Our regular Wednesday meeting was opened exactly at 12:22 PM with President Laura Camp presiding.  A prayer was offered by our President-Elect Todd Lattig, followed by a patriotic song led by Steve Wescott.  Today we had 19 of our members present, with 1 visitor.  Greetings were extended to our members by Denis Reilly.

Guests today included: Marge McCabe, of Newton.

 

President Laura reminded the club members if they could please donate their old pins back to the club in order to save money.  As noted previously, pins are getting to be a slightly pricey item and this would save the treasury from having to enrich a corporation instead of donating money to a local charity.  Laura said that she had already received a large number of pins back from several members.  Just remember to bring in your pins you are no longer using.    

 

 

A happy dollar was given by President Laura, for her grandson who just graduated from Oswego State University.

 

Denise Current added a dollar to the pot for her neighbor’s pig that was running around loose in her backyard, causing her dog to go just a little crazy.

 

Jim Taylor added a buck because it turned out to be a beautiful day today.

 

Todd Lattig handed over a five-dollar bill – in honor of his buddy Frank Eberhart – who he thought would be attending today wearing an earring even longer that Todd’s (now that would really be worth a photograph for the newsletter).  Todd noted that he was wearing a Scooby Doo “Mystery Machine” t-shirt today.

 

Barbara Miller tendered a $5 bill because she was very happy finally getting back to the club after a prolonged absence in Florida and also for the birth of a second great-granddaughter on May 6^th.

 

Steve Wescott gave a happy dollar as they went down to Nashville to see a performance by Willie Nelson – that ended up being canceled.  However, they did get to see members of his family and they took a trip to the Smokey Mountains.  They did have an adventure getting back home because of numerous screw-ups by the airline they were flying.  Also, yesterday was his 69^th birthday.  (We sang happy birthday to him).

 

George Kaiser gave a dollar for Frank not being here (it was hard to figure out exactly which way to take that).

 

Denise added one last dollar to the pot – as she was very happy to have our regular waitress back with us today.  This young lady always has a smile on her face and manages to accommodate us in every way possible.

 

 

 

ROTARY QUILT – Alice announced that she had taken the quilt to the Wallkill Rotary Club and was able to sell 5 tickets at their meeting.  Way to go Alice !!

 

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM  -  Barbara Miller said that the in-person interviews were underway this week.  She asked that it be determined which of our meetings we were planning on making the awards.  Laura will work that out with the club Board of Directors.

 

UPDATED MEMBERSHIP BOOK – Kathy Shankman said that this and next week will be the wrap-up of photographs for the updated membership book.  Additionally, she still needs some of the biographies from people.  So, if you still have not turned in your bio, or are not sure or do not remember if you did turn it in – call Kathy at (973)  862 – 6126.

 

GARDEN PARTY – There was a meeting of the group planning the Garden Party this past week at Denise’s house.  The annual event will be held on Saturday, June 25, at the Denise Current farm in Stillwater. The theme for the party this year will be WORLD PEACE.  Everyone will be contacted about bringing food that represents their own particular ethnic background.  Todd Lattig has the tickets, which are $20 each.  If you don’t have a chance to attend a club meeting in the next two weeks, the tickets are going to be mailed to you.

 

NEW CLUB BANNER  -  Laura directed the attention of everyone present to the new Newton Rotary Club banner.  This banner is in need of awards to be sewed onto it, like the old banner.  To get those awards, we will have to become involved in more competitions like our club previously was involved in.  Possibly the incoming president can provide the members with a list of what type of awards are available for certain activities.  Unfortunately, it is more than 30 years since I was president of our club, and I cannot remember any of those programs except for the number of Paul Harris fellows and an annual award for the best newsletter.  Hopefully, Todd can help out with this one.

 

NEW NEWTON ROTARY SHIRTS  -  Alice showed us the new Newton Rotary shirts that we have available.  The primary difference between the old shirts and the new ones is that they now include 1923 – 2023, for our 100^th anniversary.  The shirts are available now and cost $30.  It would be great to be able to wear them to the upcoming Garden Party.  Please see Alice for your shirt.

 

WALLKILL ROTARY CLUB DINNER-DANCE  -  Laura announced that the Wallkill Rotary Club will be holding a dinner-dance in the very near future and members of our club have been invited.  Laura said that a few of our members will be going.  If you are interested in going, please speak with Laura.  Laura stressed that it is important to make sure several of us attend, as we are going to reciprocate the invitation for next year for our 100^th anniversary program.

 

Today our speaker was our very own Wayne McCabe, former County Historian, Past President of our club and currently the President of the Sussex County Historical Society, as well as a licensed land use planner.

 

Wayne reminded the club that 4 weeks ago Jessica Caldwell was the speaker and talked about the different planning initiatives that the Town of Newton was undertaking in order to rejuvenate the downtown commercial core of the community. One of those programs was the Neighborhood Preservation Program [NPP].  He noted that the NPP is a state funded program that helps support local planning initiatives. In this case, the state of New jersey has committed to provide $150,000 each year over the next five years to help implement the program.

 

Overall, the NPP is looking to have very tangible improvements come out of this program.

 

During the first year, Newton is going to concentrate on making appropriate improvements to the facades of commercial buildings as well as developing improved commercial signage.

 

Wayne also noted that the process the program used to develop an implementable program was to have community groups that provided input given questionnaires that were distributed.  Since the Newton Rotary has been closely involved in the last 99 years in supporting the town, he felt that it would be appropriate to provide the input of our club as well.  He handed out a multi-page flier that addressed specific concepts and questions that we discussed at some length.

 

In fact – we sat there and exchanged ideas and suggestions for an entire hour.

 

And speaking of one hour – it was the unanimous opinion of the members that the one hour free parking on Spring Street was a totally bad joke.  A person cannot park their car, go into a restaurant and have lunch and then go shopping in under an hour.  You then risk getting a ticket for being parked on the street for over that one free hour.  There were also questions raised about the appropriateness of having made Spring Street one way from the theatre to the intersection with Main Street.

 

The discussion was lively and many good suggestions came out of the time spent.  Wayne will be summarizing the resulting suggestions and observations and passing them along to Jessica and other officials in the town.

 

George Kaiser was the winner this week and garnered a whole $2 for his efforts.  Steve went up to the front table for George and pulled a card – which turned out to be the 5 of clubs.  The main pot now begins its slow growth, again.  CONGRATS TO GEORGE FOR HIS WIN.

 

The speaker for next week’s program (May 25^th) will be our own Denise Current, who will be regaling us with tales about the ins and outs of bussing.

 

With no other business to come before the club, the meeting was formally adjourned by President Laura at 1:46 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Wayne T. McCabe

Past President (’88 – ’89)