The meeting was opened by President Craig Reese. "Good morning, Sunbeams!" (Mark Anderson)
Returning Wenatchee Sunrise Rotarians, after long absences, were Jim Huffman and Jay Higgins. Welcome back!
President Craig welcomed visitors Jim Kuntz and Sarah Deenik, both from the Chelan-Douglas Port Authority, and Colette French, daughter of Carl French.
Announcements
President Craig announced that he had just returned from Mark Anderson's funeral in Nevada. Mark was a long time Wenatchee Sunrise Rotarian who helped start our club's Challenge Scholarship Program and was the innovator of the Marky Award given to the club Rotarian of the Year. His favorite greeting was "Good morning, Sunbeams!". Also attending the funeral were Brian Noyd and PJ Jones, both former club members. Mark will be missed!
Don't forget that Monday night, 24 June, all the Rotary clubs are invited to Circle 5 Winery (formerly Martin Scott) to hear a Nashville artist perform from 6:00 to 9:00pm. There is no cover charge. Should be a fun time. This will follow the Confluence Club’s evening meeting out there.
Next week's meeting Tuesday 25 June will be at the Confluence Technical Center (CTC), 285 Technology Center Way in Wenatchee (Old Station area). 7 am. in the Skykomish Room; watch for signage at CTC. Our Pybus room(s) are in use that day!
The Tuesday 25 June meeting will also be attended by our District 5060 District Governor Marjolein Lloyd and Archie M. Klumph, Rotary District 5060 Mascot! Don't miss this fun meeting.
Laerke will be giving her going away presentation on Tuesday 25 June, so be sure to attend that morning. She returns to Denmark shortly thereafter!
Wayne Massing presented Faviola Barbosa an award for her excellent translation work while selling Road Apple Roulette tickets on the parade route!
Tuesday night 25 June will be “Rotary Night” at the Applesox game. There will be a lot of Rotary action going on including the first pitch thrown out by District Governor Marjolein Lloyd of Kelowna. That's the team we are playing that night. We'll also have a Rotary information booth, a 50/50 raffle that benefits “Only 7Seconds” (a mental health nonprofit), and lots of fellowship time. Get your tickets at applesox.com. Type in “Rotary” in the promo box and get bleacher seats for $5 or you can sit in reserve section D for $10.50 where many Rotarians will be seated. Emma is asking for volunteers to sell the 50-50 raffle tickets. Contact Emma Crowe (emmabugjoy@yahoo.com) if you can help out! The 3 volunteers from our club to help at the entry table are Rebecca, Carol and Jim.
Our Presidential Change-Over Breakfast is going to be on the morning of 2 July, from 7:00 am to 8:30 am. The cost will be $8 for breakfast. Contact Carol (jncadamson@gmail.com) if you haven't already signed up. We need numbers for the meals. The charge will be put on your next quarter’s invoice. Let's have a fun time roasting Craig and bringing in Rebecca as our next president.
David Barshes, Challenge Scholarship Committee Chair, gave a report of the number of students in the Challenge Scholarship Program who graduated this year, and the two who were going on to college next year using our Challenge Scholarships! One student graduated from high school a year early! It's good to see our scholarship program is so successful. David also bragged about his color picture being on the front page of the Wenatchee World newspaper, and was awarded a copy of that picture from the Sgt. At Arms, Wayne Massing!
Wayne Massing, Road Apple Roulette Fundraising Committee Chair, said the Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center received their donation check from WSRC during the planned crab feed last Saturday. Dave Tosch, Executive Director of the Senior Center, and the attending crab-eaters were told that our Board of Directors had increased the club's donation to $4,000! Immediately, the two other crab-eaters from the Springwater Insurance Group and the Solomon Financial Group, each gave $2,500, producing a grand total of $9,000 to the Senior Center. Leverage!!
Braggs and Confessions
Wayne Massing returned from a family visit to the Tri-Cities, and a tour of the Hanford B-Reactor.
Fabiola Barbosa bragged that her son graduated from high school. Also, she's going to be a nana again!
Sargent-At-Arms
Sgt.-At-Arms Wayne Massing caught Taro Masuda sneaking in the door during the Pledge of Allegiance and was fined $1 for that! Thanks, Taro!
Program
Jim Huffman introduced Jim Kuntz, Chief Executive Officer of the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority. The CDRPA is the first of its kind in Washington. On June 11, 2019, all six commissioners from the Port of Chelan County and the Port of Douglas County signed the Interlocal Cooperation
Agreement, functionally consolidating finances, management and operations into one governing body - the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority -beginning January 1, 2020. This functional consolidation was the first in the State of Washington where two county-wide ports fully consolidated organizations into one new entity.
The Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority is the principal economic development agency for Chelan and Douglas Counties.
After almost 27-years as the Walla Walla executive director, Jim Kuntz was hired as the first leader of the newly formed regional port. He was returning to his hometown of Wenatchee.
Jim is a graduate of Eastern Washington University and has a master's degree from the Evergreen State College in Public Administration.
Today, the Port manages four airports, multiple business parks, the Confluence Technology Center and much more.
Jim Kuntz was welcomed with a warm round of applause!
The CDRPA has 6 commissioners.
The current CDRPA has a yearly budget of about $4.6 million.
Pangborn Airport still has its 2 Alaska Airlines flights into Wenatchee and 2 flights out. The port is hoping to get an additional in/out flight later. The DCRPA is still courting an additional airline to operate out of Wenatchee Airport. Many improvements to the taxiway and other aviation facilities have already been made.
Pangborn Airport has an Army National Guard unit from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane that has moved into the old Executive Flight building. The DCRPA has sold additional acreage to the ANG where they can expand their presence. Their 6 Lakota and 3 Blackhawk helicopters can assist in flighting our wildfires should they occur. Once a month about 100 Army reservists will come to Wenatchee to fulfill their reservist duties and aid the local economy.
The older General Aviation terminal will be rebuilt to retain some original features, but increase its functionality, and visual appeal.
New corporate hangar development has already started with more on the way.
Future main runway development is planned for 2025-2027 and may require air operations to cease for a while. Most of the funding will come from the FAA.
Another area in the vicinity of Pangborn Airport are the remnants from the Gigawatt business that went bankrupt. The small cluster of buildings, now called the Trades District, will be reconfigured for workspaces, specialty trade spaces, limited retail and production shops.
Pangborn has a record level of investments and expansions.
MicroSoft has already started work on their 6 Douglas County data centers.
Current Douglas County assessed tax values will be greatly supplemented by MicroSoft's data center construction and taxable assets.
Three new MicroSoft data centers will be constructed in the Malaga area. The Chelan site will be connected to the Douglas site via fiber optic cables.
The Chelan MicroSoft data centers will bring additional tax revenue to Chelan County as well as additional jobs.
With the addition of the Douglas and Chelan MicroSoft data centers, record levels of construction and employment will be experienced.
Other CDRPA projects include the Lineage Redevelopment - Brewery District near the Wenatchee Train Depot. This will allow for the addition of small businesses like breweries and cider works near the Pybus Public Market.
Other regional proposed projects are a regional aquatic/sport complex. Site TBD.
Jim Kuntz fielded questions from the Rotary Club audience.
Q1: Will there be a third flight in and out of Wenatchee?
A1: The world-wide shortage of pilots is partially the cause of this condition. During COVID, many pilots retired. The airlines are trying to attract more pilots
Q2: What are some of the other destinations, other than Seattle, that the Port is trying to connect Wenatchee to?
A2: Denver, Salt Lake City, and the Bay area.
Q3: If the power for the MicroSoft Douglas Country data centers is coming from British Columbia, how does it get here?
A3: The Douglas PUD provides the connection to the data centers from the BC power source.
Q4: What is the size of the data centers in square footage?
Q4: Each is about 200,000 square feet.
Q5: What will happen to the ALCOA property?
A5: Since 95% of Chelan County is owned by the state of Washington or the federal government, it is difficult to coordinate what can go into that site. It may be developed as another industrial site.
President Craig Reese gave Jim presented the book,
The Animal Farm, which will be donated to Pinnacles Prep in appreciation his speaking to us today.
Closing the Meeting
President Craig reminded everyone of the change in locations for next week's meeting. (Put a note on your calendar! Confluence Technology Center!).
Bill Ostheimer has his raffle ticket pulled, but he failed to pull the magic marble from the bag. Next week we will skip the raffle so we can have one at the Change-Over breakfast on Tues. July 2nd.
Mark's joke was funny, again!
The meeting ended at 8 am.
The photo at left shows acting President Wayne Massing presenting a book that our club donates to Pinnacles Prep in honor of our speakers, Link Transit CEO Nick Covey and Outreach Specialist Salina Danko. The two told us all about the amazing Link Transit programs, mission, operations, economic impact and future plans.
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