Durango High Noon Rotary Club

Tom began the meeting as he always does with great aplomb and invigoration. Do any of you recall all the great things that have been accomplished under the Leadership of this young man? He thinks about the whole of the club (rafting trips, bike rides and horseback rides) and the work of the club International Projects (La Villa Breakfasts and a fire engine or disaster relief for Hurricane victims) plus many other things. It has been a great year for Rotary and our club. We did open with prayer and pledge.

Tom mentioned the rescue of his Tomato plants and the effort it took to rescue these shoulder high giants. He trusted all members in similar circumstance had the success he did.

We introduced guests and we had two of our summer faithful visitors return this day. Ken Fusco of Florida was there as was Kenneth Walker from Ardmore, Oklahoma. We meet Jenny Kane, Meredith Mapel, Tonya Kaler, Jay Gill, and Missy Roddy, who are all from Durango. Devon Seibel was there looking for a sponsoring club as she prepares to be an exchange student to Italy. We met Aad Uyttenbreek form the Hague Netherlands. He is a summer resident of Durango.

We heard that Margaret Grey is doing well following her surgery. Yep, it was a knee problem. Get well and take it slow.

Tom mentioned the River trip that will occur this Saturday at 10:30 just north of the 32 street bridge. Tom wants to stop along the way for lunch so provisions for food are being taken. The bad news is that the boats are full. I am sure it will be a great trip. Tom stated the changing of the Presidents will occur on July 5th, which is the day after the 4th, so not many of us will be there. Tom did inform us he felt like this was pay back for Steve doing all those meetings for him in January.

Emil Nagy told the story of the Hungarian family who were involved in the fatal accident this past week. The driver was the only person who spoke English and he was killed. Emil has taken a role in helping the family work through this tragedy. He has translated for them as well as helping to find them shelter. He asked if anyone would be willing to help this family and the club responded by raising $835.00. If anyone would like to help, Emil welcomes checks and cash for these folks.

Tom mentioned the Pagosa Springs Golf Tournament happening the 30th of June. Melissa informed us of the August 18th date of our Golf Tournament. She needs volunteers and helpers to pull this one off.

Tom Brossia was given the floor. Tom has a young man from Australia who would like to spend six weeks in Durango. The club there will accept one of ours for theirs. Great idea if we can find the candidate who wants to go. Tom also spoke about the World Cup happening at Purgatory. They are also having a race for the local folks around town that weekend. We have a tent at Purgatory that Dave Farmer and Bud Deering have sponsored. We will be having drinks and food in the tent and Purgatory is selling sponsor packets that include tickets and parking passes to get into the event and the tent.

Brian Meyers found out that hunting and fishing have taken more time than he thought. He has dropped out of the Steve s Board and will be replaced by Ward Holmes.

We did have fines, but mostly it was a request by Carl Clark to raise money for the family mentioned above. Bill Hermesman did pay a fine for his wife having a birthday and the announcement that they are expecting their third child.

We then met the Public Relations man from Mesa Verde, Will Morris. Will spoke to us about the Pony fire and the Bercher fire that burnt 21,000 acres at Mesa Verde. The entire park has 52,000 acres. Will said that nearly 40% of the park was consumed in these fires. The results of the fire were substantial. A smoke plume reaches 56,000 feet into the air. The ground where the fire burned was cooked and became hydrophilic. The ground will not absorb water and runoff becomes a concern. They had a team look at what the fire did and they found three things that needed to be done. The first was visitor safety. The guardrails in the park were twisted by the fire and sat on heaps of ashes. The fire affected water and sewer facilities. They had to close the park for 23 days while they addressed these issues. This was at the height of tourist season, which did have an effect on the local economy. The second was the biological system. They needed to keep this healthy, as this is the best way to protect the sites in Mesa Verde. They seeded some 6,000 acres by helicopter to bring the grasses back. The third concern was the archaeological sites themselves. Erosion becomes the concern as pottery shards can be washed away and lost. Also, the fire burnt the roots of trees and left holes in the ground that can undermine walls. They have started to put aspen chips and excelsior in the holes to stop these problems. Will said that there are 4,500 sites of human activity in the park and they are currently using every archeologist in our area to look at the areas covered by the fire to see if any new sites will be discovered. The one thing that Will pointed out was how much they learned from the fire that occurred in 1996, which has helped them in addressing the devastating results of these new fires. Thanks, Will.

ONE FINAL NOTE: Moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.