Rotary Gram

 

Durango High Noon Rotary Club

 

                                August 8, 2002                                   

 

"When service is inspired by our own experiences, we do not simply write a check;

 

we write Rotary into our lives......" 

 

                                                                                             RI President, Bhicahi Rattakul............

 

 

 

    Our President Elect, Chessa Gill, filled in for the missing Jeff Brown by ringing in the meeting at 12:05.  Len Goebel led us in the invocation and pledge. The following guests were introduced:

 

            Brian Govreau (son of Steve recently returned from Jakarta, Indonesia)

 

            Bob Kunkel DMR

 

Sheryl Ayers

 

Ann Dold

 

Betty Christian

 

Jan Measles

 

Gerry Fleurient Oran Collier - Kerrville, TX

 

Kenneth Walker - OK

 

Bill Lamperes - Fort Collins

 

Bob Soto

 

Nita Gomez

 

George Kelchner - Paradise Valley, AZ

 

Katie O'Block - exchange student

 

Ainara Vera - exchange student

 

Community Service:    

 

Sherry Tabor, Vocational Committee Chair, briefly discussed the duties of the Scholarship Committee. The committee is busy for about three months and has enjoyed meeting and interviewing scholarship applicants. Last year the committee reviewed 39 applicants. Call her if you would like to participate in this fun committee.

 

Frank Valen will continue to coordinate with the Interact Club at the high school.

 

Tami Coddington will continue to coordinate Business Incubator committee activities.

 

John Anderson gave an update for the La Plata County Disaster Recovery Coalition. John is serving as co-chair of the committee. Several Rotarians have been trained as advocates to hear cases on behalf of the coalition.

 

 Golf Tournament still in need of 9 to 10 teams and door prizes. Call Missy or Melissa if you have want to play golf.  This annual fundraiser provides funding for our scholarship programs! They will match you up with someone if you do not have a team. Missy says to deliver your door prizes to her at Bank of Colorado.

 

     After these announcements our Sgt. at Arms, Len Goebel, took the podium. He awarded Steve Wheeldon with his Past President blue badge and awarded Jim Burpee, former red badger, with a blue badge. Jenny NEWCOMER was finally provided a blue badge as well. There were tears in her eyes when she hugged Steve Wheeldon in appreciation of her new badge. Several individuals were tapped for late arrival fines. Len then asked Kevin Schneider how many houses were wired by Kevin for Len. Kevin said 75 while the correct answer was 59. Comments were made that it seemed like 75 and that Len was billed for 75. The Ace of Spades was still not uncovered in the ticket raffle contest. There is now $116 in the pot for the lucky drawer.

 

     John Anderson then introduced our guest speaker, Bob Kunkle, Sr. VP of Durango Mountain Resort (DMR), reportedly responsible for everything that touches the client. Bob talked and answered questions on the upcoming referendum. His main goal was to correct misunderstandings. Briefly his comments were as follows:

 

1)      The upcoming referendum is not a vote for or against growth. It is a vote to uphold the Development Agreement (DA) made between our county commissioners and DMR. It turns out that governmental/development agreements can be challenged under a fairly new law and this referendum was challenged by Colorado Wild.

 

2)      Colorado Wild has since sided with DMR since the DA is a better agreement than that which could be managed through the regular county codes. The codes do not adequately address mixed use development and the DA provides tighter guidelines that includes higher school impact fees, better clustering of developing along with open space, provides for employee affordable housing, etc. The DA also resolves conflicts in codes from the two counties involved.

 

3)      The development will proceed regardless of the outcome of the referendum. Development will still require phased approval by the county.

 

4)      The DA reflects a plan for the valley or horizontal area of DMR. A separate plan is being prepared for the ski or vertical portion of DMR. The two are not interrelated.

 

5)      In order to economically survive, the DMR is trying to diversify its income stream to not only include lift ticket sales (currently 98% of revenues), but to include summer activities, and the real estate development projected represented in the DA.

 

    In conclusion, Bob asked that we vote early and often in favor of the referendum.

 

    Chessa wrapped up the meeting relatively early, shortly before 1 pm.

 

    Respectively submitted on behalf of John Marshall.  (thanks to Steve Govreau for taking the minutes for the bulletin.  jm)

 

Coming Up:

 

Aug 15    -     Club Assembly

 

Aug 21    -     Board Meeting

Aug 22    -     Butch Knowlton and Duke Schirard

Aug 29    -     Amphitheatre Celebration

Sep 5      -     Rotary District Governor

Sep 12    -     Bob Dolphin,  Ft. Lewis College

Sept 19   -     Kiwanis Pancake Luncheon

Sept 26   -     NFIB State Director

John E. Marshall

Mountain Structures

3005 County Road 207

Durango, CO 81301

970-259-6248 p

970-259-4498 f