The Westerner for January 7, 2013
Meeting: chair, Rob Dunseith; music, Jerome; grace, Ben Doz
Attendance/Guests: 33 including Erum Afsar, guest speaker; Brent Birch, guest of Mike Ryan; Prashant Srivastava, guest of Duane Evans
Gift Cards: purchase from Brian, profits to fund our international projects
Chris Gowers: in for knee surgery on January 11, good luck (Editors note: surgery postponed)
Membership: Darrel Ripley reminded us of the membership drive for new members under the age of 50, guest Monday is first meeting of each month
Fellowship Dinners: Bob Lamoureux circulated a sign up sheet for those interested in meeting with 2 or 3 other couples for a series of get acquainted (Fellowship) dinners over the next several months
Lorne: he visited Marianna, a former exchange student who resided with our club about 5 years ago for a year, in Guadalajara. She graduated with a university degree last year and works with a not for profit firm to assist people with medical mobility needs
Catharine: she requested volunteers to introduce or thank speakers for the next month while Chris is recuperating - call her if you can help
Christmas Gift Basket: John, our valued waiter, sent a thankyou note
Clubruuner Computer organization/maintenance: Jerome thanked Brian for all the great work he does in this area - history of our club is lined up chronilogically for the past number of years
Casino: Bill Buckham is looking for volunteer workers please call him. He reported a good telephone visit with Bill Storoschuk who used to man our front desk (30 years)
Belize: Fred reported on the success of Christmas gifts being distributed to the poor children and voiced his hope that we would keep the donation program going in future years. Duane advised that Rotary Placentia was distributing food baskets to shut-in seniors in that area which, again, were well received. This brought up the subject of the next hands on project for future Belize trips - building access ramps to elevated homes for disabled seniors - make plans to join the next work visit (likely late November).
50/50: Lorne and Jerome split $78.50, congratulations
Finemaster: Joe emptied pockets with Edmonton Oiler history questions
Guest Speaker: Catharine introduced Erum Afsar, a builder, creator, tree shaker and Top 40 Over 40 Edmonton lady. She is a project manager for the LRT construction program - working now on the north west leg (NAIT to St. Albert). She has a degree in Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering.
Erum went through the presentation Concept Planning Study Northwest LRT. This will be a compact urban communities style designed to increase LRT ridership but integrate the system into the local communites that it serves. 9 stations will be based on the design for McKernan Belgravia station on the south leg but that run is commuter oriented, not designed to integrate as nicely with the surroundings. The northwest leg is 11 km running from NAIT station, up east side of municipal airport, station before Yellowhead, bridge over Yellowhead & railway yard, up 113A Street (buy properties on east side of 113A), stations at 132 Ave. & transit centres at 137 Ave. and 153 Ave. Then west along 153 Ave with stations at 123 St & 142 St. Line ends at Campbell Road.
Final report goes to Edmonton City Council by the end of February. There is no funding in place yet.
The commuter style leg south has many gates. The urban communities style leg (Millwoods & northwest) has fewer gates thus not holding up traffic to get the gates down & up, The trains run on signals like the crossing traffic. All future lines are expected to be urban community style. Rotary members expressed the concern that Churchill station will be over busy and that the increased number of trains running from Churchill to University will cause problems.
Erum was thanked by Jim Johnston.