This week at Rotary
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Lunch Buffet
Doors Open 11:30AM
12:00 PM START
At
Kitchi Gammi Club
This week’s speaker
Housing and Redevelopment Authority
The Vision of HRA:
The Housing and Redevelopment Authority of Duluth will strive to ensure that decent, safe, affordable housing conditions are available to all residents of the community. The HRA will work to achieve excellence in the property we own and manage, and in the programs and services we provide. Through the efforts of its board, staff and clients, the HRA will take pride in being among the best and highest performing housing agencies in the nation.
VOLUTEER OPPORTUNITY!
Rotary- Boys and Girls Club Decorate the Tree
WHERE
Boys and Girls Club –Lincoln Park Location
2407 W 4th Street
WHEN
Tuesday December 2, 2025, 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Decorate the Tree--(Need 8 total)
Jerry Pelofske
Jim Schwartz
Mark Leutgeb- Skyline Rotary
Dan Dock
Arts and Crafts
No skill needed. Making TREE ORNAMENTS with the children that they will take home.
Karen Dock
Cookies
Need many dozen total. No nuts please.
Karen Dock- 2 Dozen
NEED PAPER TABLECLOTH (ETC)
to put the cookies on
Karen Dock
Highlights from Last Week’s Meeting
By Anthony Nordan
President Zach Walters rang us in. He was at his Jungle Boy Boxing Gym the night before, thinking it was Friday night. Everyone in the room seemed to be having an off week, too.
We had several guests this week. Please remember to have guests sign in with the greeters.
- Judy Sage
- Sue McLernan
- Harper Mistelske Junior Rotarian Proctor
- Bob McClellan Superior Rotarian
- Ansel Schimpff
- Other Junior Rotarians
We had several Golden Can moments this week:
- President Zach Walters went deep-sea fishing. It was his bachelor party. From all the indications, it was a great time.
President Zach Walters and team
- Rob Hofmann has been working on a new musical “The Willing.” He thanked several Rotarians for their support. He also fined himself for his quote about Lake Superior Marine Museums' “Gales of November” conference.
Rob Hofmann
- Past President Michelle Buria was recently published in the Wealth Solutions Report.
- Jon Ohman recently conducted a WDIO interview.
- Gieger Yount announced there was a family condolence card for past Club 25 member Henry Robert in back of the room. Funeral has been set for Saturday November 7th at 1pm.
- Anthony Nordan paid a fine for doing an interview during Rotary Roses. The interview was focused on the current situation with SNAP and WIC and how The Salvation Army can help. Apologized to Dean and Vinod for disrupting their time. If you know anyone who needs help with food, please send them to The Salvation Army.
We had 3 announcements today.
- Past President Chana Stocke, with the grants committee, awarded funds to Susan McClernon from Star of the North Maternity Home in the amount of $500. They have helped 70 women so far and work with women who have children up to age 10.
Past President Chana Stocke with Susan McClernon
Dr. Bob McClellan came with his Rotary Foundation hat on. Superior Eco Rotary is hosting the Paul Harris dinner at Pier B Resort. It will be on November 6th, 2025. The social time starts at 5pm and dinner starts at 530pm.
- ROTARY ROSES. Past President Gary Melander gave a beautiful capstone summary of Rotary Roses. For 40 years we have raised more than $1.3 million for the grants committee with this fundraiser. This was the last year for Rotary Roses and now we are off to different and new fundraising activities.
Matt Baumgartner was both the chair of the day and the one bringing us today’s reflection. Matt used the Four-Way Test to look at how civic life and work can be intertwined with the things that Rotary represents. He summed it up as such:
- Public life builds trust
- Fairness means weighting all perspectives
- Building bridges, not walls
- True test of leadership
Matt Baumgartner and City Councilor Arik Forsman enjoy working together for a better Duluth
City Councilor Arik Forsman joined us as guest presenter to discuss economic development. As a father of two, he also spoke about the critical issue of childcare and how it impacts working families. Arik noted the challenges of encouraging parents and young leaders to enter public service, sharing that balancing family time with public expectations can feel like “no-win” territory — a reality that often discourages parents from seeking elected office.
Arik then led a rapid-fire “speed dating” round of the questions he’s most often asked. Knowing he could speak at length, he kept his remarks brief to allow plenty of time for audience questions — and there were many. He kicked things off with everyone’s favorite topic: taxes -
- Taxes.
- He discussed the tax levy that is in this year’s budget
- That there was a lot of back and forth with multiple groups about taxes
- That multiple agencies and organizations are struggling already with taxes and post-covid funding reductions
- He discussed how Virginia, MN is going to be increasing its levy tax
- It looks to be at 23% this year with a 22% increase
- The mine shut down as well this year
- Duluth Minnesota has 450 million in the hole on streets maintenance
- Parks maintenance is in the hole
- 4 new building projects are going on
- Lester Park Golf Course
- People are unhappy
- The city is working on a solution to do it all
- Housing Code
- The contrac tors association is working with the city to lessen some of the burden
- There are currently 400 pages of code ontop of the state code
- There was a June resolution to undo housing code to reduce it
- More senior housing is in their planning
- November 4th is election day. Go out and vote!
Questions. These are not an exhaustive list of questions asked.
- Right to repair and deduct ordinance
- Arik let his thoughts be known about the process that this used to get it on the ballot.
- There needs to be some caution with this due to the process and that the city can’t modify it in the future without another ballot initiative.
- It is dangerous because this is permanent and undoing it is just as lengthy.
- Thus, not allowing flexibility.
- This can also hurt non-profits since they are required to repair their facilities in certain ways to adhere to government contracts.
- Repairs done by non-licensed parties may interfere and damage those contracts.
- Inspections
- Inspections were up to 2 years out at one point
- That number has been drastically reduced, but that was for scheduled and not emergency inspections.
- They have hired additional inspectors to get the backlog caught up.
- Central High
- The city was not involved in that current situation
- They have no liability
- He doesn’t blame ISD709 as they were offered a good deal
- The federal government is involved at some level with the current situation
Past President Gary Melander found the past presidents ring and was able to pass it down to Past President Elizabeth Simonson at the end of the meeting.
Tom Homan and
Allison Hanig-Landrus welcome Jr Rotarian Tommy A. from Hermantown High School
(L to R) President Zach Walters our Harbortown Junior Rotarian, Past Presidents Bob Bennett and Dean Casperson
Scenes from our District Conference
Speaker Bob Landwehr is the brother of Club 25's Jim Landwehr
District-wide Rotarians fill the Great Lakes Ballroom
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