President Sarah Lee called the meeting to order five minutes late, reminding everyone that she couldn’t be fined.

Sam Sengupta led the Pledge and national anthem, Ted DeVantier led “The Four-Way Test” and Bob Lee gave a prayer of thanks and Rotary blessings.

There was a good turnout of Rotarians this day. A delicious lunch was served; roast beef with mushroom gravy, roasted potatoes, a vegetable medley with summer squash and carrots, salad, rolls, and for dessert, choose one or both, tiramisu or cannolis.

Sarah started with a little club business.

• She read a thank-you letter from Single Family Living for our club’s donation to their efforts.
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• There were some Rotary t-shirts available to anyone interested. Pick one up and wear it to club service activities.  
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• And there will be an inter service club event tomorrow, Friday. It’s a horseshoe contest and more competitors are needed.

Eric Pierson sold the flowers.

The first went to Sam Wireman for his wife’s birthday. Then Val Miller bought one for our speaker Don, Gary Felts bought two, one for Tina our server and then one for Larry Neal. Larry has music duties and gave Gary his selections for the entire month.

Glenn Burton bought one for his guest, Janet. Tom Welsh bought one for Diana Djokic, Sam S bought one for Sam W, or was it the other way around, something about a golf outing. And lastly Diana  bought one for Val.

Larry Neal led the singing.

He chose a song in our book that has never been attempted before called “Friendship.” No one had a clue to the melody and it didn’t go well. Then for the Rotary song he chose “Sing Rotarians.” This is to the tune of “On Wisconsin” but that is not what Gary played. So there was much confusion before the singing settled on the last two lines of the song. After much booing and laughter, Larry retreated to the corner and covered his head in shame.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• President Sarah let us know that her younger brother was now in assisted living and he loves it. 
• Sam Wireman offered good news about his nephew who had been given a terminal brain cancer diagnosis. After treatment he is defying the odds and is a happy active 7-year-old.
• Val let us know that Diane Kish, wife of former member Ken had passed away.
• Eric announced the Pierson golf outing September 10. Tell Eric if you want to play. If you already did, tell him again so as to avoid another Tom Welsh incident. (Eric forgot.)
• Nancy D talked again about the service club horseshoe event.
• She also mentioned that her granddaughter Luca works at Walgreens and she gets paid if she gets people to sign up for flu shots.  Nancy had the forms to give Luca the credit.

RECOGNITION

First off Eric fined a full table for being “chatty” during our presidents comments. That included Kathy Best, Stephanie, Sam Wireman and myself. Glenn Burton paid $4 for an upcoming trip to England and the Baltic region.

Val Miller provided Eric with a stack of pictures from club events many years ago. Eric called on Robin Z to identify a good looking fellow in one picture. She had no clue. The picture was of me, nearly 40 years ago. Nancy D was recognized in another photo.

Other fines; $1 if you aren’t wearing a pin, Bob Lee $3 for his daughter’s accomplishments, Sam Sengupta for golfing in Augusta, $1 for everyone not playing horseshoes tomorrow, Malachi $1 for stealing Eric’s seat, and Larry Neal paid $3 for the musical misadventures.

LARRY NEAL INTRODUCED TODAY’S SPEAKER, DON BROWN

Don has 35 years of public service in Macomb County, as a county commissioner and then chairman of the board of commissioners.  He currently serves as deputy commissioner for the Macomb County Public Works office.

Don talked about the areas of work currently concerning the Public Works department. One of the ongoing priorities is preventing combined sewer overflows (CSOs).  This occurs when rainwater overwhelms the sewer system forcing discharge into Lake St. Clair. By expanding retention ponds and increasing sewer flow and efficiency they have made vast improvement. There will soon be a record one year since a sewer overflow occurred.

Maintaining sewers and drains is another priority. These are both below ground sewers and above ground drains. The commission uses drones to survey the drains above ground and flies drones through sewers underground looking for problem areas. For smaller sewers they have small boat drones travel the pipelines.  

A current challenge in Lake St. Clair is the emergence of a new algae called L. wollei (Lyngbya wollei). This algae forms a muck that covers the lake-bed potentially harming the food chain and often washes up on shore as muck.  There has been a two-year study, jointly funded by the Army Core of Engineers and Macomb County looking for solutions.

Don emphasized that technically the lake is not the county’s responsibility, it’s the states’.  But the commission has made the lake and its water quality a priority.  Candace Miller, the Public Works commissioner is a big supporter of the lake recognizing how vital it is to our economy and our lifestyle.