Notes from a Meeting April 5, 2018

With the cold Winter season still hanging on, Rotarians and guests gathered in the warmth of the Holiday Inn’s Great Lakes Ballroom with hopes for a BULLDOG victory in its initial Frozen Four hockey game against Ohio State.   Sporting a UMD cap and matching sport coat and tie, Past President Phil Strom exemplified the BULLDOG can-do spirit!  It must have helped as the team scored a 2-1 victory in the afternoon game.  President-elect Steve Yorde called the meeting to order in President Tricia Bunten’s absence.  Tricia was hosting an alumni/donor event at the game in St. Paul.  Pianist and Past President John Baumgarten accompanied Rotarians in the singing of our National Anthem.  Then Past President Dan Bergeland followed with an invocation in sync with today’s program, a message that we each demonstrate the values of kindness, patience and hospitality during the upcoming Superior Street reconstruction project.  And let’s not forget “loyalty” to local businesses impacted by the project. 

Tom Young stepped to the mic to provide details on the upcoming April 19 “Rotary 25 Dinner and Auction” at Marshall School.  He reminded us of the importance of the $100 deal for 120 raffle tickets which was reinforced by Jon Ohman’s experience last year.  Even though Jon was unable to attend the event last year, he still purchased the 120 raffle tickets in advance and asked Past President Al Makynen to place them into the raffle items’ buckets he was interested in winning.  And of course, this “Finnish leprechaun” followed through as Jon requested…and Jon won twice!  Send Tom an email and inform him you want the same sort of good luck.  One hundred dollars buys 120 raffle tickets.  Your account will be charged and your tickets will await you when you check in that evening.  Membership co-chair Jena Evans then presented Perfect Attendance tabs to the following Rotarians:  Bill Abalan, 35 years; Tom McCabe, 22 years; Dave Nolle, 1 year; Roni Salo, 26 years; Jack Soetebier, 56 years; Chana Stocke, 1 year; Steve Yorde, 1 year.  By the way, that’s a total of 146 years of perfect attendance! 

Next up were the April birthdays:  Kjell Knudsen, Ruth Ann Eaton, Charley Korsch, Dick Fischer, Past President Ken Schoen, Tom Wheeler, Tim Mowbray, Past President Sandy Hoff, Past President Al Makynen and Brad Christiansen. 

Chair of the Day Barb Perrella then introduced City engineer Duncan Schwensohn and the Greater Downtown Council’s president and CEO Kristi Stokes for today’s program.  As we all have heard, Superior Street will be reconstructed beginning April 16.  This will be a three-year project to minimize parking problems, disruption of traffic, pedestrian confusion and potential loss of revenue by downtown businesses.  The businesses located in the respective construction zone will be impacted one year (of the three-year project).   As the Lead Project Engineer, Duncan noted that the “famous” bricks on downtown streets since 1985 are all “going away” and will be replaced by multi-colored concrete shaded to differentiate motorized traffic lanes from areas designated for pedestrians.  There will be new signage, water mains and storm sewers, and some of the steam system infrastructure (in place since 1890) will be replaced.  All sidewalks will be ADA-compliant and “amenity zones” with benches, planters for new trees and dark-sky compliant street lights will be part of the plan.  Phase One (Seventh Avenue West to Third Avenue West) begins April 16 and will be concluded by the end of October.  A benefit of the three-year approach is that businesses are disrupted once during their construction zone schedule.   Once the first phase is completed, the positive changes promised will be evidence for what’s coming for the remaining two phases.  This will likely generate enthusiasm for the project as it moves forward toward completion in October, 2020.  The “Love Downtown Duluth” media campaign will feature positive stories from tourists and residents alike on how much they appreciate coming downtown to shop and work.  The overall goal is to make trips to downtown easy and comfortable, not to mention the long term objective of making downtown stronger and better to such a degree that it could even be a catalyst for attracting new downtown businesses.  The website “superiorstreet.org” will communicate progress and help answer questions, as will the “Clean and Safe Team” members who are “hired for personality and trained for skills.”  These are the Greater Downtown Council’s ambassadors and “construction navigators.”  And while there will be no on-street parking allowed in the zone under construction, several public and private ramps will allow “first hour free” parking to encourage support of local business.  Having the Skywalk is a real plus during the project, as well.  Rotarians asked about interstate highway signs, billboards, television and radio outlets to communicate updates; MnDOT’s anticipated re-do of the Mesaba Avenue/Superior Street interchange; and while bike lanes are not planned, bikes will be allowed in finished parts of the project; and yes, there will be space for artwork once the project is completed.  Given the project’s commitment to excellence, it is anticipated that its life span could be up to 100 years.