October 26, 2015 Spokesman

Posted by Patty Sims

on Nov 02, 2015

Kirkland Rotary Minutes

Woodmark - 6:30 pm

Rich Bergdahl opened the meeting with a welcome. Brian Tucker led the Pledge of Allegiance. Dave Aubrey offered a story about his parents as an inspirational moment. Dave Dubois was recognized as greeter and Patricia Sims is taking the minutes. Scott Becker took over tonight for Rick Walker.

Visitors: Scott Becker introduced his guest Stasa Hansen from a company called Sonitrol.

Jim Feek introduced his guest Bob Sternoff, a past council member & entrepreneur.

Dave Dubois introduced Dick Carlson from Tuscon AZ.

Rich thanked Al for attending the meeting last week. Rich also thanked DB for coming to the meeting George for picking him up. DB Recently moved to Aegis of Kirkland. Joanne Primavera announced that it was DB’s birthday on Saturday. Bill Woods and Ernie Norwood are also expecting birthdays soon.

Announcements:

Joanne Primavera presented Attain Housing formally called KITH. Kirkland Rotarians are asked to volunteer to help fix up a house. No skills necessary. Once the house is occupied then Rotary will also “adopt” the family. The dates of changed to a possible date of November 4 – 8^th. Don Dicks has a checklist of what will be needed. Please sign up.
Scott Becker announced that Nigeria is now Polio free. This will clear the entire continent of Africa from Polio.
Pat Swenson called for reading buddies and John Muir elementary. The programs starts soon (November 2^nd) so please contact Pat if you can help.
Anne Hamilton reminded Rotarians that the LW Institute of Technology will be holding their breakfast. For information on how to attend, please contact Anne.
Steve Shinstrom announced that Bunko is scheduled at his house on November 14^th. The theme is “Hatastic”. Rotarians are encouraged to where their favorite hat or get creative and have fun with a new design. Signup sheets are on the table.
Rich Bergdahl will be holding the Christmas party at his home on Sunday December 13^th. Festivities will begin 5:30ish. Rotary meeting will still be held on Monday the 14^th.
Rich welcomed back Steve Shinstrom, Anne Hamilton, and Mike Hunter who have been out for a few weeks. Gary Bruner is improving and appreciates all of the well wishes.
Ben’s grandfather was recently diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. He has been moved into hospice. Herb Stier’s phone number is 210-260-1985 for anyone that would like to call him.
On Tuesday November 17^th, Kirkland Rotary will be presenting $50,000 check to the Kirkland City Council. Rich is going to ask any previous presidents who helped raise the money during their tenure to attend. The money will be used for the Waverly Beach Picnic Shelter.
Dave Dubois provided the date for the annual hockey night. There are 50 seats reserved December 5^th Everett Silver Tips. More details and signup sheets to follow
Brian Tucker directed Happy Dollars. $160 was raised for Happy Dollars. Great job Brian!

Membership

John Pruitt led the induction of 2 new members. Amy and David Mutal. Amy is a wealth management advisor and David works in IT and analytics. David has another company that he cofounded called Intelytic in Seattle. They love the outdoors and bike the STP. Scott Becker is their sponsor. Scott was presented with a special pin in recognition of sponsoring Amy and David. John welcomed the new members and presented them with packets, Rotary t-shirts and their pins.

Presentation

Jason Overleese introduced our speakers. Proposition 1 Build the ARC is currently on the ballot. Jason introduced Tyson Wellock and Jaime to present the argument for building a new aquatics center under prop 1 and Ken McKensie gave the opposing view. Each side was given 10 minutes to present their side.

Jaime Rector explained her frustration as a parent in finding local aquatic centers for her children. The Juanita aquatic field house is scheduled to be closed in 2017. The indoor recreation space available has not changed since the 1990s even though the population has increased significantly.

The Kirkland City Council is putting together a Metropolitan Parks District. There are currently 17 of them in our state. The Kirkland Aquatics & Recreation District will be governed by our existing city council. The new aquatics center will contain the following:

+ 13-lane competition/lap pool
+ Recreation pool
+ 250-person community hall/banquet facility
+ Child watch area
+ Classrooms, party room, activity and art rooms
+ Wood floor studios
+ Single-court gymnasium
+ Fitness room
+ Community spaces
+ Administrative offices and other support spaces

The location in consideration is currently the Christ Church building behind Fred Meyer. The location give people access by car, bus or trail. The city is waiting to purchase additional land until the proposition passes. The estimated property tax rate is $.17 per $1000 to $.25 per $1000 in assessed value. The tax rate may go down after the completion of the construction of the building. The project has been endorsed by the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce.

Opposition remarks by Ken McKensie

The Metropolitan Parks District is bad for tax payers. The aquatics center is a huge, expensive and financially out of control project. Creating a park district gives the Kirkland City Council a blank check to build the center. The park district by its definition can build massive projects with no restrictions to location, size or cost.

There is no budget or cost constraints. Operational costs will just bring in higher property taxes. Ken argues that we do need an aquatic center but not through the parks district. The city should scale back and issue a short term bond.

Questions:

Dick Carlson stated that the last 2 bond requests for schools did not pass. It is unrealistic to assume that 60% of voters will pass a bond issue.

Jamie included that it takes too much time and energy to write up and issue the bond request. Out of the other 17 parks districts the highest amount per month a home owner would spend is $30 per month in additional taxes.

Rick asked about the income projections and what they were basing their numbers on. Tyson stated that in order for the aquatics center to be sustainable, additional services will be provided to make up for other areas that don’t make money. Tyson also directed the group to look at the spreadsheet provided on the City of Kirkland website.

Jason closed the discussion at 8:00pm

Rich Bergdahl thanked our guests. 600 pounds of food will be donated in their names to Rotary First Harvest.

Meeting adjourned.