Champaign Lion's Chatter

1. Champaign Lion's Chatter (Click here to go to our website) Call to Order – President Weldon Garrelts called the meeting to order and led in the Pledge of Allegiance. 12 February 2014

2. Invocation – David Hunter: Bless this food and us who eat it, the best in town, no one can beat it. And bless the memory of Abraham Lincoln, Our greatest president, many are thinkin’, who kept our country unified, and slavery’s bonds at last untied. Amen. Vittles – Chicken Parmesan, Pasta, mixed vegetables, salad and toppings, garlic toast, Key Lime Pie, tea and coffee.

3. Lottery – Dave Hunter won the $12 lottery.

4. Lions Report– If you are ill or know a fellow Lion that is under the weather, please call Pat Bryan at 586-4535.

5. Attendance– 21 members, 1visitor( Speaker), Birthdays – Rich Suchomski.

6. Announcements – Weldon Garrelts announced the April 4 meeting (a Friday) that is part of the Lions World Relay is special and asked that we bring a guest to show our Club.

7. Jay Hoeflinger announced the Sight and Sound Sweep Stakes, $10 booklets. This supports the Lions of Illinois Foundation activities.

8. Program – Business Meeting. Secretary Fonda Bowden read the minutes of the February Board Meeting.

9. CHAMPAIGN LIONS CLUB BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Minutes, February 4, 2014 Present: President Weldon Garrelts, 1st VP Charlie Osborne, Treasurer Karl Drake, Past President Ted Gonsiorowski, Director Jay Hoeflinger, Director David Hunter, Lion Tamer Floyd Gordon, and Secretary Fonda Bowden. Members Present: Rich King, Paul Kunkle, and David Lin. Absent: 2nd VP Sam McGrew. Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting, December 3, 2013, were approved.. Treasurer Karl Drake provided reports through January 31, 2014. Board funding requests (Gifford and Salvation Army) totaling $600 exceeded the budgeted amount by $20.00. The Board approved the overage. International and District 1E dues have been paid. The General Fund has $2,698.55, the Charities fund $7,377.04 and the endowment fund has $3,605.64. Treasurers reports were approved as presented. The basketball ticket raffle raised $675 minus $50.00 for printing of tickets. Jay Hoeflinger proposed a volunteer opportunity for the club. Illinois Radio Reader needs volunteers to do reading. It takes about half an hour of training. Newspapers are read 8 am to noon and recorded. Schedule is flexible except on Fridays. The service is for people who cannot see to read and is broadcast over a special radio station. The Board approved the activity. Weldon reminded us that veterans who apply to join receive a waiver for the initiation fee of $35. The Lions World Relay on Friday, April 4, 2014 is a 24 hour international event that starts at noon in New Zealand. Clubs around the world will start their lunches at noon in their time zone. Lunch relays will move from time zone to time zone as lions steadily pass the event around the world forming a Lions World lunch relay. Clubs register their participation with Lions International and the club with the most non-members (potential new members) wins. Food items will be collected for the needy and the club that collects the most items wins. Also the club with the best luncheon theme wins. The Board agreed to participate. Rich King, David Lin and Weldon Garrelts agreed to form a committee to plan the event. Weldon received an email invitation to participate in a fundraiser by the Harlem Ambassadors. They are a basketball show that promotes anti-bullying. A representative will come to give a presentation about the program in October if we are interested. They provide 1,000 tickets an=promotion/publicity for the event. The Board agreed to invite them to visit our club and make the presentation. Lottery tickets beginning January 2014 are being sold at 1 ticket for $1, 7 tickets for $5 and 15 tickets for $10. Gordie reported that so far he has not had anyone buy tickets at the new rates. Proceeds from the lottery originally were to pay for reimbursement to members for expenses to attend conferences. Since few people attend and request reimbursement of conference expenses, it was suggested we think about giving the lottery money to the charities fund. The 97th International Convention will be in Toronto, Canada, July 4 – 8, 2014. Early registration fee is $110 if received before January 10, 2014. Regular fee is $150 through March 31. After that it is $170. The meeting adjourned at 12:52 pm, February 4, 2014 Respectfully submitted by Fonda Bowden, Secretary.

10. Sam McGrew introduced our speaker, T.J. Blakeman, AICP, Implementation Planner in the Planning Development Office for the City of Champaign. He grew up in the small farm community of Ashland, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a BA in Urban and Regional Planning. He has served as the first Executive Director of the Partnership, a business association for Downtown, Midtown and Campustown. He also served as Chair of the City’s 150th Anniversary, historical committee. He is currently the Vice-President of the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association. His wife, Katie, is the Champaign County Circuit Clerk. They have a 2 year old daughter and one on the way.

11. T.J. spoke about the 2013 Champaign city activities. It was the 5th highest all time building permit construction.

12. There has been $1.6 Billion in construction during the past 10 years, with 1900 single family homes.

13. The focus is now the Center City District, where there is a growing Champaign Skyline.

15. Builders are being creative for the taller buildings and using smaller bases. The effort is to bring students and business back to campus town.

16. One new building will have the first automated Parking system at 4th and Green St.

19. For the Bone Yard, they are working to create an urban neighborhood.

20. There are also plans for completion of the Burnham area, too.

21. The University of Illinois has also expanded considerably, with the Ikenberry Commons

22. and the Business Instruction Lab

23. and the ECE Lab.

24. The city is encouraging new business growth, such as the new Kraft Foods warehouse on North Mattis. This is the largest food manufacturing plant in the US. The Yahoo building is coming along with about 200 new employees. .

29. Regarding roads, the Windsor approach is ongoing and the 4th Street entrance to Research Park is completed,

30. Green Street Phase III-2016 from 4th to Neil is ongoing

31. and the Washington Street Flooding project is planned.

32. They will be looking to finish up the Boneyard Creek Improvements, too.

33. An In-filling program is trying to help bring in business to fill an idle site, such as the old Ford City on South Neil.

34. IDOT is looking to redesign the I74 and I57 Interchange.

35. The city is considering a Center City Park to replace the Orpheum Parking lot.

36. Major plans are also underway to redevelop the Bristol Park Neighborhood.

37. The new High School site has been selected, but now we need to figure out what to do with the Country Fair site since it was not chosen.

38. You can see all of our plans by clicking here: http://ci.champaign.il.us/departments/planning/champaign-tomorrow-comprehensive-plan/

39. Tail Twister – Omer Benn asked Paul Hendren to carry the bucket.

40. He started out with, “The problems don’t change, just the faces.” Then he fined Dave Hunter for having won the lottery. Not really very smart…

41. Rich Suchomski for failing to serve as our greeter;

42. Fonda Bowden’s table for appreciation of her work.

44. Rich King bragged about his son’s expertise in the jazz band.

45. And paid for it.

46. And finally, Sam McGrew bragged about his granddaughter’s scoring 22 points in a game.

47. Coming up Feb 12 – T.J. Blakeman Champaign Planning and development Greeter: Ed Tichenor Feb 19 – Louis W. Kosiba IMRF “The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund” Feb 26 – Debra Joy Hart RN, BFA, CLL “Humor in Life” Click here sammcgrew@att.net to email Sam McGrew and let him know what you would like to see in a Lions Club program some time.

48. Thank you for watching Editor Rex Hess Publisher David Hunter To email Dave with your suggestions, click here → hunter4000@comcast.net To go to our website, click here → http://www.champaignlions.org/