We were prayed for by RUSS ROBERTS who also welcomed and introduced our speaker, KIRSTEN DANIELSON was our sergeant and our 50/50 winner. And I forgot who called and won bingo, I just know it wasn’t me.

NEXT WEEK’s Program: Don Whitehouse, Washington State Department of Transportation. Don will speak about TRANS-action, a local community group whose goal is to prioritize transportation strategies to solve transportation problems and encourage economic vitality in the greater Yakima area. He will include information about local projects plus a video of the proposed Snoqualmie Pass project.

Our guests were: John Cooper executive director of the Yakima Visitors and Convention Bureau and guest of Kirsten Danielson and Brian Ward, new camp director at Camp Roganunda and guest of TERESA VITTELLO, Bob Hall and Warren Dickman were also our guests representing and supporting the YBSA/Black Rock Reservoir.

There is a lot going on:
By now many of you attended the Camp Fire Dinner, hosted by our own TERESA VITELLO and no doubt had a fabulous time.
MARGARET FILKINS has invited us to attend the Wellness House fundraising luncheon soon for $50 per person/$500 per table you can set at a themed table and enjoy wine at lunch! Contact Margaret for more information and tickets.
GENE ROSTVOLD is busy with the 1A Girls State basketball tournament in town.
SPENSER HATTON was not with us, but enlisted JOHN BENSON to remind us that SONGFEST coming up on Saturday March 8 – sure to be a sold out great success.


Awards:
STEVE EMHOFF shared that Kiwanis PNW District received an award for their contributions the Northwest Burn Foundation as did Steve. He had to endure the attention of a Marilyn Monroe look a like during his speech at their convention. Poor Steve.

JULIUS GLOVER was presented the prestigious George F. Hixon award by STEVE EMHOFF and PRESIDENT WENDY AGUILAR for his many years of dedicated Kiwanis volunteerism and service. Congratulations Julius!

Our speaker was Rick Glenn, who is a banker with American West by trade but who is also a volunteer board member of the Yakima River Basin Storage Alliance. We have had he Black Rock folks speak to our club many times, and this time the topic was the recent Bureau of Reclamation Draft Environmental Impact Statement which provides for a much lower cost/benefit ratio that the YBSA has estimated. Rick and his supporters Bob Hall and Warren Dickman encouraged all of us a to attend public hearings, one of which was being held Wednesday night to comment on this document which in many ways is flawed. Rick pointed out several problems with the EIS one of which is the fact that the report doesn’t take into account the economic impact of the benefits to salmon recovery and doesn’t fully reflect the economic impact of the recreation potential of the reservoir. Rick encourages us all to attend public hearings and make sure our voice is heard. The draft EIS can be accessed at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/storage_study/reports/eis/draft-pr-eis.pdf or on the YBSA website: ybsa.org

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