GALLOWAY UPDATES ROTARIANS ON STATE OF WAYNESVILLE

Lee Galloway is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has over 36 years in municipal government and has been town manager for the town of Waynesville since 1994.
Lee began by saying he feels he is one of the most blessed managers in North Carolina. Further, he said that he has been fortunate to have worked for the finest group of elected officials for the past nine years. Lee said how great it is that Waynesville Rotary is supporting Alzheimer research. His mother passed away from Alzheimer disease in March of this year.

Lee said that over the past several months he has had time to think about his relationship with his mother, and one of the things he remembers most about his mother is that she was full of old and wise statements. Lee said he wanted to start his presentation by referencing one of his mother’s statements – Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.  
When the town board took office at the end of 1999, they let it be known they wanted to do good planning. They wanted an intense review of the land development standards and called for a land use study. In addition they wanted more planning staff. The study resulted in new land development standards. The board provided for a thorough study of the electric system in 2002. That study identified the need for a new electric sub-station to meet future demand. It was approved and went into operation in April, 2009. It increased electrical capacity by 75%.
In 2003, Lee was approached regarding the need for a new police station. Lee agreed, but said the first thing that needed to be done was to build a new fire station to free up space for the police station. As a result of this discussion, the board decided to study all of the town’s facilities. Results of the study were the establishment of the new fire station that was placed in operation in May, 2008. Also recommended was the police department expand into the vacated fire department space and also a development office be upgraded to house engineering, planning, land use, building inspection and code enforcement offices. Construction on a facility for this activity began in July, 2008. It is expected this building will be ready for occupancy in August, 2009.  

In 2005 the board called for a study of the town’s utilities. This included water and sewer lines and water and wastewater treatment plants. The study was completed and presented to the board in 2007. It showed 31 million dollars in needs by the year 2030. As a result, 300 thousand dollars is being dedicated annually to both water and sewer system upgrades. Lee said that since he last spoke to Waynesville Rotary all of the projects he discussed have been started and/or finished. These activities include the 3.7 million dollar fire station, expansion of the lab and replacement of the roof at the water plant for 550 thousand dollars, the new 3.5 million dollar electrical sub-station and the 4.5 million dollar police station/development office. 

Lee outlined further things that need to be done such as renovation to the current municipal building and the public works facility. However, as a result of the weak economy and the town’s revenue being down significantly, projects will be delayed for a few years. Lee spoke about the town’s financial situation. This fiscal year the town expects to see a revenue drop of approximately 450 thousand dollars. He said this is what is currently known and there may be more of a drop on the horizon. In 2002 the state faced a revenue shortfall and took money from local governments. Lee is anticipating this may happen again. Thus far the town has been able to avoid personnel layoffs. There are 162 full time employees and they continue to receive full pay and have seen no reduction in benefits.
In closing Lee said he wanted to make it known that the town of Waynesville is in good financial shape. In response to the economy, last fall the department heads began working on cutbacks that equal 3% of the town’s budget of 26 million dollars. In addition, over the winter there were further cutbacks. This was in preparation for possible state requests for town money.

MEET WAYNESVILL ROTARY'S NEWEST MEMBER!

Lyn Donley introduced Bill Parsons as the newest member of Waynesville Rotary. Bill has had a lifelong career in the newspaper business. Bill is not new to Rotary, having been a member of 5 different Rotary clubs over the years. Bill said he is looking forward to being a member of Waynesville Rotary.

ANNUAL NIGHT OF CELEBRATION SET!

Waynesville Rotary's annual Officer Induction and Night of Celebration will be held on Tuesday, June 30th at Laurel Ridge Country Club pavillion. A social hour with cash bar will be held between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. with entertainment provided by the Haywood County Community Band. Supper will follow at 7:30 p.m. and the formal program will begin at approximately 8:00 p.m. Cost of the meal is the same as last year at $36.00 per person. A number of awards and honorifics will be announced on this evening including this year's selection for the Tony Caudle Award. Additonally, Paul Harris Fellows will be recognized as well. Incoming District Governor Carol King will preside over induction of the slate of Officers and Board of Directors for the coming year. Your hosts for the evening will be outgoing President Cecil and incoming President Mark. Further details will be forthcoming. Please mark your calendars now for this important event in the life of our club. The Night of Celebration will be the scheduled meeting for the last week of June. There will be NO MEETING on Friday, July 3rd.

ARE YOU REGISTERED YET? Check here to see... Current Registration as of 06/08/2009 @ 8:07 p.m.

MAKE-UPS, MAKE-UPS, AND OH YEAH, MORE MAKE-UPS!

Your Board of Directors has recently been discussing the role of make-ups in the fellowship of our club. Having the opportunities to perform on-line make-ups has been an excellent boon for many members in being able to meet the attendance expectations of our Rotary Club and that of Rotary International. However, sometimes too much of a good thing can have less than desired consequences. The Board of Directors and your elected officers want to emphasize the importance of attending our regularly scheduled meetings. The strong foundation of fellowship in Rotary is what binds us together and is the very building block of our organization. As the current stewards of our club, the Board and Officers wish to remind members that on-line make-ups should be used as a tool to meet the attendance expectations and should never become the predominant method for maintaining membership in the local club. The Rotary International Manual of Procedures provides cogent guidelines on attendance and make-ups. Our club also remains within the spirit of R.I. by providing for occasional make-ups that are approved by the Board for purposes of attending community services events, serving on committee assignments, and other service oriented procedures. As we approach the beginning of a new year in Rotary, we ask that each Rotarian spend some time focusing on the fellowship of our Friday meetings and make a renewed effort to regular attendance using on-line make-ups as a supportive tool.

With the impending transition from one Executive Secretary to another Executive Secretary on July 1st, the Board has agreed that no make-ups will be carried forward into the new year in order that we might begin attendance charting fresh and allow our newest Executive Secretary a clean slate from which to begin his duties.

ROTARY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Shelter Box Update - You may view the latest on Shelter Boxes and the recent catastrophe in Myanmar by CLICKING HERE! Waynesville Rotary participated in the world wide Shelter Box project by donating a Shelter Box in this current fiscal year. You, as a Waynesville Rotarian, helped make District 7670 one of the TOP 10 suppliers of Shelter Boxes within Rotary!

NEW FUNCTION ON CLUB WEBSITE!

Club members will find a new link on the home page of the club website. The link, Directory On-Line, will take you to the District 7670 database where you can access your Rotary account to handle updates, your Rotarian subscription, and many other items related to your membership in Rotary. This is a secure site and you will be asked for your user id (your email address as entered by our Executive Secretary) and your password, which is your account number found on the mailing label of your Rotarian magazine. New members must wait until the Executive Secretary receives back from Rotary International your ID number before you can access the site. ONLY Rotary International can create the passwords.

We are examining the many new features offerred by this on-line database. In the near future, we may be replacing our current member directory with the District Directory. Existing members may now access this database using the user id and password as listed above. You may go directly to the database from this page by clicking on the Directory On-line link above.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS IN JUNE

June 19th

Kate O’Hara – Brownfields Project Manager - Land-Of-Sky Regional Council

                                Tracy Wahl – Project Manager, NC DENR Brownfields Program

                                Holly Bullman – Regional Planner Land-Of –Sky Regional Council

Land-Of Sky Regional Brownfields Initiative

June 26th

Jim Brewer, Associate Chancellor for Major Gifts & Endowments, UNC Asheville

It’s Not Easy Being Green…Energy