Bulletin for October 6, 2008
Reunification of Courthouse Square
By Bo Kerschen
Preliminaries
 Exalted Ruler President David called the meeting to order at 12:30 P.M., give or take a few seconds. |
|
||||||||||||
| Judge Bryan Jamar led the Pledge of Allegiance. Ginny Pitts delivered the Rotary Moment. | |||||||||||||
| Set up was performed admirably by Tarina Hall, Chris Young cashiered his heart out, Darcy Fellows handled the entry fees for our game of skill and Doug De Angelo greeted industriously. They were joined by Phil Talamantes who purveyed tickets to the Veterans’ Tribute. | |||||||||||||
 Doug Angelo introduced our Visiting Rotarians, Kim McDonald of Santa Rosa East and Allan Burchell, all the way from Scotland. |
|||||||||||||
 |
We had a plethora of Guests of Rotarians; Casey Williams who accompanied Pam Davis, Tracy Kline who came with Tarina Hall, Brandon and Kim McDonald, guests of President Dave, Laura Baheur, guest of Peter LaMonica and my guest, Jim Curtin.
Announcements and Such:
His Eminence
Dave McD announced that this was the last day for roster changes, club improvement questionnaires were due to Gail Johnson and the Boys and Girls Club fund raiser, featuring the Harlem All-stars, was scheduled for November 1.Phil Talamantes reminded the assemblage of the Veteran’s Tribute on November 6 at the SR Veteran’s Memorial. Tickets are $15 each. In Phil’s absence next week His Serenity Dave McDonald, will handle ticket sales.
 |
 |
Jeff Ray advised that those who did not sign up for a Crab Feed Committee would find themselves assigned anyway.
Gail Johnson discussed new member applications and procedures and advised that Mike Merrill was an available asset for member assistance and would instruct prospects on the ins and outs of Rotary membership. She also indicated that the Roseland Prep library had been completed and that we were all especially invited to an open house at the school from 3:30 to 4:30 on October 17 to celebrate the event. A plaque memorializing the key role of our club in establishing the library has been mounted on site.
Recognitions
At Recognition Time, His Royalness, President Dave, presented everyone who remembered to wear Hawaiian garb with rare and valuable coins featuring the Rotary logo on the obverse and the Four Way Test on the reverse. Darcey did her best Vanna and panned one the coins for us. Thanks Darcey!
 |
|
Phil Talamantes was recognized by the throne for his brother’s interview in the IJ and his family’s background as past "owners" of the City of Petaluma. It was also noted that Phil and Don Ling took tango lessons and were seen dancing together although Phil insists that Don was the one with the rose in his teeth. The tab was $20.
The Most Noble
then called Jim Hinton to task for having spent October 5th cruising on the Petaluma River, aboard his luxurious yacht in the company of a bevy of lovely females, to whit: Ginny Pitts and unidentified friend, Terry Galazzo, Tarina Hall and Pam Davis. The tab was $22 or a buck a foot for the length of Jim’s vessel.The Grand Mufti
then descended upon Mike Moore who is bearing up under the necessity of playing golf five times a week. When asked if he was living the American Dream in retirement Mike indicated that the recent financial debacle had put a bit of a dent in things (not enough to require reemployment, however) and that he had been a life long Republican "until a month ago". Under cross examination from the Sublime One, Mike described his recent trip to Mr. Rushmore, the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, the Grand Tetons including a float boat trip on the Snake River, Yellowstone National Park and Salt Lake City. Mike did not visit the Temple because he’d seen the Vatican where the floors are polished by a Zamboni, and figured that nothing could top that. The tab was $50. Gautama David does not fool around!
 |
 |
Susan Nowacki ponied up some bragging bucks to announce the birth of her second granddaughter and
Jim Benoit did likewise, having made a recent visit to Moscow, Idaho to attend the ceremony marking his father’s induction into the University of Idaho’s Sports Hall of Fame. Gail Johnson followed suit, the occasion being her visit to Las Vegas where she enthusiastically witnessed a show by, Cher, one of her particular idols and got to shake Cher’s hand. Ginny Pitts chipped in relative to her trip to Minneapolis for her niece’s wedding.
Raffle
Doug De Angelo got a shot at the $500 pot but bombed out.
Program: Reunification of Courthouse Square
The program featured our own Bill Dodson and Scott Bartley who spoke on the Reunification of Courthouse Square. Bill Dodson led with a history of the square. When the square was bisected by Mendocino Avenue in 1968 it effectively cut the downtown in two. It also created a situation in which people drive through downtown rather than to it. The building of the downtown mall further divided downtown into the Railroad Square area, the Mall area and the bifurcated Courthouse Square.
 |
 |
A group of architects, led by Scott Bartley, began meeting to discuss reunification. Largely through Scott’s efforts the American Institute of Architects became involved and sent a team to study the downtown area and its revitalization. After their examination they issued a series of recommendations for improving downtown, the lead recommendation being the reunification of Courthouse Square. Other recommendations were the institution of a downtown Farmer’s Market (up and running), making Santa Rosa a food and wine center (a key part of the SMART Plan for Railroad Square), adding bike lanes, supporting limited, quality growth, supporting the performing and visual arts and encouraging broad citizen participation in the downtown endeavor. City Vision was founded to support the process and developed an action plan, reported on the City’s General Plan, hired an urban designer to do a master plan for downtown and then necessarily passed the torch to the city government. Santa Rosa Main Street has succeeded City Vision as a forum for private, local involvement in the process.
Scott then took over and discussed the recent analysis of our downtown by a team of mayors from across the country. Their involvement was the result of one of Bob Blanchard’s final acts before his resignation. They also strongly recommended reunification of Courthouse Square as necessary for the revitalization of downtown. This is key to the City’s future financial well being, because its primary source of revenue is the sales tax, and downtown is the largest generator of that revenue. Scott estimates costs of reunification at $15 million all in and pointed out that it is necessary to invest to realize a later return. The current deficit is indicative of the city’s need to generate more revenue in future years. In addition to the financial challenges of reunification it will be necessary to keep the elected officials committed to the project. It will probably be at least 10 to 15 years before the Square is unified.
| Your Bulletin Reporter: Bo Kerschen  |
Your
Bulletin Editor: Jim Valinoti  |
