Rotary Meeting Feb 9, 2009

Pres Chris opened the meeting at 12:00 and Bob Kalinoski led the club in prayer and pledge.

ATTENDANCE:

35 members and 6 Students of the Month were present virtually.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

- Chris reminder the members the Roots for Boots Food Drive is going on the entire month of February. Please contact Christy Lucas at christylucas88@yahoo.co  for more details. Canned or boxed food items, monetary donations and grocery store gift certs are all welcome,

-Chris introduced the Students of the Month from Delone Catholic, South Western and Spring Grove. There were no students from Hanover this week.

ROTARY MINUTE:

- Terry Gingrow presented the Rotary Minute this month. He spoke about how he became a Rotarian and some of his more rewarding experiences over his 33 years in Rotary. He encouraged the students to keep Rotary in mind as they go through their lives no matter where they may lead. He did a damn fine job!

PROGRAM:

- Our speaker today was York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler. She started by telling us that she is a member of the York Rotary Club and was introduced to Rotary by her parents who were also both members of the York Rotary Club. Julie has been a Commissioner for just over three years and she said it has just flown by for her.

The main subjects that Julie wanted to discuss were the York County CARES Funding of $16,474,689 that they were able to leverage with the YoCo (York County) Strong Task Force who has more experience in turning these dollars into tangible benefits where they do the maximum good. 

For example, with the assistance of the Restart Grant Program they were able to assist 855 small businesses and 99 non-profit recipients. 

They were also able to help long-term care facilities, a much-needed broadband pilot program for the more rural areas of the county that the County has been discussing for quite a while. Other areas that have benefitted from the CARES program include non-profits serving basic needs such as employment and jobs training; tourism, mass vaccination supplies and veterans’ programs.

Another area the Julie touched on were the voting issues. She told us that of the approx. 450,000 population in York Co. there were 311,000 registered voters. 90,000 requested mail-in ballots but only 75,000 of those were actually mailed in. Of those, 10,000 changed their minds and voted in person meaning their mail-in ballots had to be destroyed at their polling site. Don’t know what happened to the other 5,000. The state voter turnout was 70%, the York Co. turnout was 78%.

Julie also talked about the planning and implementation of the new broadband system that’s now being installed throughout the more rural parts of the county starting with the inspection of 107 telephone poles that are now in existence! That has been determined to be the most economical method of installing the new fiber system since it’s already there. And again, this updated system is being paid for by CARES dollars and with the assistance of the York County Economic Alliance.

The meeting was wrapped up with a few questions and Julie suggesting that anyone can go to the County’s website, www.yorkcopa.gov for more information.