On Wednesday, April 13th the Wagner Rotary Club began its last quarter of the Rotary Year. After President Slaba welcomed those present, Pastor Laurie Kidd offered up a prayer asking for all to walk through Holy Week together. A fine meal was provided by Booms for this week’s meeting. In case readers are wondering, we no longer have a fully equipped kitchen at the Rotary Building. Members take turns picking up and returning food bags from Boom’s restaurant, Two Spurs Restaurant, and Valley Pump.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd copied some music sheets so that we could sing an Easter week melody. She chose “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” For our Rotary song we sang, “Blue and Gold are Our Colors.” It’s a little tricky but we are slowly catching on.

Rotarian Rachel Woods was giving out fines for the day since Jerry Weber had exhausted his supply of assistants! $5 to Jordan Weber for talking to the Head Table; $1 Bryan Slaba for whining; $2 to Kara Frei for winning a prize at the Rotary District Convention; $2 to Bill Frei for not singing( not knowing the song is not an excuse Bill); $1 to Linda Soukup because her program chose not to sit with her; $2 each to Jamie, Bryan, Jordan for trying to be waiters; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for persevering his daily walk in our windy weather; $1 to Pastor Laurie for her T Shirt that said “Silly Rabbit, Easter is About Jesus!; $1 to Amanda Bechen for doing a delivery during the meeting; $1 each to Jeff and Jordan for having the most fines again at the meeting.

Happy Fines came from Kara Frei, $5, for her new laser machine; $5 from Bill because Patty won another drawing at the Farm Show; $5 from Craig Krsnak because he was able to rescue his wife in a hailstorm in Armour last week.

The Queen of Hearts drawing continues to grow and grow. Jerry Henke had another chance to win but he drew the ten of spades. Sec/Treasurer Krsnak informed Jerry he had just lost $492.00 The new attendance race has started for the quarter and the Brunsing Team and the Woods Team each had misses for the day with a total of five misses for Brunsing and two for Woods.

Rotarian Linda Soukup introduced her program Rich Dufur of Wagner. Rich is in his second term on the Wagner City Council and oversees Parks and Recreation as part of his council duties. He outlined past, present, and future projects.

There are plans for a water and sewer station on Walnut Avenue, a new taxi lane at the Wagner Airport, and a FEMA project on the south end of Main Street to control the flood waters that pour in on the west side of town from the country. They are busy identifying the curbs and gutters that need repairs in the city and are hoping to have that construction repair done during the May 23 to October 23rd timeline.

He talked briefly about the new swimming pool project being undertaken by a tax-free group in the community. They have been busy in the past and will now continue to raise funds with their tax-free status. The city of Wagner has pledged one million dollars to the future pool. The amount of funds varies from year to year as the cost of materials has skyrocketed in the past year. There is no set date for starting construction right now. The current pool does not meet any official regulations for swim meet competitions.

The City Park shelters were decayed and removed due to insurance reasons. They hope to install new swings by July, and they plan to install new borders around those play areas. The bathroom has received upgrades and now has new faucets. Workers have trimmed and removed the decaying trees in all the parks.

Wagner Chapman Park at Wagner Lake needs several improvements. The rail fence is decaying also and needs to be replaced. This will keep vehicles off the grass. There is some damage to areas of the walking path and those will be addressed as well as improving the horseshoe pits. Dead trees were also removed around the Lake.

A new backstop was installed at the McCormack ballfield, they have put up new bleachers, rebuilt the storage shed on a concrete base and are looking at getting an estimate of a sprinkler system. They purchased all new bases.

At the Hennies Field there is a lot of work to be done. There is a lot more interest being shown in that field. The backstop and wall will need replacing, a new batting cage and pad need to be replaced, the fence boards outlining the field will be replaced with new signage, the windscreen and lights need to be straightened up, and old trees removed.

At the new field which was addressed last year, the Rotary Club built a new shelter and the good news is that this field will be taken over by the Wagner Community School. The SD Athletic Association has sanctioned Girls Softball.

Dufer stated that there are three full time employees taking care of all the things the city needs and three part time employees who work in the summer and pretty much mow grass all week long.