Our guest today was Karen Meyer from the Community Support Center.
Upcoming events:
- Our annual Irondale Choir Christmas concert is next Tuesday, December 17th. If you are planning to attend and have not signed up yet, please contact Dennis so we can get an accurate count for food preparation. The meeting is at Risdall Marketing, 2685 Long Lake Rd, Roseville.
- The District 5960 Mid-Term Meeting is a good way to learn more about Rotary. This year it’s at Hamline University. Click
here to check it out.
Happy Bucks Highlights:
- Dave Hoel recounted his 9 ½ hour drive (normally 2 hours) from Denver to the ski resort in Beaver Creek, CO. A rockslide coupled with blizzard conditions caused the traffic backup. Once he arrived, the skiing was great and no bones were broken.
- Dave also noted that he had the Home Energy Squad do a energy efficiency analysis on his home and he was impressed (as were several other Rotarians) with the service they provide. If you’d like to take advantage of this program, call 651-328-6220 or sign up online at
https://www.mncee.org/home-energy-squad/sign-up/ According to Dave, the cost is $70 but you can save $5 by telling them that you found out about the program when C.E.E. presented the program at Rotary.
- Dana Rebelein enjoyed the Christmas Concert at Northwestern University. Margaret Johnson chimed in that she had enjoyed it as well.
- Madison Zykmund was happy for S.B.M. Fire Department’s youth engagement during their Santa Week.
- Cindy Carlson was happy for our club’s John Marg-Patton Memorial Fund, which funded the majority of the Harvest Pack food packing event to be held later today at Irondale.
On behalf of the club, President Dennis Connolly presented Karen Meyer, Executive Director of the Community Support Center, with a check for $1,000 to help fund the excellent work that CSC does to prevent homelessness and solve financial crises for families in our community. Karen said that, because of decreased support from government and other agencies, CSC has seen an increase in the need for financial support and counseling. Karen thanked us for our ongoing support. Dennis and Karen are shown below.
Nyle Zikmund introduced our speaker, Mitch Killian from the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). Mitch began by saying that most airports in the U.S. are controlled by the city in which they are located. The Twin Cities area airports are unusual in that they are controlled by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) composed of 8 metro area representatives, 4 outstate representatives, one mayoral office representative each from Minneapolis and St. Paul and 1 chairperson. The MAC has a staff of 650.
Mitch said that MSP International Airport sits on 3,300 acres and has four runways with 8 departure ends. The airport is growing steadily, currently handling over 38 million passengers per year, making it the 17th busiest airport for passengers served in the U.S. Forty five routes have been added since January 2017. Many of these additional routes are international routes, which has great benefit for the airport as well as for the communities it serves. MSP’s very low cost per passenger helps airlines to be more profitable and this is why there are seventeen carriers serving Minnesota passengers. The competition between these carriers keeps airfares low. MSP is also beginning a major remodeling to improve parking and passenger flow, and the new Intercontinental MSP Hotel will make the airport even more convenient for travelers.
Six metro “reliever” airports are also controlled be the MAC. Anoka County-Blaine, Crystal, Flying Cloud, Lake Elmo, Airlake and St. Paul Downtown airports handle much of the corporate and private traffic which would create congestion at MSP. For more information about the MAC, click
here. Nyle and Mitch are pictured below.
Addendum:
At least seventeen Rotarians, family members, and our exchange student Nanase, participated in the Harvest Pack food packing event mentioned earlier in this newsletter. Together with Irondale students, we packed 36,160 meals to be distributed locally to our neighbors with food insecurity. Congratulations to all who helped to plan, fundraise and pack food. See photo below.
