The Wagner Rotary Building had a full house on Wednesday, September 11th. Every year the Rotary entertains Seniors from Wagner Community School for a noon meal. This year we had six seniors start out the rotation.

After bringing the members to order, President Jordan Weber offered a prayer of thankfulness for the meal and the students who were visiting. Song Leader Gerrit Juffer led us in singing The Star-Spangled Banner in memory of all those who died so many years ago on September 11th in New York. Rotarian Jeff Doom asked that each Rotarian tell where they were on that fateful day. The students were too young to remember, but each Rotary member, including some Rotarians who were in school on that day spoke about spending the rest of the day watching television. The entire nation was riveted by the unfolding of one of the biggest tragedies in our nation’s history.

The Senior students were asked to introduce themselves to the club and speak about their studies and their future plans after graduation. The first student was Carter Smejkal whose parents are Shawn and Donna Smejkal. Carter plans to attend South Dakota State University and major in Business and Marketing. Lydia Yost’s parents are Matt and Amy Yost and Lydia plans to attend Black Hills State University in Army ROTC. Jackson Rolston’s parents are Annie and Jerrod Rolston, and he plans to attend the University of South Dakota and major in Elementary Education. Presley Slaba’s parents are Mieke and Matt Slaba. She is looking at Iowa State and studying Animal Science and Veterinary medicine and becoming a veterinarian. Sphynx Foster’s parents are John and Sei Hwoa and she is going to enter the US Navy as a Corpsman. Macee Stimpson’s parents are Ranae and Dave Stimpson, and she is considering Southeast Tech or Mitchell Technical College and becoming a Medical Lab or Medical Assistant.

Rotarian Patty Frei gave a nice presentation on “What is Rotary?” for the Senior students. The Wagner Rotary Club was chartered June 25, 1943, that is 81 years of service to our Wagner Community. We meet every Wednesday at noon here in the Rotary Club Room. There are currently twenty active members, one who is an Assistant District Governor, and several who were District governors in years past. Wagner Rotary Club’s most visual projects have included the Wagner Lake Rotary Shelter, Aluminum Can Recycling, and scholarships for High School Seniors. We also provide services for other smaller projects in Wagner. Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change; across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

President Jordan Weber held the lucky ticket again. Amidst murmurs of “rigged” he drew the two of Hearts. Rotarian Krsnak informed Weber he had lost $305. The attendance race is approaching hopeless with the team having only five absences and the Soukup team having twelve absences.

Krsnak also announced that the football winners from this past week were Connie Steele sold by her daughter Amanda Bechen and Bill Hoffman and Joe Stedrosnky who went together to buy a ticket.

Rotarian Scott McAdaragh introduced his program of Rotarian Bryan Slaba from the WCMH to give an update on the hospital, clinic and the new daycare program. Slaba announced that he began in charge of the WCMH seventeen years ago on September 10th. So many updates, expansions, and improvements have been made in these seventeen years. A new patient wing was added in 2012, the clinic in 2009, and a remodel of the vacated Bubak Clinic which is now occupied by three full time counselors. There are five offices for Behavioral Health with three full-time counselors.

Slaba came on board when the hospital had two physicians in the Emergency Room. They averaged about 600 visits a year then; they experienced 2,600 visits in ER last year. There were sixty-one employees when he started, and he had to reduce that to fifty-two to make ends meet. They are now at ninety-eight, ninety-nine and looking forward to employing one hundred employees soon. The hospital has a payroll of Ten Million dollars and that stays here locally. A graph was passed out that showed Actual Gross Revenue vs Adjusted Gross Revenue since 2007. In 2024 the hospital and clinic are at $42,250.576.

He has developed programs that help sponsor individuals who go into health care positions and are presently sponsoring Med Technicians, Nurse LPN and RN, Radiology Technicians, and Ultrasound Technicians. They are presently helping put thirteen students through college now who are promised to come back to WCMH to work when their education is finished. These individuals will help our Wagner facility to grow and will in turn grow Wagner. The average age of employees is forty-five.

There were 500 visits per year back in 2007 to our clinics. There are now 6,500 visits to our clinic now with eleven providers. In Physical Therapy they saw about nine patients a day and they are now seeing thirty patients a day. They are working to open a wound care clinic soon. They are presently seeing twelve patients every Wednesday who need their wounds cleaned, treated, and re-bandaged.

Slaba believes that the reason they have grown is that they have always managed to determine “what is needed and what can be provided.” Our hospital and clinic system are growing and well. Wagner can be proud of what the WCMH employees and CEO Bryan Slaba have accomplished.

Slaba also gave a short update on the new daycare building that is currently being remodeled on Main Street. He passed out a map of the present facility and the areas they are remodeling. They will open as soon as they get an inspection from the Department of Social Services. A temporary date of September 26th has been set for this inspection. There will be room for forty families to drop off and pick up their children. There is a list of sixty families on a waiting list. He got involved in the project because nurses have children and need daycare. Losing a nurse would cost the hospital $75,000. This has been an ambitious project that many people have collaborated on.

We adjourned in our usual fashion by reciting The Four-Way Test.