Dear Members:
Our February 17 zoom meeting had about 20 attendees.
Dr. Art combined his thought for the day and joke, maybe he should publish his words of wisdom?
Dr. Art also contributed $50,000 in our club’s name to Willowbrook Park- incredibly generous! Thank you Dr. Art! We hope to have a photo shoot for it by the time you get this.
Matt was the designated detective but had to go out of town so he prepared a funny and educational set of questions in a Price is Right format that combined Olympics and Rotary. Very creative Matt! Trish read handled the proceeding and it was great fun.
Becky announced that the 18 warming bundles our members donated were distributed to the homeless in downtown Santa Cruz. Thanks to Becky for putting that together and to all the members who contributed.
The speech contest is March 3. Thanks to Lowry and Dough for all their work in setting it up.
Tomorrow’s lunch will be on line and it is likely that so will the March 3 speech contest. While we are hoping to resume in-person and hybrid meetings asap the health/safety situation still weighs against it. Though the face mask mandates have been lifted face masks are still recommended and, more significantly, the covid infection numbers are not significantly dropping yet. In the area president’s meeting the club presidents said 4 of their clubs were zoom only, 2 were hybrid.
There was much discussion in that meeting about trying to find alternate sites for lunches and the other clubs have had the same experiences we have- very few places can accommodate that many people in a private room; lack of parking and lunch and room fees that are the same or higher than the current arrangements.
Also Julie’s invoices are going out and she is just destroying those Q3 billing records! C no nnect with her if you have any questions. Jlambert@lcsllc.biz
Our guest speaker was Ron Duncan from Soquel Creek Water District. Ron and his staff put on a highly educational and informative presentation about the status and future of SCWD, focusing on the efforts to slow and counter salt water intrusion into the aquifers and wells and the Safe Water project which is under construction and will recycle water. The extent of groundwater intrusion on the coast was mapped by a Danish company with new technology a few years ago. It shows saltwater migrating inland at various rates and to various extents on the central coast, but virtually all water supplies are at risk. After about a decade of debates as to how best to augment the water supply, SCWD decided on recycling as opposed to desalination and new dams as the most cost-effective. Though rates will increase, SCWD got a large grant and a large low-interest loan to finance the construction, and the alternative would be a water shortage and much higher expenses to import water. The presentation was followed by 30 minutes of Q&A with our highly informed members. Ron complimented our members on their insightful questions- he obviously enjoyed getting to answer inquiries from folks who were paying attention and understood issues.
President Ken is leading a tour of Nisene Marks Park from his house in Vienna Woods this Saturday at 9am. The walk/hike will be about 2 miles. 4 people have confirmed- there is room for about 10 total. Anyone interested please let Ken know asap. His address is 365 Danube Drive Aptos, in Vienna Woods, up the hill behind Cabrillo College. There is free parking in the neighborhood. There will be a rehydration social in Ken’s front yard afterwards. Donations are encouraged.
There will be another hike on Sunday, March 6, about 4 miles, some more challenging terrain, same start time, probably 2 hours.
Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
President Ken