Rotary Club
Of East Hartford
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Russell Hampton
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ClubRunner

   Volume 2 Issue 10      September 6, 2017

 

Under a cloudy and an unseasonably noontime temperature in the low sixties for this time of the year, twenty six of us gathered for our weekly fellowship. After the Rotary Song and the Pledge of Allegiance, your High Gear scribe also had the responsibility today of delivering the invocation.

 
Martin's Shoe in Mouth at Airport

    

Buffet lunch consisted of fried rice with vegetables, stuffed tilapia, beans, tossed salad followed by layered chocolate cake. Someone at our table noticed that bread rolls have disappeared from the lunch menu. Jack Sayers and Wes Willett are the go to people for lunch related feedback.

Dan Firestone, our Sergeant-at-Arms for September, reported Mary Martin paying handsomely for her birthday joined by Jack who also shared a funny story. While standing in the TSA line with Mary for their flight to Indianapolis, Jack was going on and on about how turning 75 exempts him from removing shoes, etc. The nearby TSA agent, who had enough of Jack’s monotones, turned to him and said, “Please move to the far line over there and take your daughter with you.” Mary, you do not look a day older than what the TSA agent thought. Did you tip him for the compliment? Among the other not so interesting items in the S.A. report, were Weston Willett and Art Bradbury paying for birthdays, Kevin Kickery paying for the memory of Jay Stewart and Ceil Collins for arranging the wine and cheese today, Ned Lynch for the Red Sox victories and his son traveling to Texas to help the flood victims.

Sandy Buettner was our only guest besides the speaker. Sandy won the raffle today, and we all sang the Welcome Song to honor our guests.

 
Final Days of Golf Tournament Prep
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1.      Alex Wisz has information about free document shredding.
 
2.      November 4, 2017 is the first date for the Habitat Project. The East Hartford Women’s Club will be donating money to Habitat on behalf of the dozen or so Rotarians who have volunteered to work on 11/4/2017. Please go online to http://hartfordhabitat.volunteerhub.com/events/indexv1 and use Join Code EHRC1 to register for work. The next date is November 18, 2017.
 
3.      Bob Wood got a good show of hands for his idea of starting a Book Club. The first book is One Summer (America 1927) by Bill Bryson. The first Book Club meeting will be held at his house mid to late October 2017. Please contact him for additional details.
 
4.      George Schoen reported that 89 players have signed up for the Golf Tournament. There is still room for singles. More raffle prizes with a value (not the price paid) of approximately $50 are still welcome. It could be non-golf related items and services. P&W has paid their yearly gift to our Club with $4,000 going to the Tournament.
Future Water Use Critical

Dan Firestone, like the scribe, did double duty today and introduced our Guest Speaker Virginia de Lima who worked for more than 30 years for the US Geological Survey focusing on water resources. She retired as the Director of USGA. She is currently working with the State of CT in its efforts to develop “Connecticut Water Plan”. The voluminous working draft is the result of a collaborative process involving the efforts of many State Agencies and hired consultants. Fortunately there is a two page Fact Sheet available for anyone interested in knowing more about the plan and possibly providing public comments.

We got blown away by the water use figure of one Greenwich consumer. The average recommended daily use per person is 75 gallons. This consumer was using 25,000 gallons of water per day and he is not a farmer with a big field to irrigate. The message was that CT seems to have ample an supply of clean drinking water presently, but in order to assure adequate supply for future, the impact of climate change needs to be taken based on science, sensible water supply laws, and last, but not the least, water conservation efforts taken seriously by all of us.

That’s it for this week. Reminder that Jay’s wake is from 3-7 p.m. tonight at D’Esopo’s Funeral Chapel at 30 Carter Street and the Memorial Service is Saturday at 10:30 at South Congregational Church.

ANWAR HOSSAIN