The meeting was online via Zoom and attended by 22 members. It was opened at 12:15 PM by President Chuck Norton followed by the pledge of allegiance.
BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES : President Chuck noted there were no birthdays nor anniversaries.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Rich Lalley announced the next Rotary International President will be a lady from Windsor Ontario. She will be the first ever female head of RI!
HAPPY BUCKS: Marie Kuiper noted she had a successful orthopedic procedure that should lead to fixing a long-term problem.
DIG & GRIN: Rich Lalley showed a video of horse race. The humor escaped this writer but was appreciated by others.
SPEAKER- At 12:25 John Thomas introduced today's first speaker, John Shea. He is the Winnetka Park District’s Superintendent of Recreation and responsible for all beach activities. He later introduced Jon Shabica of Shabica LLC. They are hydrological consultants specializing in Lake Michigan.
Shea started by noting the Lake is at an all-time high which causes both beach disappearance and severe bluff erosion. He said there is a Lake Front Master Plan adopted in 2016 addressing these issues. However, the infrastructure planned in that plan and their budgeting has needed to be significantly accelerated. Shea played a stop action video (available at www.winpark.org) about in-Lake construction of protective structure that should keep both beaches usable and stop building collapses.
About 12:55 John Shea then introduced Jon Shabica, a long-time Lake Michigan consultant to both the WPD and many other Villages along the Lake Michigan shore. Using PowerPoint slides, Shabica took us through the history of the Lake’s fluctuations and causes behind them. However, the conclusion of his firm, other hydrologists and the U.S. Corps of Engineers is there is no way to predict lake levels in the future.
NB: For more complete information of both speaker’s presentations, see the
8/6 edition of the Winnetka Talk and the 8/7 edition of the Chicago Tribune
There were a variety of questions. Shea said several WPD beaches have been closed for this season and the dog beach is a day-to-day challenge. Covid 19 protocols also hamper beach accesses but are being carefully dealt with. Much of the cost of in-Lake construction had already been budgeted.
The meeting was then closed at 1:35 with a recitation of the Four Way Pledge