Rotary Club of Owego, NY ROTATELLER
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Gary Williams, Editor

Judy Kip opened the meeting with the pledge to the flag, we sang “The Star Spangled Banner” (60% of American’s think they know the words, only 40 % really do)

Guests

Andrus Tejada, Scott Riegle, our speaker introduced by Faye Rafferty

Birthdays

Tom McCormick and Doyle Gibbs

A dual meeting was held for all new members. Richard Schaal went to the Board Room with Gwen Smith, Bob Kingston, Joe DiCosimo, Susan English, Mike Wold, and Ed Arrington. Richard has agreed to give a new member orientation similar to the one that Martin Tillapaugh used to give. He held it during the lunch meeting in a separate room.

Announcements

Carolyn Wright gave a report from the Newark Valley Interact. They have the soccer balls collected and ready to send to Gary’s son in Iraq to give out to Iraqi children. Next they plan to hold a dance to celebrate the new building space – a courtyard. They are looking for ideas for an inexpensive dee jay.

Wilma Betcher handed out thank you cards to all who brought cookies and/or snacks for this weekend’s Outbound Student Orientation.

It was announced that Orville Wright was attending the Rotary Inter-City meeting in Binghamton. Featured "guest" was one of four bells celebrating 100 years of Rotary.

Reminder from Judy that the District Conference will be May 6-8 at Callicoon, NY

A leader is being sought for the District Group Study Team. The place to be visited will be Northern Brazil. Andres volunteered.

District Scholarships are available for Cultural and World Peace students.

Terry Steenburgh announced that Betty Richards has returned to her home.

Fines

Steve Lounsberry paid tribute to Richard Schaal and Mychael Willon for helping at the Boys’ Club this weekend. He also paid tribute to Carolyn Galatzan, Mychael Willon, Wilma Betcher and Judy Kip for helping at the Outbound Student Orientation. All others were fined.

Speaker

Our speaker was introduced by Faye Rafferty. He is Scott Riegle, a Senior Transportation Planner. He has been in that position since 1995. He is a Binghamton native. He has a Master’s Degree in Geography. He works for the Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study Group.

The group’s two functions are to plan future transportation in the Binghamton Metropolitan Area and to distribute federal funds.

Scott’s specialty is the pedestrian/bicycle area. He showed many slides about improving roadways for bicycle and pedestrian usage. He thanked the Rotary Club for the bicycle racks. One of the slides was a Endicott Rotary Club development project. He encouraged us to be alert to development of roadways and be ready to suggest plans for including items to make them friendly for bicycles and pedestrians.

Faye Rafferty will host a meeting in Owego to talk about bicycle plans for Route 17C. See Faye for details. Scott will be a guest at that meeting.

Next Week’s meeting

Tom Gerow from Wagner Lumber will talk about their business. Bob Kingston will be the official greeter (with a badge!)

Gwen Smith won the 50-50.

Respectfully submitted,
Wilma Betcher (substitute scribe)

P. S. After the meeting I chatted with Andres about the political unrest in Bolivia. From his perspective, the country is confused about the goal of the strikers.

Book Review – I am slowly chugging through Bill Clinton’s biography. I am up to his last years as Arkansas Governor. Chugging through many pages, small print and much detail. The index is better than the one in Hillary's book!

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