In review

 

The Rotary Club of Edina had it’s meeting Oct. 18 and the program speaker was Scott Neal, City Manager of Edina, who gave us an update on development in the city.  Scott is also an Edina Rotarian.

We heard several announcements and promotions of upcoming events, and the Edina Rotary Foundation Fundraiser & Gala results were shared. And a group photo was taken of the Rotary Club of Edina for the first time in 25 years!

 

Click below for more on the meeting...
 

 

In the "Be the Inspiration" videos this week, featuring our members telling what Rotary means to them, Tom Pirsch and his long membership with and contributions to Edina Rotary was spotlighted, and David Aase explained what being part of the club does for him.

Tom Cook shared an invocation, lead the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four-way Test. David Clynes introduced guests.

New member Jennifer Hendrickson gave her Classification Talk and we learned that another Iowa person has now joined our already plentiful array of talented people from that state. Her interests include yoga, her 5-year old niece, Halloween, National Parks and serving the Parkinson’s Foundation.

John Flynn, our 64th President, made several announcements of upcoming events, Including:

 

John also asked that members gather toward the end of the meeting for a group photo session near the clubhouse.

 

Sam Thompson, chair of Camp Enterprise, spoke about the upcoming camp for high school students, this year held Nov. 1-3, and the need for more volunteers for this major project. We need mentors, venture capitalists and essay readers. They also want more students coming from the Edina High School.

Michael Stanzak, the leader of the Thanksgiving Baskets program, called for identification of more families in need to receive Thanksgiving baskets. The event will be Nov. 21 at the Edina Country Club. 

Katy Campbell, chair of the Rotary Blood Drive Oct. 25 encouraged signups and asked members to seek blood donations from family and friends.

 

Edina Rotary Foundation Fundraiser & Gala Co-Chairs Jody Kern and Kip Peterson announced that the annual event had a net income of about $126,000! Thank you to all who volunteered, sponsored, donated, performed and attended to make "Rotary's Got Talent" a show-stopping success! 

 

Josh Sprague, our President Elect, introduced the program speaker, Scott Neal, City Manager of Edina. Scott had a lot to report about the tremendous changes occurring in Edina’s commercial and residential areas. Examples are the higher-level usage of properties in the Southdale area. The post-development market value for the Byerly’s property, 71 France Ave., rose to $66.33 million from a pre-development amount of only $5.1 million. The effect on property taxes to fund schools is dramatic as this project causes a 11 times multiplier, bringing its funding to Edina Schools to $254,000 annually. It also benefits the Richfield School District which covers part of Southdale. 

He reported that the Edina tax base growth for the years 2009 to 2018 has increased $3 billion to $12.38 billion. In the future, we will become familiar with places named Italia, Promenade, 1 Southdale Place, Pentagon, The Lid, Avidor Edina and Aurora on France.

Scott covered many topics, including the traffic effects of apartments vs. medical facilities (less traffic), the Lid over Highway 100 in the Grandview area and population changes for people of color and whites in Edina.

Dave Hatzung thanked the speaker and John Flynn announced our speaker for next week as J. Drake Hamilton, Science Policy Director at Fresh Energy.

 

John adjourned the meeting and led us to our group photo.