ROTARY FLASHES

07/31/2008

Greeter:  None

Presiding:  Eric Liggett

Invocation:  Offered by Dan Fouts, with “a special blessing for Monty Kirkwood & Nelson Stevens, to give them comfort & peace.”

Visiting Rotarians:  (Read by Tom Tootle) Circleville Sunrise – Steve Gary, Jayne Barr, & Cal Gebhardt; Dublin Worthington – Jerry Speakman.

Guests:  Rojanne brought along a member of hopefully the next generation of Rotarians, her daughter Katie Woodward.

Absentees:  Brown, Burns, Campbell, Dean, Dutton, Eichstadt, Eitel, Elsea, Ely, Fluhart, Ford, Charlie Hedges, Holbrook, Jack Hooks, Lucas, Mabe, May, McNemar, Messick, Metzler, Pairan, Peters, Powell, Reeser, River, Scherer, Spangler, Spires, White, Wippel, Wolford.

Make-ups:  Circleville Sunrise – Jim Hill, Ned Riegel, Wayne Vickers, & Chuck Wellman; eClubOne – Norm Wilson.

Birthdays: (August) 3^rd – Glenn Reeser; 5^th – Bill Stout; 9^th - Bob Cole; 15^th – John White; 16^th – Bud Brehmer; 21^st – Dick Tootle; 31^st – Kelly Feeley.

Anniversaries:  (August) 3^rd – Jack Hooks, John Prince; 4^th – Drex Poling; 7^th – Jerry Leist, Charlie Pockras; 14^th – Dan Fouts; 17^th – Bill Campbell; 18^th – Tom Tootle; 19^th - Bob Sneed; 20^th – Mark Smith; 26^th – John Stout, Bob Tootle; 28^th – Terryl Queen; 30^th – Tom Theller.

Piano:  Ellery Elick

Songs:  Rojanne selected “The More We Get Together” & “Roll Rotary.”

Student Guests:  None.  (Summer vacation.)

Announcements:   

• Eric Liggett alerted us to the fact that Dale Delong is in the hospital.

• Tim Tener thanked the following people for helping with the recent Community Kitchen: Jim Hollabaugh, Earl Palm, Walt Spangler, Carly Neff, Dave Moss, John Stout, Carlos Alvarez, Debbie Hoffman, & Tim Tener.

• Ralph Starkey gave an update on the progress at the Crites-Hannan Community Park.  He requested that we all “drive around and take a peek at what has been done.”

 SAA:  Bill Stout served as a substitute again, on behalf of Jim River.

Bill fined all birthdays & anniversaries that were in July.

Chuck Wellman received a fine for the newspaper photo of one of his employees working on a monument.

Dave & Ian Webb got a double-whammy for Nick Webb (son/brother) being on the Dean’s List again.  (Bill commented to Dave “one out of two isn’t bad!”)

Lottery:  Bud Christopher possessed the lucky ticket for $22, but the lucky bean still hasn’t been picked. The pot has grown to $2,694.

Program:  Hayes Wilcox introduced today’s program speaker, Allen Fore of Rockies Express Pipeline.  Allen had brought along a PowerPoint presentation but unfortunately his assistant, Matt, was unable to get it up and running.  (Is there maybe a mystery Rotary hex on PowerPoints, perhaps?!)  Therefore Allen had to work from memory, which he seemed to do very well.

The following is information gleaned from both supplied literature and from Allen’s speech.  Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) is a 1,679 mile-long pipeline that will transport natural gas from supply-rich areas of Colorado and Wyoming to markets in the Midwest and Eastern United States.  The project is being developed by Rockies Express Pipeline LLC, which is a joint development of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. and Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy, and ConocoPhillips.

• Pipeline begins in Colorado, and ends in Monroe Co., Ohio.

• Natural gas is being considered “a linchpin in the process of moving away from” oil.

• To date, the cost is 5.6 billion dollars, all privately funded.  By the projected completion date of Summer 2009, the projected cost is for over 6 billion dollars.

• Ohio has the highest tax of the nation on natural gas.  The projected tax revenue of 30-40 million will be spread out to all of the Ohio schools.

• Pipeline creates jobs.  All jobs are union.  They search the local union halls first, and then move outward until the people are found.

• 24.1 miles of the pipeline crosses Ohio; 19.3 miles of which will cross agricultural land.

• REX tries not to impact the land, drainage tiles, etc., but if they do, then they fix it to the landowner’s satisfaction.  They strive to restore the land to meet or exceed the previous pre-construction condition.

• Ask for a 50’ right-of-way

• Path is chosen due to the need of the market.

• REX tries to work on land that has already been impacted by a utility.  They try to avoid “green fields” and potential subdivisions.

• Use local appraisers to compose the value of the land.

• REX works closely with OEPA, ODNR & other state agencies to meet all their requirements/requests. 

• Make all attempts to avoid impacting animal & plant ecosystems.

• Safety is #1 issue, and a pipeline is the safest way to transport natural gas

• Construction in Ohio will hopefully begin on the “mainline” this autumn.  REX is planning on performing directional drillings next week.

• 1480 psi is maximum pressure

• There is a requirement of a minimum 5 foot covering of ground over the pipeline at all times.  Not like the old lines, which are sometimes now exposed due to erosion, etc.

Allen then opened the floor for questions, of which there were many.

Contact info: 

Allen Fore

Rockies Express Pipeline

C/o Strategic Public Partners Group

88 East Broad Street, Suite 1320

Columbus, OH 43215

(614) 222-8490 or

(866) 566-0066

Website: www.rexpipleine.com

Eric regained the podium to inform Allen that a donation will be made in his name to the Community Park fund. 

Meeting adjourned.

August’s program schedule: (as submitted by Vince Yaniga)

• 7^th:  Digitalization of television broadcasting – David Dunham from WOSU

• 14^th:  Live demo of a massage – Patricia Walen-Shaw, Medical Massage Therapist

• 21^st:  Rotary GSE – Anthony Neff & the 2008 American GSE Team

• 28^th:  Update on Berger Health System – Larry Thornhill

Until next week…,

Patty Rothe,

Editor

E-mail: pjrothe@rpjohnson.net