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The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m. by our seasoned second time President, Chris “Top Gun” Gallagher. Our president reminded the members that Holger Knaack was our R.I. President this year and the 2020-21 theme is “Rotary Opens Opportunities” with the expectation that Rotarians will create opportunities that strengthen leadership and put service ideas into action while improving the lives of those in need. It is a tall order, but we know you will get the “Knack of it” with practice. There was a rumor that Granville George Gayler was going to be our Greeter, but instead we are honored to have gotten George’s understudy, Chris Gayler who filled in for his high-flying father allegedly receiving dental assistance today. Following the flag salute and introduction of visiting Rotarians, Mr. Top Gun re-introduced a lost tradition of the welcome song. But to avoid impeachment proceedings, opted for only the “short version” or “aloha”. Guests included Alan Love, a prospective new member who is a Police captain and 40-year resident of San Ramon. Alvina Phouasalit, Communications intern with the Central Contra Costa Sanitary Alvina is a former interact club member with Benecia). Chris Carpenter from CalSan is our speaker today. The Thought for the day was … well thoughtful: “My father had a profound impact on me. He was a lunatic”. Knowing George as we do, no truer words could have be said. Top Gun offered further insight from our RI President: “Rotary offers a way to connect for everyone who want to at any time and will continue to do so.” Chris described Holger as a “real cool dude”. What is now becoming a highly appreciated presentation, our President present “Todays News You May Have Missed”: ⦁ The first news story entailed the insanity of paying Uber drivers to work from home through June 2021 and giving them $500 for their “home office”. ⦁ A Florida man assaulted a semi -Truck riding for nine miles ride on its hood. After being treated for injuries, the man was arrested. ⦁ Typo on a death certificate exposed a man allegedly trying to avoid prison by impersonating the “dead” person Some of these news items, you just can’t make up.
Announcements:
 President-elect Terry Koehne on online auction: It is time to start collecting for the auction as a primary fundraiser. Historically the club’s major fund raiser was a very labor-intensive event known as “Carbo load”. Carbo-load was a fund raiser to benefit local education in conjunction with the Run for Education held the night prior to Run. Rotary had a large pasta feed for a pre-race “carbo load”. This large event required food preparation, ice cream and desserts, a kids event and an auction plus live music. After every annual event the general feeling of members were “never again”. An alternative fund raiser was conceived as a “lighter lift” to gather items and auction these items on-line thereby providing an opportunity in and out of the community to participate to raise funds for the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation. Terry encouraged every member of the club to collect items such as vacation homes, wine bus type events, as wel as vacation activities and experiences. An organizing committee composed of Mr. Koehne, Harvey, Gailey, Walz are coordinating this effort. The club is asking each member to commit to a minimum of $250 in items or a contribution but the hope is that all members will seek auction items in addition to a contribution if possible. A list will be published of past donors seeking volunteers to obtain an auction item and/or add any new items not listed. In the past, the club has raised $80,000 or more with $20,000 going for Rotary Scholarships, $10,000 to Rotary sponsored youth related programs and the remainder of the funds go to the SRVEF. The Auction starts November 1 – 9. Carolyn Degnan on Happy Hour: It was announced that the club will begin a Happy Hour again on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 5p. Come and drink with us. Recognitions: Cheri Braga (a Leo) has been celebrating her birthday over the last 30-days. Despite the fact that she was unable to go to Denver to visit family, Cheri occupied her time by eating and drinking (a lot). Our President complicated the matter of recognition by asking Cheri how much she would like to contribute for this recognition but Cheri had just paid her initiation fees and dues and was trying to understand what a “recognition” actually was. After much confusion, Cheri generously donated $25 after Chris suggested $10. (Members max out at $125 per year for “recognitions”)
Program
Marv Remmich introduced Chris Carpenter the Community Affairs Representative who has worked for Central SAN for the past 24 years. He has managed student education and public tour programs, supported internal and external communications, and for the past 12 years managed customer relations for the District’s infrastructure renovation projects. Mr. Carpenter’s presentation is designed to cover infrastructure investments and how these expenditures impact rates and talk about what customers can do to assist Central SAN protect public safety and the environment.
