The Ken October 7, 2019
Attendance: Joe Arcara
Split Club: Chuck Patterson
Fine Master: Mike Hettler
Invocation: Chuck Patterson
The Ken: Jeff Markarian
Donna began our meeting to a full house today. Chuck led us in “God Bless America” and also the prayer. Guests were: John Duerr and Tom Siskar with Ken – Ton Elmwood Commons. Rich Adams from Buffalo Rotary, our speaker, Town Supervisor Joe Emminger. Brendan Blatz was also here. This is Brendan’s third public mention for application to our club.
Announcements: Chuck is beginning to review our Fountains applications for contributions. If you know of a worthy organization please direct them to our website, www.kenmorerotary.org to fill out an application. Holly will have a Wine Event committee meeting Monday 10/18 at 5:30 to begin our planning. Location of the meeting TBD. Dick is all set for Shred It Saturday 10:00 – 2:00. Please let Dick know if you are able to help out. Brendan Blatz and Dick told us about the Polaris District event. Please contact Dick for details. Scott Swan along with Lake Shore Savings Bank is sponsoring a wine event for the Mikey‘s Way Foundation 10/12 from 5:00 to 8:00 at Fredonia Williams Center. Contact Scott for tickets. Pat and Ted attended our satellites meeting Thursday. He reports they are enthusiastic and recommends we sit in on a meeting, 1st and 3rd Thursday am at Billegan’s. Larry reminded us the Youth Conference is 10/19 at Niagara-On-The-Lake. Details at youth7090.org.
Donna won the split club and Scott Swan missed the Ace. Mike Hettler was fine master today. Confessions: Chuck reminded us his son will be married the day of our Shred It. Pat and Linda went white water rafting in VA. Pat was tossed out of the boat. Am I weird that I really would have liked to have seen that live? For respect to the Town Supervisors time, Mike cut fining off and fined anyone who didn’t confess to something $3.
Larry prefaced his introduction to our speaker by wishing Ken–Ton Elmwood Commons all the success this weekend with the opening of no other than Mary Kate O’Connell and Co.’s presentation of “Young Frankenstein”. Just like D’Youville has Kavinoky, The commons has Mary Kate O’Connell and Co. This is big. Larry gave quite an impressive Bio on our Town Supervisor, Joe Eminger. Joe was right up on his topics this afternoon because he was delivering his budget to the Town Board this evening. This is the 9th straight year we are under the NY State Tax gap. Allowing us to be in good graces with Moody’s bond rating. We are able to secure $26M at 1.5% default risk. We are getting there with the sale and signed contract for the Huntley plant. The new owners will clean it up and re-develop it. We are in the 4th year of a 7 year NYS mitigation allowance so we need to get it cleaned up fast. There are 100 acres of property on the waterfront. If NRG does not go through with it, Joe will exercise eminent domain. Joe said Tonawanda Coke is even a worse mess. However, Honeywell is in the arena. They sold the property to Ton. Coke. They are very credible so they should help out. Joe asked that we get involved through www.Tonawandatomorrow.com. Leaf removal is coming up. Please leave the leaves on your lawn, not in the street. Joe usually repairs 15 – 20 lane miles of road per year. This year they repaired 30. The Rec Enhancement Project has created many rumors. Joe is waiting on the final #’s. He finds it very peculiar the developers cannot get him them. Once he gets them, he will sort out the P and E and put it to a referendum so the people can decide. He is on the fence. We don’t make any money on the rec department, other than the Dome. There are several pressing issues that we need to attend to. Such as the Sewer system. The DEC changed their requirements on our sewer system. We are $70M into a $100M - $150M project. In closing, Joe said he is always available if you need him. Then he dropped a bomb and said Amazon is coming… the agreement is settled. Then he dropped it like he shouldn’t have mentioned it. Stay tuned.
Meeting adjourned