Despite some cold and snowy Tuesday mornings, our attendance has been very good. Thanks for your regular attendance. We’ll be welcoming back some snowbirds soon. If you have missed a few meetings, please try to attend. The speakers have been excellent and will continue to be.

 

Please plan ahead to participate in one or all of this wide range of service opportunities coming up in April and May. Save the dates! Colleen Lavin will soon be signing up volunteers for two shifts to help prepare and serve dinner on Thursday, April 5 at Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis. Then on the evening of Thursday, April 12 we’ll be sorting items to be shipped to Bolivia at Mano-a-Mano in St. Paul. And on May 1 we’ll pack food at the Feed My Starving Children Mobile pack event at Incarnation Lutheran Church on Hodgson Road in Shoreview (actually North Oaks but looks like Shoreview).

 

And, another event to plan for is the Rotary District 5960’s Conference of Clubs (previously known as the District Conference) on April 19-20 at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake. Dist. Governor Kyle Haugen and his Prior Lake Rotary Club will have great speakers, break-out sessions, food and fellowship, with an outstanding venue. Full conference details available at www.rotary5960.org.

Finally, please provide feedback on our meeting location at Shore 96 restaurant. Is there anything that you think can be done better? Both suggestions and compliments are welcome.

Thanks to Brenda Holden for arranging a great set of speakers for our February programs.  Program topics during the month attracted some potential new member prospects, which is always a plus for our club.   March promises to be a great month with programs about projects in Haiti and the Hope Dental Clinic among others, please invite a neighbor or colleague to check us out.

 

 

 

March 13 - Stephanie Brugger

 

March 20 - Bob Freed

 

March 27 - Ken Hola

 

April 3 - Brenda Holden

 

April 10 - Blake Huffman

 

 

Vern Moore - March 29

 

The Club welcomed visiting Rotarian Kathy Quinleven from the St. Paul sunrise club. She mentioned an upcoming community forum sponsored by their club called "Beyond Political Polarization". The event will be held on April 12th at the Town and Country Club in St. Paul. 

 

The guest speaker was Kristin Wood who serves as the Executive Director of Spedco.  Kristin has a Masters' degree from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. Spedco is a non profit development company that is authorized to administer certain Small Business Association (SBA) loans. The agency was originally a division of the City of St. Paul's economic development department, but was privatized more than 20 years ago. The purpose of Spedco is to promote economic growth and development of small businesses throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Kristin reviewed the various types of SBA loans that they handle.

The guest speakers were Mounds View High School students Lexi Munson and Christina Mercken, and their high school business teacher Teresa Anderson. The students attended Camp Enterprise in November and were sponsored by the Rotary Club.  

 

Both of these very well spoken young women thanked the Rotary Club for sponsoring them for this activity and discussed their experiences at the camp. The Camp was centered around business activity and included several speakers from the Business Community. The 90 or so campers were broken up into several teams who were responsible for developing a product and business plan.  Both Lexi and Christina talked about their role on their teams and the products and business plan that they developed.  They discovered that communication and trust are both extremely important when you are working together as a team. Christina's team won their competition with other groups and she was the recipient of a $1000 scholarship that was given at the camp.  She is planning to attend UW-LaCrosse next year, while Lexi is planning to attend St. Catherine's in St. Paul.  

 

Teresa Anderson briefly discussed the quality business program and classes at Mounds View High School and how she chose the students to attend Camp Enterprise.

The Club welcomed visiting Rotarian Ron Hughes from the Excelsior Club and new City Administrator Dave Perrault from Arden Hills. 

 

The guest speaker was Col. Sol Sukut who serves as the Facilities Manager for the Minnesota National Guard. Col. Sukut discussed the plans for construction of a new Division Headquarters and Readiness Center on the TCAAP property in Arden Hills. It was noted that although much attention is being paid to the planned Rice Creek Commons development of nearly 500 acres  on the far west side of the TCAAP property, the National Guard leases about 1500 acres and uses the property for a variety of training purposes. The property already includes the Hamline and Ben Franklin Readiness Centers, as well as a very large maintenance shop that have all been built during the past 10 years. 

 

The new Division Headquarters and Readiness Center will be constructed on the east side of Hamline Avenue and take about two years to construct. The plans are nearly complete and they hope to break ground on the project later this year. 

Our speaker this morning was Nick Roberts of the Roberts Management Group, introduced as the developer of “the new face of Lexington” in Arden Hills.  Nick represents the third generation of the Roberts family which has owned and developed land throughout Arden Hills and Shoreview.  The current project is Lexington Station, of which Phase I is now complete opposite Target.  Phase II is about to get started – a mirror of Phase I, located immediately to the west.  Phase III (2021-2022) will replace the mixed-use industrial/food strip immediately to the south, with another mirror of Phase I and a “small box”  (Trader Joe’s  size) store behind it.  Going forward, he has recently purchased the land at the NE corner of 35W and 694, and is excited about developing a 200,000 square-foot Travers Business Center for a major employer.  A welcome feature of the Lexington project will be a traffic light at the south entrance to Target.  Key to his success is acquiring the right tenant mix by working with brokers.  Unlike many developers, he not only develops the land, but continues to manage the properties.