Overview: Our local water waste management company began in 1948. It serves 500,000 residents, has a 175-mile service area and provides services to 3000+ businesses. The agency is responsible for 1540 miles of sewer lines which require large scale replacement projects. Central SAN cleans over 13 billion gallons per year. It is currently doing renovations to its 1970 treatment facilities. The public should know that Central SAN been in compliance with regulations for 22 years. They produce 600 million gallons of recycled water using it for the plant and providing to other customers. Dealing with Pandemic: Central SAN has instituted many service health safeguards, has a process to inactivate virus in our sewage water and does research collaboration in partnership with Stanford and UC Berkeley. Chris shared that it is possible to sample water to identify problem hot spots. What Customers can do to help: There has been a surge in wipes flushed down the drain, a massive increase. Although the cost of wipes $.03 per wipe, there is tremendous “back end” (pardon the pun) cost in clearing pipes and keeping the water system functional. Chris displayed a map of problem areas attributed to wipes flushed. His advice involves the 4 Ps. DON’T FLUSH ANYTHING OTHER THAN Paper, pee and poop (and puke). Remember no fats, oils and grease should go down the drain. There is a collection Facility located in Martinez which takes paints, batteries, and chemicals that do not belong down the drain. Please make an appointment for drive up drop-off. Sanitary District recycles all the submitted materials only sending asbestos to a land fill. Other things you should know: Everyone should have an overflow relief value to prevent backups into your home. May affect your home insurance coverage. Med-project.org will identify 13 sites in Contra Costa will take pharmaceuticals and properly dispose these items rather than putting them down the drain. Recycle water customers include golf course, schools, parks and commercial customers such as animal services, and Hilton Hotel. There are large projects with Dublin and the refinery in Martinez in the works. Central SAN also offers recycle refill station. Charges: Charges are generally under $600 per year for residential. There is a four-year rate structure with rates planned to increase from $598 to $629 per year with some pandemic mitigation after rate relief of roughly $30 savings. Energy and labor are the two big costs but Central SAN must also deal with capital improvement. They have $80 billion in assets (primarily piping) but low bond financing (debt). Education outreach is done through mailer, social media, and club presentations. Once you have maxed out on binge watching you can always rely upon the Virtual Treatment Plant Tours offered at the website. Website webmail@centralsan.org for more information.
Final Information: PGE Public safety power shutoffs had impact on pumping stations in areas such as Orinda and other hilly areas. This led to seeking to upgrade standby power and exploring solar power to offset PGE costs.
Questions: ⦁ Colette asked about if overflow protection needed to be obtained through private installation. The answer is YES but a lot of homes have clean-out pipes which lead to easy installation. ⦁ Chris wanted to know if Central SAN can identify specific homes flushing wipes down toilets since the map suspiciously led us to suspect that Dr. Bill may be major contributor. Chris Gallagher thanked Chris Carpenter indicating that we “Don’t know if you need it, until you lose it”, suggesting that we should not take out water district efforts for granted. AMEN. Next week’s presentation is from the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation for those who want to uncover the mysteries of our relationship with San Ramon Valley Education Foundation and its relationship to our Auction. The honorable Mr. Ray Giles will be our greeter. Ana Dominquez suggested that Rotarians tune into some similar auctions to glean ideas for our own. Two fundraising events will be airing online this month in the Sonoma area. They are very creative and we could possibly do something similar to boost the community's participation. Ideas to expand the Online Auction for Education and 1. The Sonoma Community Center is having an aMUSEathon - like a telethon on August 8. Watch to see how they entertain potential donors - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k4sQDzWhHlE (note: skip the 30 min. count down and scroll through the 6+ hour show to get an idea of how it went! PS - they raised over 300,000!) 2. Pets Lifeline is having a live online auction on August 15. The fun part is that you can sign up for a dinner to be delivered to your home right before the start, so that you can enjoy a gourmet meal during the virtual gala. https://www.petslifeline.org/virtualgala Watch and enjoy! Let's see if we can glean any ideas!
The meeting was adjourned around 12:55p so that Top Gun could go on the Rubicon Trail for a couple of days.
Respectfully submitted, Gary Sloan
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