Kiwanis Club of Sand Lake, NY

President Gary Meislin                                                                                                                                          Secretary Patricia A. Lane

President-Elect Skip Patton                                                                                                                           Treasurer Robert S. Pasquarelli

Webmaster David E. Booker                                                                                                                       Immediate Past Pres Gerald Tysiak

Sandpiper Editor Margaret Weiss                                                                                                                         Photographer James Rogers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

John C. Brownrigg, James M. Colabelli, Eve M. Ward

Joseph M. Behson, Raymond C. Turner, , William M. Whipple

Barbara Fioravanti, Robert R. Loveridge & Ron Wagner

MEETING OF FEBRUARY 15, 2010

PRESIDENT Gary Meislin presiding

GREETINGS & INVOCATION by Bob Pasquarelli

GUESTS:  Speaker Sean Spain

WELCOME BACK:  Joe Distell!

              (both shown on right reviewing the program for tonight)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Reminder to Jerry Tysiak, Bob Carpenter, Bob Pasquarelli, Nancy Davis, and Bryce Ginther to unload the food truck at DOORS OF HOPE Tuesday morning around 9 AM.

• Summerfest meeting to follow regular meeting tonight.

• Letter of thanks from Lt Gov Noreen for the doo-hickey presented to her last week, and announcing that the next Van Rensselaer Division Council meeting on Wed Mar 3rd at Nichi’s in Wynantskill is very important because there would be the election of the next year’s Division officers.

• The RPI Chapter of Circle K is sponsoring their 3rd Annual Iron Chef Competition Feb 27 at the Student Union at 7 PM.  Only $5 to be a judge, and you get to eat all you want!  It’s a very fun way to support the Circle K, which donates all proceeds to charity.

• Report from Rick Sturm on the success of the Bells of Life campaign in Dec.  Local clubs raised $7911 which went directly to the KPTC.  As of Jan 1, 2010 the K Family has raised $449,076 for the children’s trauma center at Albany Med!

• The extra dinner was sold to Pres Gary for $10!

                                                     (Secretary Pat reading the correspondence the club has received)

PROGRAM

          Joe Distell introduced Sean Spain, Chief Liaison Officer of Empire Generating Co, LLC, the owner of a 635 net megawatt combined cycle, natural gas fired power plant (known as The Project) currently under construction in Rensselaer, NY.  The project will result in a variety of economic benefits for the region, including the creation of jobs, millions of dollars in local and state tax revenue, and clean, reliable electricity for NY State.  These benefits are estimated to total about $290 million over a 20 year period.  Sean distributed several color pictures of the site on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, showing aerial views of the large construction site on the former BASF property.  No water is taken from, or deposited into, the Hudson.  All water used on site is gray water from the Albany sewage system, and flows through a pipeline buried parallel to Route 9J and under the river to the site.  In addition, the company has cleaned up the site, a Brownfield deemed the 8th worst in the US, supposedly cleaned by the DEC, but was found to have more contaminated soil left from the dyes used by BASF.  Because of the need for absolute solidarity, 2400 pilings have been sunk into the substrata rock, which is glacial till soil.  The power plant stacks are 250 ft high.  Over 500 workers have been employed at the estimated 2 year project.  All protection systems must be in place before anything works.  They hope to be commercial by the end of this summer.  Because this plant is similar to the one in Connecticut which experienced the recent explosion, the tragedy will be very thoroughly investigated.  It has never happened before, and hopefully will never happen again.  Project employees are thoroughly trained in their own area, but are taught to be familiar with others.  However if a problem occurs, experts from anywhere in the US are called in.  Many questions came from the several knowledgeable SLKs in the audience, after which Jim Colabelli thanked Sean for a most enlightening program, and presented him with our Certificate of Appreciation.

HAPPY DOLLARS

$       Gov Booker:  Attended a nice 60th Anniversary celebration Sat evening in Floral Park, LI, but afterwards fought the snow on the Taconic Parkway, arriving home at 4:30 AM!

$     Joe Distell – For Sean and his excellent presentation!

$     Jim Colabelli – For at last being able to be off pain medication!

$     Kevin Sarsfield:  Good news and bad news – Phyllis and I stripped wallpaper all day and still have 9 more walls to go!  Good news is that we’re still married!

DOOR PRIZE, provided by Joe Distell, was won by John Brownrigg!

50/50 for $20 was won by Barb Fioravanti!

MEGA 50/50 rose to $138, but AGAIN Gov Dave failed to find the King of Clubs, and only came up with the Jack of Diamonds from the 44 cards!

NEXT WEEK   FEBRUARY 22        

PROGRAM:  Joe Behson / Laura Abate & Sharon Bemis:  Future Plans for  the George Washington Elementary School   

GREETER/INVOCATOR/CERTIFICATE:  Ron Wagner    

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

            “Believe those who seek the truth; doubt those who find it.”                    Andre Gide

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