August 15, 2022
The meeting was presided over by Past President Klark Swan. Following the flag salute Darus Trutna provided the thought for the day. Brad Mettam introduced his guests, Jaime Matteoli and Julia Peterson who are also our speakers today.
Our exchange student Hilla is in Humboldt County. She has been exploring the local art scene with her host family. Our outbound exchange student, Naomi is in Denmark and Swan has been in touch with her to offer support.
The Elk’s Lodge cook your own steak dinner for the Coast Guard is happening this Thursday, August 18th. We only have a few people signed up to help– if you can help please sign up. Cost is $60 to have dinner and purchase a dinner for a Coastie.
RAFFLE WINNERS: Silver Dollar- Danny, McDonald’s Gift Certificate- Darus Trutna, $10 cash- Blaine O’Shaughnessy, Phatsy Kline Gift Certificate- Steven Lafferty, Draw the joker to win a gold coin value $444- Carlton drew a 5 of spades.
RECOGNITIONS: Klark recognized a number of people who all had to pay up. Kate Witthaus- recently went to Equador and climbed a volcano over 19,000 feet high. Darus Trutna- Had a family reunion at his cabin in Willow Creek. Phillip Nicklas and his wife are having a 3rd child and it’s going to be a boy!
Jim Sessa was fined because Coast Central Credit Union won NCJ Best of Humboldt award for Best Financial Institution and recently had a company picnic for all of their employees and families. Turns out they won a bunch of other awards from the Times-Standard and Del Norte Triplicate. The Rotary fines just kept mounting. Jim donated $100 to Backpacks for Kids.
Annalise von Borstel also won the NCJ Best of Humboldt for the 3rd year in a row. Carly recently attended 2 Rotary events in one evening first at the Ingomar and then at Martinis By the Bay. Turns out Klark was there too so she fined herself. Nancy Dean has traveled to the Arcata Airport four times to pick up a total of 14 exchange students with 2 more still to arrive.
Blain O’Shaughnessy’s son recently turned 2 and had a big party at Freshwater Park filled with people Blain’s wife knew but he didn’t.
Ken Stodder fined himself $100. He recently celebrated 50 years in Rotary Club of Eureka and 63 years total in Rotary. His grandson recently opened his own business, Stodder Electric. Tuesday his first great grandson was born and this Wednesday he will celebrate 49 years of marriage with his wife!
SPEAKERS: Jaime Matteoli, Corridor Manager at Caltrans talked about Last Chance Grade. Emergency repairs related to the 2021 landslide have been completed. Caltrans will continue to provide upkeep on the roadway. Long Term solutions to the issue are still being explored. Starting with a list of 7 possible bypass routes they have narrowed it down to 2. All 5 Native American tribes has been very involved in the solutions & are in favor of having a bypass solution. The project is complicated by the many environmental issues the projects has including old growth redwoods, coastal habitat, tribal lands, etc. It’s a very complex project that has to adhere to both Federal and State laws. Right now they have a target date for completion of 2037 assuming the project is funded.
Julia Peterson, Caltrans District Clean California Manager talked about the Clean California initiative. Governor Newsom devoted 1.1 billion dollars to cleaning and beautifying California as well as increasing jobs. 18 million was provided to District 1 (Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake and Mendocino Counties for their projects). Examples of projects include Adopt a Highway- Over 800 new adopters statewide so far. Free Dump Days for large objects – over 2,482 vehicles were dumped so far. There are funds for Encampment Litter Services. Beautification projects in Manila have been completed, the recent murals on the Samoa Bridge piers were an example of monies used for this purpose. Now being planned are restrooms at Berry Summit.