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Highlights from Last Week’s Meeting
By Marc Seigar
On a sunny, yet brisk day in early February, Rotarians gathered in the Holiday Inn’s Lyric Conference Room. President Michelle Buria called the meeting to order with a recital of the Four-Way Test, and we began with the day’s reflection given by Greg Hansen. Greg spoke about the many road construction projects that will be underway this year in Duluth and how this is likely to result in chaos. He quoted the dictionary definition of chaos as “a total lack of organization or order.” He also stated that Rotarians “get it.” We address it, and hopefully make the world a better place in the process.
Past Assistant District Governor Phil Strom gave the Fellowship Report. He started by informing the club that on this day (February 13) in 1945, the allied forces bombed Dresden. The bombing of Dresden during World War II by the Allies is controversial. The city was of low strategic importance militarily, and the bombing may have been conducted in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry in the United Kingdom. The main reason for hitting the Golden Can at this meeting was the Hills new mental health facility of which several of our Rotarians are on the board, and they all paid up. Jeff Bradt also hit the Golden Can and reported that, since the Duck Pluck which provided a grant of $25,000 in support of mental health initiatives, the longest line at the Boys & Girls Club of the Northland is for kids waiting in line to reap the benefits from their trained, caring, professional staff. Phil introduced the one visitor we had today, Brian Folder, guest of Dave Folder.
This week’s podium announcements included Marc Seigar being awarded a Paul Harris Fellow pin by Phil Strom. President Michelle also welcomed a new member, Jerry Thoreson, who has already been working for Club 25 as he keeps our Twitter and Facebook sites regularly updated. Jerry works in the area of social media and networking, primarily for small business and nonprofit organizations. President Michelle gave an update on the 50/50 drawing, and what is happening to bring it in line with the Minnesota Statute for Gambling. The 50/50 drawing is likely to be a once-a-month raffle, with a limited number of tickets available, and a limited amount that someone can win. This concluded the podium announcements.
Marc Seigar receives his Paul Harris Fellow pin and certificate from Past District Assistant Governor Phil Strom
President Michelle Buria with new Club #25 member Jerry Thoreson.
Chair of the Day, Eric Dott, then introduced our speaker of the day, Pippi Mayfield. Pippi has been the Public Engagement and Communications Director at MnDOT, District 1 for almost one year. Her job is to get the public more engaged with MnDOT and see how the organization can better partner with other local entities - the earlier, the better. On her second week at MnDOT, she had to work the Home Show at the DECC and talk about the Twin Ports Interchange project (also known as the Can of Worms), something she knew absolutely nothing about. Since then, she has obviously learned quite a lot because the topic she spoke about was the Can of Works, as well as some other road construction projects. The project consists of three components, but due to budget shortfalls and mounting expenses, the second and third components have been deferred until another time. This year, they will work on the northbound and southbound lanes of I-35, all ramps to Highway 53 and I-535 and the replacement of the 27th Avenue West bridge, all around the Twin Ports Interchange. This summer, all southbound and northbound traffic will be restructured to one lane on the freeway. Then in the fall, southbound traffic will be diverted onto Lower Michigan Street for about four blocks. Work will also be done on improving the Lake Avenue bridge this summer. All of the work on the Twin Ports Interchange is being done for safety. All left exits will be turned into right exits, sight lines will be improved, and oversized/overweight freight will be allowed on the freeway (which is important for freight from the port – think wind turbine blades). Additional aging infrastructure will be replaced. The 34 bridges in the Twin Ports Interchange will be replaced by 17 bridges, and this will be more of a supported causeway structure which is better for handling large freight. The deferred parts of the project include replacing the Highway 53 bridges (component 2) and updates to the Garfield Avenue/I-535 interchange. With the Blatnik Bridge scheduled for replacement in 2027, the Garfield Avenue/I-535 interchange project is now likely to happen at the same time. So, it is pretty obvious why this is called a Can of Worms. As Greg Hansen said in his reflection, there may be CHAOS in Duluth.
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