April 28, 2014

-->

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

April 28, 2014

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, ribs, BBQ Beans, chicken Alfredo, rolls and dessert.

Called to order by President Ziggy at 12:30pm.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Thomas Strickland.

The Invocation was led by Greg Williston, who asked for special prayers for Dan Price who is having surgery on Wednesday and won’t be able to surf for 3 months.

Visiting Rotarians
Liana Simpson, Old Town; Brad Mettam and his wife Diane from Bishop Rotary.

Guests of Rotarians
Steven Justus introduced Kate Russell, from the Humboldt Area Foundation, who accompanied them on Honor Flight last weekend. Liana Simpson introduced her guest, Marc Matteoli. Tom McMurray introduced his niece, Ainsley Duncan, from Duncan Chiropractic, Greg Pierson brought Dean Beck, Vice President at Pierson Company

Announcements 
Gregg Gardiner – Firesides are coming up next week and the week after. Only 40% of the club is signed up to attend. If you haven’t signed up please do so. This is our opportunity to really know what it is we could do to make your club the best club possible.

Gregg Gardiner- talked about the Honor Flight. He asked the Rotarians who had gone on the most recent flight over the previous weekend to stand up and talk about their experience. Keith Crossley, Pat Folkins, Steven Justus, John McBeth, Jay Bohner, Bruce Rupp and Gregg Gardiner all went on the flight as guardians for the Veterans who were able to come. They all had an amazing time and talked about how much they personally got out of the trip. Almost all of them were brought to tears at some time in the conversation as it was such an emotional experience. They said, “If you have the opportunity to go you should definitely do it.”

Recognitions
Alicia Cox was fined for leaving the Backpack for Kids function early and still winning two raffle prizes. She received a Rotary t-shirt.

Paula Patton was fined for giving Dennis Hunter a big head. A photo of the ceremony for Jim Howard with Dennis Hunter in the background ran in the Times-Standard and captioned his title as “Past International President, Dennis Hunter”. Paula received a T-shirt.

Bob Morse received a T-Shirt and will receive a 6 pack of beer (when Ziggy remembers to bring it) for participating in the recent river clean up in Blue Lake.

Sally Arnot received a T-shirt when Ziggy presented her with a copy of a newspaper article from 2004 that highlighted the Arnot’s many contributions to the Arts Council over the years and proclaimed them as “Living a Legacy in Our Community.”

Those people who recently won money or lost money in the basketball pool get prepared… As soon as Ziggy finds his list, you’re getting a T-shirt!

Spengler-Howard Raffle: $10 each to Dean Beck (Greg Pierson’s guest) and Brad Mettam.

Speaker
Ziggy introduced our guest, Kirk White… General Manager of the Bayshore Mall.

Kirk has been with the Bayshore Mall for just about a year, starting in May of 2013. Previously, he worked in shopping center management for 14 years. In 2012 when the previous management group, General Growth, went bankrupt, one of their subsidiaries, Rouse Properties, took over the management of the mall and brought Kirk in as General Manager.

In 2013 the mall brought in 42,000 new square feet of retailers. The interior of the mall was completely repainted, the floor was replaced, seating areas are now being added and landscaping around that seating will be finalized in 2014. The old play area was removed and will be replaced with a new play area that has an ocean theme including a boat and a whale for kids to play on. So far over $10 million dollars in improvements have been made.

Their plan for 2014 includes replacing all of the Food Court tables and chairs with new furniture. The signs out front will be replaced with new signage in the new colors of the shopping mall, which will be reflected in the Food Court makeover.

The mall was at 60% capacity when Kirk came in and it is now at 80%. They had a large retailer that was coming in that backed out at the last minute leaving a large space that had been cleared for them empty on one wing. Kirk is currently working on filling those empty spaces and says he has a number of national retailers interested. Nationals are interested in our market because it is a protected market with a small amount or no competition for 150 miles.

The Ray’s Building was owned by Ray’s (sold to Ray’s by General Growth) but there is a bankruptcy hearing on May 6th and the mall is hopeful that they can buy back the Ray’s building. If they are successful they will divide that building into two or three retailers. It will not be a grocery store or a restaurant.

Guessing, Kirk said he believes the mall employs between 1,000 to 1,500 employees.

Meeting adjourned at 1:23pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Alicia Cox