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The Wagner Rotary Club was called to order by President Rachel Woods on Wednesday, October 19th. The members were led in prayer by Rotarian/Pastor Bill Heermann.

Guests were introduced by Amanda Bechen who had brought her assistant Kristina Ymker and Faith Spotted Eagle. Rotarian Gerrit Juffer had brought his wife Michelle as a guest for the meal. Our meal today was delicious as it was Steak Day paid for in full by Jordan Weber’s attendance team. Rotarian Scott McAdaragh was the chef of the delicious steaks.

Gerrit chose “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as our song for the day. We are enjoying singing again with the Bluetooth accompaniment to guide us. Rotarian Ken Cotton chose Club Singing for his Membership Minute.

Harry Ruggles was the fifth man to join Paul Harris in the conversations which led to the formation of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905. Harry was a person who enjoyed singing and this was a popular activity at the turn of the century. At an early meeting of the fledgling group, Harry jumped on a hair and urged everyone to join him in a song.

Group singing soon became a traditional part of each Rotary meeting. The custom spread to many of the clubs in the United States and is still a popular fellowship activity in the Rotary meetings of such diverse countries as Australia, Japan, Nigeria, New Zealand, and Canada. Some clubs sing a national song as the formal opening of the meeting. Social singing, however, is seldom found in the Rotary clubs in Europe, South America, and Asia. Not all Rotary clubs in the United States participate in singing as part of their regular meeting time. The Wagner Rotary Club has been singing ever since its beginning. Deceased Rotarian Don Piroutek always brought his wife to the Rotary meetings as she was an excellent piano player. I wonder how many men it took to move the piano from the basement of the old library to its present location on Main Street. Dorothy Piroutek continued to play the piano for many years in the First State Bank building that was turned into Piroutek Insurance before Don and Dorothy gave the building to the Wagner Rotary.

Jamie Soukup went to the podium as the Assistant to the Assistant Sergeant at Arms. Fines were levied to: $3 to all USD Alumni for their football loss, $1 to all SDSU Alumni for their big win; $1 to Jordan Weber for pushing the SAA job onto Jamie; $4 to those not wearing pink as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month; $1 to Rachel Woods for having a spill at the head table; $1 to Gerrit, Joe, and Jerry Henke for wearing black vests; $4 to Jamie because he forgot his black vest for the day; $1 to Linda for telling Jamie how he needs to shake the container for the drawing; $1 to Gerrit Juffer for his Bluetooth Speaker being out of control last week. Other fines were $16 from Bryan Slaba who wore a bright pink shirt in remembrance of a good friend who passed away from breast cancer 16 years ago; Faith Spotted Eager paid $5 for being a twenty-eight-year breast cancer survivor; and Ken Cotton paid $10 for a new grandson from his son and wife John and Alicia Cotton. A baby boy, Thomas Michael Cotton weighing 8lbs. and15 oz.

Rotarian Amanda Bechen was the holder of the lucky ticket for the drawing, and she drew the Jack of Hearts but not the Queen. She lost $94.00.

Substitute Secretary/Treasurer Becky Brunsing announced that starting the second quarter of our Rotary year Jordan Weber’s team had three misses and Jamie Soukup’s team had two misses. That leaves the total very close at 6 misses for Jordan and five for Jamie. Brunsing also gave out the football winners checks for last Monday Night Football. Joe Stedronsky was a winner, and it was one of his books; Gerrit Juffer’s daughter Jacquelyn was the winner of one of his football books.

President Rachel Announced that we ordinarily do not have a program on Steak Meeting Day but due to a scheduling conflict Jerry Henke was having his program today instead of on October 26th. If anyone has a program in mind, they can fill next week’s slot.

Jerry Henke introduced his program which was presented by Scott Pick, the Manager of Randall Community Water District. The topic was the proposed Gregory County Pump Storage Project.

This Project will involve 2,310 acres (3.6 square miles) of reservoir in Gregory County, three miles South of the Platte-Winner Bridge. There will be a berm with height of an average seventy feet with a maximum height of 142 feet and it will hold forty-four billion gallons of water. Two 45-foot tunnels will transfer water into and out of the lake. This is equivalent to draining three miles of the lake and is three per cent of all the water in the lake. Twenty-two miles of transmission line and substation are considered primary distribution lines. A high voltage direct current transmission line will be constructed in the future. A 92-acre (equivalent to seventy football fields) substation will be located seven miles east of Platte.

The function of this project will be to have a maximum output of 2,100 Megawatts. Equivalent to 120 per cent of all power produced by the Hydroelectric dams in South Dakota. Wind power, purchased at little or no cost, is used to fill the reservoir. Water is released over 46 hours to generate eastern grids. This power will be sold to the highest bidder.

This project is being funded by MidAmerican Energy, Missouri River Energy Services, and the Federal Government (Green new Deal). This will result in the loss of personal property with 3,500 acres of productive farm ground forcefully taken from the landowners. It will cost $35 Million and there will be a loss of feeding area for 60,000 head of cattle lost.

There will be twelve housing and farm sites lost and their families displaced without jobs. Fifty-three individual landowners/ operators’ business and house owners will be affected in some way.

This will be a priceless cost: Generations of historical memories, no chance of future generations to continue in the legacy of farming.

There is not enough column space to adequate inform readers of this project. You can obtain a copy of the RCWD newsletter by contacting the RCWD office at 445 Main Street Lake Andes South Dakota 57356 or email them at rcwd@rcwd.org.

This project is in the early stages, and everyone needs to be aware of what is at stake.