Salem Rotary - The Spoke - Archive (Sep 29, 2009)

Rotarian Paul Tierney from the Punta Cana, Dominican Republic club exchanged a flag with President John Hall. Paul has attended our meetings for the past three weeks. Paul is originally from Salem who currently resides in Punta Cana with his wife Delores.

President John was fined $40.00 by Frank Campbell for collecting change with Salem Five bags. Frank matched the $40.00 fine as well.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

President John recognized the newly elected officers of the Phoenix School Early Act Club. He was at the swearing in ceremony on September 29th along with the District Governor Ingrid Brown. Betsy Sargent introduced the group.

The Salem Rotary Club will continue its efforts to fight hunger by serving food at the Salem Mission this Thursday October 1st @ 5:00pm. Kathie Strout will be the team captain this month. Just a reminder, that the kids parade is the same night and parking will most likely be limited. There should be plenty of parking on Endicott Street and other surrounding streets.

Thank you to all of the Salem Rotarians who brought in their change and donated it our "Change to Change Lives" initiative to fight hunger. Our Royal Order of Turkey's and the newly elected Treasurer of the Phoenix School Interact Club Leo Santoro went from table to table collecting the change. We will hope to do this on a monthly basis. President John will announce the date of our next collection.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALEM ROTARIANS

Bob Conley - October 11th

SPEAKER/PRESENTER OF THE WEEK

September 29, 2009

Mayor Kimberly Driscoll

City of Salem

Kim thanked the Rotary club for all that we do for Salem as an organization and she proud to have us so active in the community. She briefly discussed the finances of Salem. Local aid reduced by 3.5 million this fiscal year. Therefore, she was forced to make drastic staffing cuts by layoffs and attrition. Approximately, 30 positions were eliminated. A big cost to the City of Salem is health benefits for its employees. She approached all 8 collective bargaining units to discuss increasing the co-pays but had little success. She also mentioned that 7 of the 8 unions have a contract with the exception of the police patrolman's union. She is working with them to a get a new contract.

The City of Salem is moving forward with a capital improvement program which consists of the following:

Street Paving Program

Public Safety Investment

Enhanced Parking Kiosks

Water, Sewerage and Drain Improvements

Derby, Congress and Hawthorne Intersection Upgrade

City Hall Elevator

Improving our parks have been a big focus of this administration. All of the parks in Salem have had some type of recent improvement. Some other projects underway in Salem are as follows:

Senior Community Life Center, Boston and Bridge Streets

South River Harbor Walkway

Salem Wharf Project

J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center

Old Salem Jail

MBTA Station

Salem News Building

Old Town Hall Renovation

At the conclusion of Mayor Driscoll's presentation, President John Hall presented her with a check for $1,250.00 to support the city's new Lifesaver System program. This program helps Alzheimer patients get help when needed. The board unanimously supported this donation.

UPCOMING EVENTS - SAVE THE DATE

Please visit the calendar section of our web site

for additional important dates.

"QUOTE OF THE WEEK"

"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again".

---Ettiene De Grellet

STUMPER OF THE WEEK

Name the Salem Rotarian with this new tattoo?

LAST WEEKS STUMPER

Removing an appendix is called an appendectomy, removing tonsils is called a tonsillectomy. What is it called when they remove a growth from your head?

ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS STUMPER

A haircut.....

FUTURE SPEAKERS/PRESENTERS

October 6, 2009

A3D - African Development Group

Please email all announcements to be added to the Spoke and/or feedback to salem_rotary@yahoo.com by Noon on Wednesday. Also, feel free to contact any of the committee members listed below.

Committee Chairman: Bob Dionne

Newsletter Editor: Bob Dionne

Photographer: John Quinn & Juli Lederhaus

Graphics and Photo Editing: Rich Eisner

Committee Members: Denise Flynn, Jim Haskell and Sandy Heaphy

Salem Rotary Club

PO Box 608

Salem, MA 01970

(978) 744-9070