Once again, Mother Nature has chosen to smite Hocking County with her wrath -- what the heck did we do to deserve this weather???? 

 

We welcomed our guest speaker Bill Shaw for lunch today.

 

Thanks to Jake Hill for stepping in with the prayer today, while Mike McGreevy continues on his journey in Ireland.

 

Damon Kuhn was tapped to take over as Lottery Master today, in the continued absence of Doug Wells.  The small pot of $21 went to his table group.  Once again, no drawing for the BIG POT as there was no new deck of cards.  Maybe, when we get back here in two weeks, someone could come up with a deck of cards?

 

Larry kienzle started the day with a fine for Damon for not letting Larry in on the lottery pot; Jon Mesarch had to pay up for being late; new member Lindsey Barnhouse got fined for not liking OSU, even before they made her an official member!  Something tells me she's going to be hit with fine more than once during the year.  Kathy Krumlauf was fined $1 for messing up Larry's Fair Schedule form.

 

Happy Bucks came from Valery because she was happy her lightning damage had been repaired at work (little did I know what was going to happen on Wednesday of this week!); Lindsey donated a buck because she was happy to be with us; Lee Ann announced that the Ladies of the Brass Ring traveled to Gallipolis and brought home the Southeast Trophy; Jim Robinson recognized the LHS Equine Judging Team and their 38th place in the national competition (out of 135) - their points were good, but just not as good as the Texas and Oklahoma contingents.  They did, however, come in 2nd for teams from east of the Mississippi!  Susan Aldridge paid to announce her $1200 fundraising benefit concert for the Children's Miracle Network, and Larry jumped back up to fine Damon $1 for not being there!  He said he paid gladly.

 

Next week -- NO LUNCH!!! Meet at Kachelmacher Park at 5:15 for Highway Clean Up.  Dinner at Pizza Crossing follows at 6:15.  We need at least 16 Rotarians to get the job done!!  Please, Please, Please -- come out and play with us for a measly 45 minutes -- we are a really fun group!

 

Larry Kienzle is starting the Fair Gates sign up.  Each Rotarian is expected to work two shifts.  Invite friends and neighbors to help -- they can get into the fair for FREE! 

 

T-shirts are in and will be passed out after the meeting.  If you want a polo, there is still time, but you need to get your size and $22 to Joe Murtha immediately.

 

August 23 - Special Meeting!  Our new District Governor will be attending!  Please mark your calendar so we have a good turnout for his visit.  We want to make our new President Jim look good, right?

 

President Jim welcomed Lindsey Barnhouse as a new member of our club today.  Lindsey is the new Branch Manager for the Atomic Credit Union.  Her quick bio let us know that she is married with 3 kids, 6-year-old twims and a 2 year old.  She was born and raised in Athens County and still lives there with her family.  She has been in the banking industry since high school and spends her free time helping out at her church.

 

Welcome to the club, Lindsey!  We wll look forward to getting to know you and work with you!

 

The program today was presented by Marion Riggs.  He invided Bill Shaw, our County Engineer, to give us an update on what's happening this summer.

 

Bill reminded us that he has been our County Engineer since 1979!  He said he started his run with a county that had 266 bridges with 230 of them considered substandard.  There were 212 miles of roadway, most of it gravel only.  He had 58 employees and no money.  Boy, haven't we come a long way since then!!

 

The big project this year is the Chieftain Drive bridge over the Hocking River.  This is a federal project worth $1.9 million dollars!  Things are going well and they expect to meet the October 31st completion date.

 

Next to begin is the Front Street bridge over Old Towne Creek.  One-way traffice will be maintained during construction on this bridge, which is also a federal project.  Total cost of the bridge is approximately $850,000.

 

Bill told us that even though he would like to take them on, he is not allowed by state statute to build any bridge that costs more than $100,000.  It has to be done by "the big boys".  His comment was something to the effect that some contractors are able to make bigger campaign donations than he is.

 

Bill did say that his department has completed 6 bridge replacements already this year, and they have 4 to 6 more scheduled.  He said he still has about 40 to replace from the original 230 that were substandard, but he's now sure he can hang around long enough to get to all of them. 

 

Even if he doesn't get them all done, he is certainly leaving us all in a much safer situation than when he started.  Thanks, Bill, for your hard work, and thanks, Marion, for inviting him to speak to us.