It was another rainy Wednesday, May 8th, when the Wagner Rotary Club convened for its weekly meeting. Guests introduced were Julie Doom, wife of Jeff Doom and Golby Uhlir, former 5610 District Governor. Pastor Laurie Kidd offered the blessing for the day. She gave thanks for the rain but asked for help for those suffering because of the devastation caused to roads, fields, and individuals from the over abundance of moisture.

Kathe Henke announced that we would sing Roll on Rotary to the tune of Roll Out the Barrells and everyone was proud of the rendition we produced. There are several songs that have been adapted to include Rotary words and sometimes the club struggles with the more difficult melodies.

Rotarian Ken Cotton gave a Membership Minute and then Rotarian Francis Doom was called forth to induct a new member into the club, Jamie Soukup. Francis has an impressive introduction that he reads to inform new members of their rite of passage into the club. The meaning of membership, importance of attendance at meetings, and participation in club programs and ideals is stressed. Welcome Jamie to Wagner Rotary!

Gerrit Juffer had a chance to win the Queen of Hearts drawing but he drew a 4 of Diamons. Sec./ Treas. Patty Frei received two makeups from members and after tallying the attendance reported that the Henke Team had two misses, and the Frei Team had only one miss which is bringing the two teams closer in the race of the last quarter of our Rotary year. $20 was collected for the drawing which brings the total up to $583.00.

President Jerry Weber introduced the program for the day which was Jon Corey, District Supervisor for Parks and Recreation in our area. Craig Krsnak was in charge of the program but was unable to attend the meeting.

Jon is a familiar face in our area and we look forward to his reports about the Ft. Randall activities. He gave the bad news first which is that the bridge going into the Ft. Randall Creek camping area will be closed for the entire season. There was severe damage done to the bridge by the big ice chunks that appeared with our March 13th storm. They have plans to restore the bridge and improve the entire road in that area but it will take a full year for this to happen. Plans for the new bridge are in the works. The old bridge was about 50 years old.

The other bad news for campers is that 35 to 40 campsites were affected at the North Point area and the bike trail will have to be rerouted. The good news was that the water is slowly going down They have plans to replace35 of the pedestals at the camping area once the water is gone. The open roads are dry now. They actually had six campers last weekend.

The picknic shelter at North Point did have water in it at the heighth of the flood but it was not damaged and will be clean and ready for use. Several questions were asked about employment and Jon replied that due to the fact that Ranalll Creek will not be open this year they had to eliminate two positions at that location.

Pease Creek has a new lift comfort station. The old one had been intended to be used for only five years, but turned out to be used for 15-16 years. It will be opened this weekend. When asked about a parking area for Pease Creek

Corey replied that it has been discussed but they have to deal with the fact that there is quite an elevation in that area and will possibly become a reality at some point in the future.

Profit was the next question asked and Jon answered by saying, that our area just about breaks even. Lewis and Clark and Custer are the two areas that do break even as they see the largest volume of usage. Camping rates haven’t changed this year.

Lake Poinsett is dealing with a great deal of ongoing damage and Ft. Randall was probably the most affected area due to the fact that it was so close to the source of water runoff.

Rotarian Rachel Doom substituted for Sergeant at Arms Craig Krsnak and levied the following fines:

• 2 to Jeff Doom for wearing an old 90’s jacket recently.

• $1 to Francis Doom for blocking traffic with tree moving.

• $1 to Jamie Soukup for wearing a USD T-shirt and another dollar to Gerrit Juffer for applauding Jamie's shirt.

• $1 to Becky Brunsing for wearing sandals on a rainy day.

• $3 to Jerry Weber for attempting to rig the Queen drawing and other assorted transgressions.

• Patty, Bill and Michalya $2 each.

• $1 to Jeff Doom for having the most fines per quarter.

• Francis Doom offered up the only Happy Fine for the TLC that his grandchildren gave to his wife recently.