Rotary Bulletin September 27 (Sep 18, 2018)

Patti Van Cleave filled in for President Leske. There were 28 members present. There were no outside guests. Melissa Duffy and Steve Belford represented New Trier and its Career Services department and Mike Busscher represented WCH. Patti mentioned that Anna Helfman from NT, who often attends our meetings, still runs the Club’s Interact program at NT.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Robert Mardirossian announced that he was celebrating his birthday and being covered by Medicare—also celebrating his 24^th anniversary as a Club member; that he had an opportunity for a part time administrative assistant in case someone knew of a candidate; and that he was willing to give 4 of his Cubs tickets to someone who would be willing to give a donation to our Foundation (Jill accepted). Patti mentioned that our District Governor, Julie Clark, will be at our October 11^th meeting to give us a current District report and that she would also attend our local Board meeting immediately preceding the regular meeting that day. Patti also reviewed some of the great speakers lined up for our future meetings and that all members should be using these speakers as a reason to invite guests to our meetings. Patti also reviewed the Club’s new plan to give 1000 Paul Harris points to members who bring in a new Club member during the next year. Terry Dason asked if the Club would be willing to offer on the W/N Chamber of Commerce’s website a free lunch for anyone wanting to attend one of our meetings-- the consensus of the members was to do so. Terry also mentioned that on the second Monday of each month the Chamber is having “lunch and learn” meetings at noon at the Business Network Center in Northfield (790 Frontage Rd.) to discuss timely topics relating to the business activities in the community. The charge is $40 per lunch or there are packages of up to 9 lunches for as little as $30 per lunch. Contact Terry for reservations or further information. Joe Nash announced that the Club’s Operation Warm benefit on October 5^th at the Kenilworth Club has 23 sponsors and that the cost of the event has already been covered. His committee is hoping to raise as much as $20,000 from the event. He still needs 5 volunteers to spend about an hour at the door to greet attendees and sell drink tickets. The admission fee is $40 a person. He said that many people are working hard on this project, but mentioned in particular the efforts of Rich Lalley. Ned Meisner reminded members of his invitation to join him and the couple (Jose and Loli) working on the Club’s new International Committee project for dinner at Ned’s home in Highland Park on September 24^th at 6:30 PM—cooking and piano music to be performed by Ned himself. The project is to train Ecuadorian farmers how to grow quality food for them and their villages.

HAPPY BUCKS: Marie Kuipers gave in honor of Robert’s birthday and the recent news that her favorite pet hen and rooster have produced fertilized eggs. Not to be outdone in the reproduction arena, Barb Tubekis donated in honor of her daughter-in-law just giving birth to a precious little girl—Barb’s first grandchild.

DIG N GRIN: Peter S. gave us a little “Bob Newhart” humor by telling the story of an 80 year old woman getting married for the 4^th time to a funeral director and describing her 4 husbands as “1 for the money, 2 for the show, 3 to get ready (and most members chimed in on the punch line “and 4 to go”)—one of those rare jokes that can be told at any occasion!!

SPEAKER JON SHABICA: Jon is a lifelong resident of the Northshore and runs the Shabica Consulting Group which specializes in water management, including Lake Michigan water developments. He presented a very informative and historical power point containing information and pictures of the Lake Michigan shoreline around Chicago since the early 1800’s. He said that public concern about the levels of Lake Michigan is low when the water levels are low, but it grows to into panic stage when the levels rise, as they have over recent years. Generally, the Lake’s level fluctuates about 6 feet over 16-20 year cycles. But between 2013 and 2017 the Lake rose 4.5 feet, which has caused great damage and a lot of costly repairs. Residents who paid premium prices for large beach areas 5 years ago are now scurrying to install barriers to keep the sand in place and to prevent further erosion and property damage. Many have had to place large rocks/boulders along metal retention walls to keep the ground behind the walls from eroding. As early as 1835, the communities along the North Shore have tried to preserve their large beaches. Most beach front properties have pilings, rocks, long piers, etc. to keep the sand in place. The only native shoreline and bluffs not altered much by these preservation activities are in Highland Park. There are currently serious erosion problems developing around new homes built in the Wilmette Gillson Park area. Some areas have been modified to prevent erosion such as the Maple Street beach in Winnetka. Such stabilization projects are good for sand retention and for the habitants (especially birds and geese)—but are very costly.

Jon finished his presentation by saying that climatology predictions are only about 4% accurate. In answer to a couple of questions Jon said that there are 52 municipalities (as far west as St. Charles) that use millions of gallons of water each day from Lake Michigan and that the new Foxconn corporate development across the border in Wisconsin will also pull millions of gallons out of the Lake daily. But the difference between these two situations is that the water not consumed or otherwise used by the 52 municipalities ends up draining south of Chicago onto ground cover or into downstate rivers. However, Foxconn is treating most of its water taken from the Lake and that which it does not use will be pumped back into the Lake. He said that each year only about 1% of the Lake’s total water volume is “new” water.

If you would like a copy of Jon Shabica's power point presentation, please send an email request to the Rotary Bulletin Editor at: grantgrant@comcast.net