosts and he looks forward to beating them next time.
- Dale Berry modeled the new 50th Anniversary t-shirt, and noted Sofie ordered extras for those who forgot to order and all can pay their $17 per shirt or have it added to their quarterly bill.
Arnie Biondo showed our club website and shared how to get info on our Golf Outing.
centervillerotary.com
Our speaker today was our own member Michael Norton-Smith, Development Director for the City of Centerville.
Michael gave an overview of the City’s plans for updating the Uptown area. The new brand was released in 2019 to better create a sense of place. 2021 was spend in planning work, and the City released a concept plan to begin conversations with the community.
They then worked with LJB and using feedback from the community to start developing an actionable plan. Primary goals included connectivity, and safe flow of traffic and pedestrians. They decided to extend the focus area west to Virginia Ave to safely bring cars out at a traffic light. They looked to embrace the “park once” idea and pushed the flow of traffic into the parking lot areas to reduce the amount of traffic at Main and Franklin Streets.
The idea to create a boulevard on West Franklin Street improves pedestrian flow and safety, while leaving space for stacking of cars waiting for the northbound left turn. Crosswalks will be added across W. Franklin, utilizing the boulevard as a safe halfway mark.
White - existing buildings; maroon potential for new buildings. We did a good job in the 1990’s designing new buildings that looked old, but realized we can’t tell what was really the old buildings. So now new buildings will mirror architectural features of the historic buildings, but not look exactly like old buildings. The City doesn’t control all of the buildings on the map, but is providing opportunities for future development.
There is a proposed signal and crosswalk at Ridgeway and Main Streets. Plans include a park-like space next to Town Hall with a more modern building next to it. Michael said they will save as many trees as they can.
The Elk Mural is the first of the projects to bring public art to the Uptown area and they look to do one per year. It was by far the most popular Facebook post the City made, with many good/bad opinions expressed. People were talking about public art and it helped raise awareness of public art.
The City put a lot of effort into planning and people are now incentivize to invest in the Uptown area. The City is acquiring some properties, some have been private purchases, and some are still available for purchase.
In 2022 the City plans to take down some structures and look to renovate some historic properties to be redeveloped. They also plan to install a second mural and construction of Phase 1 parking will begin. They hope to position 2-3 properties together to bid out.
The old Las Piramides building was recently acquired - was on the market for $700,000, but sold for $312,000. They hope to open later this year, but discovered there are a lot of building repairs needed.
Michael said the City encourages conversation and questions! Michael can be reached at mnorton-smith@centervilleohio.gov or (937) 428-4766.
Next week our speaker will be Kelley Camm from 4Paws who may even bring a canine guest.
By the way – Monday is our Board Meeting so expect an e-mail with the Zoom link to appear in your inbox in the next few days.
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